Wesley Addy

Remembering the life of Wesley Addy for his Birthday! Known for his intelligent, white-collar demeanor and lean, icy, cultivated menace, the silver-haired performer, who was actually born in Omaha, Nebraska, was often mistaken as British, the second child and only son of John Roy Addy, a minister, and his Danish-born wife, Maren S. Nelson, a nurse. The family had come from Ohio, where Addy's father and older sister were born. The parents were recruited as missionaries bound for China, but his father suffered a nervous breakdown on the way, and the family wound up in Inglewood, California. Addy attended Inglewood Union High School, where he played the oboe. He graduated high school in January 1930. Majoring in economics at the University of California in Los Angeles, Wesley switched gears and trained in summer theater on Martha's Vineyard before trekking to New York City to pursue a professional career. In 1935, the actor made his Broadway stage debut with Orson Welles in Archibald Macleish's Panic.

World War II interrupted Addy's early momentum but he eventually returned to the theatre following his tour of duty and played opposite Katharine Cornell in Antigone and Candida. In 1951, the 38-year-old Addy made his film debut in the drama, The First Legion (1951), and would be seen from time to time throughout the decade in such dramatic fare as Scandal Sheet (1952), My Six Convicts (1952) and Time Table (1956). Some of his chillier roles came in films directed by Robert Aldrich, who utilized the actor quite often -- Kiss Me Deadly (1955), The Big Knife (1955), The Garment Jungle (1957), Ten Seconds to Hell (1959) and the Grand Guignol classics, What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962) and Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964). A reliable, durable performer, Wesley played suave gents and villains on TV. A major portion of his work came from daytime soaps including The Edge of Night, Days of Our Lives, Ryan's Hope and Loving. His television career also includes guest appearances on The Defenders, The Outer Limits, The Fugitive, Ironside, and The Rockford Files Later films included Seconds (1966) with Rock Hudson, Network (1976) with Faye Dunaway, The Europeans (1979) with Lee Remick and The Verdict (1982) with Paul Newman. Another of Addy's best-remembered roles was that of Lt. Commander Alvin Kramer, who unsuccessfully tries to warn American officials of the impending attack on Pearl Harbor in Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970). He was married to actress Celeste Holm from 1966 until his death. He continued to act close to the end. His last film role was as a judge in Before and After (1996) starring Meryl Streep and Liam Neeson, which was released in the year of his death. He was 83.