Charles Coleman (actor)

Charles Coleman
Coleman c.1910
Born	Charles Pearce Coleman (1885-12-22)December 22, 1885 Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Died	March 8, 1951(1951-03-08) (aged 65) Woodland Hills, California, U.S.
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1915–1949
Spouse	Beatrice[1]

Charles Pearce Coleman (December 22, 1885 – March 8, 1951) was an Australian-born American character actor of the silent and sound film eras.

Coleman was born in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, on December 22, 1885.^[2]

Coleman began his film career in the 1915 silent film, The Mummy and the Humming Bird, which was also the screen debut of Charles Cherry, a noted stage actor.^[3] In more than half of his 200 performances in films, he appeared as a butler, doorman/concierge, valet, or waiter.^[4] In the 1930s, Coleman appeared in such films as Beyond Victory (1931), starring Bill Boyd and James Gleason,^[5] the Wheeler & Woolsey comedy Diplomaniacs (1933),^[6] 1934's Born to Be Bad which starred Loretta Young and Cary Grant,^[7] the 1934 version of Of Human Bondage starring Bette Davis and Leslie Howard,^[8] the first film to star the pairing of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, The Gay Divorcee (1935),^[9] the first feature-length film to be shot entirely in Technicolor, Becky Sharp,^[10] 1936's Magnificent Obsession starring Irene Dunne and Robert Taylor,^[11] the Spencer Tracy vehicle, Captains Courageous (1937),^[12] The Prince and the Pauper (1937), starring Errol Flynn and Claude Rains,^[13] and the Reginald Owen version of A Christmas Carol (1938).^[14]

In the 1940s, Coleman's films included: Buck Privates (1941), the first film starring the comedy duo of Abbott and Costello;^[15] 1943's Du Barry Was a Lady, starring Red Skelton, Lucille Ball, and Gene Kelly;^[16] Orson Welles and Joan Fontaine in the 1944 version of Jane Eyre;^[17] the 1945 film The Picture of Dorian Gray, with George Sanders, Donna Reed, Angela Lansbury, and Peter Lawford;^[18] and the 1949 comedy A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, starring Bing Crosby and Rhonda Fleming.^[19]

The last film Coleman worked on was the Gene Autry vehicle, The Blazing Sun, (1950).^[20] Double Dynamite (1951), starring Jane Russell, Groucho Marx, and Frank Sinatra, was the final film released in which he appeared. Coleman had worked on the film in 1948, but it was shelved for several years by Howard Hughes, and not released until after Coleman's death.^[21]

Coleman's work on stage included being leading man for Pauline Frederick in productions that toured Australia and the United States.^[22] On Broadway, he performed in Porgy and Bess (1943), Amourette (1933), Face the Music (1932), Nina Rosa (1930), Colonel Newcome (1917), The Merry Wives of Windsor (1916), The Adventure of Lady Ursula (1915), and Secret Strings (1914).^[23]

Coleman died of a stroke at the Motion Picture Country Home in Los Angeles^[22] on March 8, 1951,^[24] at age 66^[22]and was cremated and interred at Chapel Of The Pines Crematory in Los Angeles.^{[citation needed]}

(Per AFI database)^[25]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Charles Coleman.

• Charles Coleman at IMDb
• Charles Coleman at Find a Grave