Trivia of Walter Pidgeon

 Trivia of Walter Pidgeon (23 September 1897 - 25 September 1984)

*He went to Hollywood in the early 1920s, where he made silent films, including Mannequin (1926) and Sumuru (1927). When talkies arrived, Pidgeon made some musical movies, but he never received top billing or recognition in these.

He finally had top billing as leading actor, in How Green Was My Valley (1941) opposite Maureen O'Hara.

*Fred Astaire heard him singing at a party while appearing with an amateur company in Boston and got him an agent. Walter was more interested in acting, however, and joined E.E. Clive's repertory stage company where he worked on his craft. Thanks also to Astaire, the deep baritone auditioned for and became the singing partner for singer/entertainer Elsie Janis which toured for six months in the mid-1920s. Pidgeon's first wife traveled with the company as an understudy for Janis.

*During his early performances on stage, he played a Mountie in the play "Rose Marie". After playing this character on stage, Pidgeon became so enthusiastic that he actually applied to join the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Unfortunately he was medically rejected due to his earlier injuries in the Canadian Army.

*According to Forbidden Planet (1956) costar Anne Francis, Pidgeon would entertain the cast and crew of his various projects with his encyclopedic collection of bawdy limericks.

*Had a notoriously poor memory for names, referring to anyone whose name he could not remember as "Joe." This became such a habit that, for his birthday one year, the cast and crew of the picture he was working on bought him a present: A director's chair enscribed "Joe Pidgeon."

*Played the husband of Greer Garson's character a total of seven times on film; in Blossoms in the Dust (1941), Mrs. Miniver (1942), Madame Curie (1943), Mrs. Parkington (1944), Julia Misbehaves (1948), The Miniver Story (1950) and Scandal at Scourie (1953). That Forsyte Woman (1949) was the eighth film they did together.

*One of his famous roles was Dr Morbius in MGM's science fiction film 'Forbidden Planet (1956) ', it is considered one of the great science fiction films of the 1950s.In late September 2015 several screen-used items from the film were offered in Profiles in History's Hollywood Auction 74, including Walter Pidgeon's Morbius costume.