BIO

Jean Hersholt was born Jean Buron Hersholt in Copenhagen, Denmark in 1886.   His parents were stage actors and Hersholt learned young that acting was a family profession.   He made his film debut in Germany at the age of 9 in 1906.

By 1915, Hersholt had emigrated to the U.S., moved to Hollywood and appeared in his first film for Kay-Bee Pictures.   He had a long silent film career, appearing in more than 65 feature films.

He made the transition to sound and continued to appear in motion pictures through 1955.   He became well known in the late 1930s as the kindly country doctor in the 6 film Dr. Christian series.   In a career spanning more than 5 decades, Hersholt appeared in more than 140 films.

In 1938 he helped form the Motion Picture Relief Fund.   This fund helped support industry employees with medical care when they were down on their luck and was used to create the Motion Picture Country House and Hospital in Los Angeles.   This noble effort led to the creation, in 1956, of the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, an honorary Academy Award given to an "individual in the motion picture industry whose humanitarian efforts have brought credit to the industry."

Never forgetting his roots, Hersholt also translated six volumes of Hans Christian Andersen fairly tales from Danish into English, publishing it in 1949.   He was knighted by King Christian X of Denmark in 1947 partly due to this endeavor.

Hersholt received three special Academy Awards in 1938, 1948 and 1949 for his charitable work on behalf of the acting community at large.

He married Via Andersen in 1914.   They raised two children.   One was the actor Allan Hersholt (1914-1990).

He died of cancer in Hollywood, in 1956, at the age of 69.

Additional biographical information is available at:

NOTED FILMS

Full filmography at: