Melvyn Douglas

Acting

Melvyn Douglas

Born April 5, 1901 · Macon, Georgia, USA

Died August 4, 1981 · aged 80

Melvyn Douglas (born Melvyn Edouard Hesselberg; April 5, 1901 – August 4, 1981) was an American actor. Douglas came to prominence in the 1930s as a suave leading man, perhaps best typified by his performance in the 1939 romantic comedy Ninotchka with Greta Garbo. Douglas later played mature and fatherly characters, as in his Academy Award–winning performances in Hud (1963) and Being There (1979) a…

Known For

The TenantThe Tenant · 1976
The Tenant
7.61976
MovieThrillerMystery
A quiet and inconspicuous man rents an apartment in Paris where he finds himself drawn into a rabbit hole of dangerous paranoia.
Being ThereBeing There · 1979
Being There
7.61979
MovieComedyDrama
A simple-minded gardener named Chance has spent all his life in the Washington D.C. house of an old man. When the man dies, Chance is put out on the street with no knowledge of the world except what he has learned from television.
The ChangelingThe Changeling · 1980
The Changeling
7.01980
MovieHorror
After a tragic event happens, composer John Russell moves to Seattle to try to overcome it and build a new and peaceful life in a lonely big house that has been uninhabited for many years. But, soon after, the obscure history of such an old mansion and his own past begin to haunt him.
NinotchkaNinotchka · 1939
Ninotchka
7.51939
MovieComedyRomance
A stern Russian woman sent to Paris on official business finds herself attracted to a man who represents everything she is supposed to detest.
HudHud · 1963
Hud
7.31963
MovieDramaWestern
Hud Bannon is a ruthless young man who tarnishes everything and everyone he touches. Hud represents the perfect embodiment of alienated youth, out for kicks with no regard for the consequences. There is bitter conflict between the callous Hud and his stern and highly principled father, Homer. Hud's nephew Lon admires Hud's cheating ways, though he soon becomes too aware of Hud's reckless amorality to bear him anymore. In the world of the takers and the taken, Hud is a winner. He's a cheat, but, he explains, "I always say the law was meant to be interpreted in a lenient manner."
Ghost StoryGhost Story · 1981
Ghost Story
6.01981
MovieHorrorDrama
Four successful elderly gentlemen, members of the Chowder Society, share a gruesome, 50-year-old secret. When one of Edward Wanderley's twin sons dies in a bizarre accident, the group begins to see a pattern of frightening events developing.
Twilight's Last GleamingTwilight's Last Gleaming · 1977
Twilight's Last Gleaming
6.51977
MovieThriller
A renegade USAF general, Lawrence Dell, escapes from a military prison and takes over an ICBM silo near Montana and threatens to provoke World War 3 unless the President reveals details of a secret meeting held just after the start of the Vietnam War between Dell and the then President's most trusted advisors.
Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream HouseMr. Blandings Builds His Dream House · 1948
Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House
7.01948
MovieComedy
An advertising executive dreams of getting out of the city and building a perfect home in the country, only to find the transition fraught with problems.

Filmography

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Lights OutLights Out · 1949
Lights Out
6.01949
SeriesSci-Fi & FantasyCrime
Lights Out was an extremely popular American old-time radio program, an early example of a network series devoted mostly to horror and the supernatural, predating Suspense and Inner Sanctum. Versions of Lights Out aired on different networks, at various times, from January 1934 to the summer of 1947 and the series eventually made the transition to television. In 1946, NBC Television brought Lights Out to TV in a series of four specials, broadcast live and produced by Fred Coe, who also contributed three of the scripts. NBC asked Cooper to write the script for the premiere, "First Person Singular", which is told entirely from the point of view of an unseen murderer who kills his obnoxious wife and winds up being executed. Variety gave this first episode a rave review ("undoubtedly one of the best dramatic shows yet seen on a television screen"), but Lights Out did not become a regular NBC-TV series until 1949.
Playhouse 90Playhouse 90 · 1956
Playhouse 90
7.51956
SeriesDrama
Playhouse 90 is an American television anthology series that was telecast on CBS from 1956 to 1960 for a total of 133 episodes. It originated from CBS Television City in Los Angeles, California. Since live anthology drama series of the mid-1950s were usually hour-long shows, the title highlighted the network's intention to present something unusual, a weekly series of hour-and-a-half dramas rather than 60-minute plays. Playhouse 90 began as a pitch by Frank Stanton—the formidable, forward-thinking right-hand man to CBS chairman William S. Paley—during a brainstorming session for program ideas. The project was ultimately developed by Hubbell Robinson, a CBS vice president who received no screen credit on Playhouse 90 but is often described as its creator.

Gen. Parker