Claude Gillingwater
Birthday: 1870-08-01
Place of Birth: Louisiana, Missouri, USA
Biography: Tall, balding character actor in US films from 1921 until the year he died, usually portraying obstinate or irascible types. A man so disagreeable on celluloid, Claude Gillingwater's characters seemed to subsist on a steady diet of persimmons. Fondly recalled as the cranky old skinflint whose seemingly cold heart could only be warmed by the actions of a cute little tyke, the tall and rangy Gillingwater invariably played much older than he was. He, with the omnipresent bushy brows, crop of silver hair and perpetually sour puss, had a much more versatile career than perhaps realized -- on both stage and in film. Most assuredly, this caustic screen image he perfected belied a softer, gentler off-screen demeanor for he was a kind and sympathetic gent and devoted husband to wife Carlyn Stiletz (or Stellith). Their only child, Claude Gillingwater Jr., briefly became an actor himself. Sadly, Gillingwater Sr.'s thriving character career ended on a grim and tragic note in 1939. A serious accident on the movie set of the picture Florida Special (1936) (he fell from a platform and injured his back) damaged his health and threatened his career, and the death of his long-time wife Carlyn left him irrevocably depressed. Fearing the possibility of becoming an invalid and wishing not to become a serious burden to anyone, the 69-year-old actor committed suicide at his Beverly Hills home with a self-inflicted gunshot to the head. Gillingwater left a fine Hollywood legacy and the fun of some of his old films is watching his vinegar turn to sugar. Date of Birth 2 August 1870, Louisiana, Missouri Date of Death 2 November 1939, Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, California (suicide)
Movies
Conquest
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That's My Baby
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Just Around the Corner
Penny helps her idealistic architect father get his dream of a slum clearance project; The little mi...
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Fools First
Tommy Frazer is one of a gang of crooks lead by "Tony the Wop". Frazer gets caught and is sent up th...
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Together We Live
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My Boy
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Stark Mad
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The Prisoner of Shark Island
After healing the leg of the murderer John Wilkes Booth, responsible for the assassination of Presid...
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Green Eyes
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I Loved a Woman
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Illicit
Ann, a young woman with outrageously advanced ideas, has been living in sin with Dick, her lover, be...
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The Great Divide
Stephen Ghent, a mineowner, falls in love with Ruth Jordan, an arrogant girl from the East, unaware ...
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Mississippi
A young pacifist after refusing on principle to defend her sweetheart's honor and being banished in ...
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So Long Letty
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Before Midnight
A detective tries to figure out who killed a man who predicted his own death....
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Little Lord Fauntleroy
An American boy turns out to be the long-lost heir of a British fortune. He is sent to live with the...
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In Love with Life
Professor John Sylvestus Applegate has been dismissed from his college teaching position for objecti...
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Back Page
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Ticket to Paradise
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Gold Dust Gertie
Early 30s pre-code comedy about a woman attempting to get her two ex-husbands to pay back alimony....
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Ann Carver's Profession
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Dumb-bells in Ermine
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The Flirting Widow
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Daddy Long Legs
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Little Miss Broadway
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Tess of the Storm Country
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Kiss Me Again
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Daddies
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Calm Yourself
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Baby Face Harrington
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The Captain Hates the Sea
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Remembrance
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The Christian
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Skyway
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A Thief in Paradise
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Poor Little Rich Girl
Cossetted and bored, Barbara Barry is finally sent off to school by her busy if doting widowed soap ...
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Three Wise Fools
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How to Educate a Wife
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Strange Wives
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The Strangers' Banquet
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The Show-Off
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City Limits
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Cafe Society
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Florida Special
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A Yank at Oxford
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45 Minutes from Hollywood
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Mexicali Rose
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Compromised
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The Woman in Red
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Husbands for Rent
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Unknown Blonde
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Top of the Town
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Tiger Rose
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Seven Sinners
Six burglars separately break into the Vickers mansion on Long Island to loot the safe but catch eac...
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Naughty But Nice
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We Moderns
Mary Sundale is a young woman who spurns her childhood sweetheart to attach herself to a large group...
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Women They Talk About
Women They Talk About is a part-talkie Vitaphone film, with talking, music and sound effects sequenc...
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Stolen Kisses
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Glad Rag Doll
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The Avenger
A disgraced former District Attorney plots his revenge on the members of a criminal gang who had him...
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You Can't Buy Everything
A scorned woman dreams of revenge on the man who betrayed her....
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How I Play Golf, by Bobby Jones No. 8: 'The Brassie'
Bobby Jones teaches an angry old man how to use the Brassie, while simultaneously freeing his daught...
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Oh Kay!
On the eve of her wedding Lady Kay Rutfield runs off aboard her sloop. A storm carries her out to se...
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The Conquering Horde
Not long after the Civil War, Texas cattle ranchers realize they have a problem--the Union Pacific r...
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Wives Never Know
The blissful marriage of Homer and Marcia Bigelow is disrupted when Marcia hosts a party for one J. ...
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A Chapter in Her Life
Jewel stays with her grizzled, angry grandfather while her parents are overseas on business. Family ...
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Into Her Kingdom
In Czarist Russia, a young peasant boy is sent to Siberia for insulting the Grand Duchess. Released ...
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Madonna of the Streets
Rev. John Morton, who is determined to follow as closely as possible the teachings of Jesus, inherit...
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Cheaper to Marry
Dick Tyler is the junior partner in the law firm of Knight and Tyler. He tries to convince his partn...
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Fast and Furious
When Tom Brown, a wealthy young bachelor with a reckless penchant for speed, wrecks his car in an ac...
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Dulcy
Dulcy, a devoted but scatterbrained bride, tries to improve her absent husband's finances by invitin...
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A Tale of Two Cities
Set against the conditions leading up to the French Revolution and the Reign of Terror, French docto...
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Can This Be Dixie?
A young girl and her uncle who run a traveling medicine show lend their efforts to salvage an old pl...
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Idle Tongues
After serving 5 years in prison for embezzling church funds, Dr. Ephraim Nye returns to Ostable and ...
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Smiling Irish Eyes
A pretty, young violinist who travels from Ireland to America to seek fame and fortune on Broadway f...
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Wages for Wives
Nell Bailey, taking a lesson from the married lives of her sister, Luella Logan, and her mother, agr...
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Alice Adams
Alice (Florence Vidor) is not satisfied with her family's financial situation and tries to convince ...
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The Dust Flower
Trying to escape her gloomy existence, Letty attempts suicide but is stopped by Rashleigh Allerton, ...
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For Wives Only
Dr. Josef Rittenhaus, a popular young society physician of Vienna, at the behest of his friend Walds...
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Wild Primrose
Standish, a wealthy Northerner, deserts his untutored Southern wife shortly after their daughter Pri...
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