Conrad Nagel

At 72 years old, Conrad Nagel has this physical status:

Conrad Nagel (March 16, 1897 – February 24, 1970) was an American film, stage, television, and radio actor.

He was regarded as a well-known matinée idol and leading man of the 1920s and 1930s.

In 1940, he was given an Academy Honorary Award, and in 1960, three actors appeared on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Early life

Dr. Frank L. Nagel, of German descent, and Frances (née Murphy), a locally celebrated musician, were born in Keokuk, Iowa, into an upper-middle-class family. Nagel's mother died early in his life, and he always attributed his artistic flourishment to growing up in a family environment that promoted self-expression. When Nagel was three, his father, Frank, became the dean of the music conservatory at Highland Park College in Des Moines, and the family stayed there.

After graduating from Highland Park College, Nagel moved to California to pursue a career in the relatively new field of motion pictures, where he attracted instant attention from Hollywood studio executives. The young, Midwestern Nagel was seen by studio executives as a potentially wholesome matinee idol whose unpretentious all-American charm would appeal to the country's nascent film-goers, with his 6-foot (1.8 m) frame, blue eyes, and wavy blond hair.

Personal life

Nagel married and divorced three times. Ruth Margaret, his first wife, gave birth to her daughter Ruth Margaret. Lynn Merrick, actor Lynn Merrick, was his second wife. Michael Coulson Smith, his third wife, was the mother of a boy Michael.

At the age of 72, Nagel died in 1970 in New York City. Nagel's death was "due to natural causes," noting a heart attack and emphysema, according to a Chief Medical Examiner spokesman. No autopsy was scheduled, according to him. Nagel was cremated at Garden State Crematory in North Bergen, New Jersey, and was buried. His remains are laid to rest at Warsaw, Illinois, at the Lutheran Cemetery.

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Film career

Nagel was immediately cast in film roles that cemented his unspoiled lover image. His first film, the 1918 retelling of Little Women, captured the public's interest and put Nagel on a collision course with silent film stardom. He made his breakthrough appearance in The Battle Chance, the 1920 film starring Swedish actor Anna Q. Nilsson. In 1918, Nagel was elected to The Lambs, the theatrical club.

In 1927, Nagel appeared alongside Lon Chaney Sr., Marceline Day, Henry B. Walthall, and Polly Moran in the now-defunct Tod Browning directed horror film London After Midnight. Nagel had no trouble transitioning to sound films unlike some other silent film stars. His baritone voice had been considered to be a natural performer, so he appeared in about 30 films in less than two years. He referred to the period as a "great adventure." He was so busy that one night, when he and his wife decided to go to the movies, he was in films at Grauman's, Loew's, and Paraphrasedout's theaters. "We couldn't find a theater where I wasn't performing." So we'd go back to the house of Commons. "I was an epidemic." He spent the next ten years as a character actor in high-profile films. He was also on radio and made several notable television appearances.

Nagel was one of 35 other film industry insiders to found the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), a professional honorary society dedicated to the advancement of motion picture arts and sciences of motion pictures. Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, Richard Barthelmess, Jack Holt, Milton Sills, and Harold Lloyd were among the founding members. He served as president of the corporation from 1932 to 1933. He was also a founding member of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG).

On November 5, 1930, the 3rd Academy Awards ceremony, the 5th Academy Awards, was held in Nagel, 1930, and he co-anchored with Bob Hope at the 25th Academy Awards ceremony on March 19, 1953. An Oscar ceremonies host is a record for a 21-year gap between his appearances in 1932 and 1953.

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