BIO

Walter Pidgeon was born near Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada, in 1897.   He attended the University of New Brunswick, where he studied law and drama.   His studies were interrupted by World War I and his enlistment in the Royal Regiment of Canadian Artillery.   He never saw combat after being severely injured when crushed between two gun carriages and then hospitalized for 17 months.

After being decommissioned, he moved to Boston where he trained as a baritone at the New England Conservatory of Music. He made his Broadway debut in 1925, at the age of 28.

The next year, Pidgeon co-starred in his first film, a silent picture for Famous Players-Lasky.   He became a musical leading man with the arrival of talkies and starred in a number of extravagant early Technicolor musicals.   However, when the public grew weary of this type of production, late in 1930, his career began to falter.

It was not until 1941 that Pidgeon made a career comeback with starring roles in Man Hunt, Blossoms In The Dust with Greer Garson, and in John Ford’s How Green Was My Valley.

He starred opposite Greer Garson again in Mrs. Miniver (1942) and was nominated for an Academy Award.   He and Garson teamed up for a third time in Madame Curie (1943) and he received another Oscar nomination.

Pidgeon was also active in the Screen Actors Guild and served as President from 1952-1957. He appeared in more than 100 feature films during his career.   His last film role was in 1978.

Pidgeon began turning to television roles in the late 1950s as well as returning to the stage.   He received a Tony Award nomination for Best Actor in a Musical for his role in Take Me Along (1960).

He married Edna Pickles in 1919.   She died in 1921 during the birth of their daughter.   In 1931, he married his secretary, Ruth Walker.

Pidgeon died of stroke in Santa Monica, California, in 1984.   He was 87 years old.

Additional Broadway stage history is available at:

Additional biographical information is available at:

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