Henry Travers

At 91 years old, Henry Travers has this physical status:

Travers John Heagerty (March 1874 – October 1965), also known as Henry Travers, was an English film and stage character actor.

Clarence Odbody, the guardian angel in the 1946 film classic It's a Wonderful Life, was his most well-known part.

He also received an Academy Award for his support role in Mrs. Miniver (1942).

Travers were trained to portraying little-bumbling but lovable old men.

Early life

Travers was born in Prudhoe, Northumberland, and was the son of Daniel Heagerty, an Irish doctor, and Ellen Gillman Hornibrook. His mother was a native of County Cork, Ireland, and she had been married to William H. Belcher, a merchant seaman. He died in 1869. Samuel William Belcher, Travers' half-brother, by his mother's previous marriage. Daniel George Belsaigne Heagerty, his older brother, and a sister, Mary Sophia Maude Heagerty, were all present. Travers grew up in Berwick-upon-Tweed, and several biographies inaccurately identify him as being born there.

The Travers family lived in Prudhoe for a few years before moving from Woodburn, on the A68 road in Northumberland, in about 1866, to Tweedmouth, Berwick-upon-Tweed in about 1876.

He began as an architect at Berwick before moving to the stage under the name Henry Travers.

Personal life and death

Amy Forrest-Rhodes, Travers' first wife, was the actress. They were married from 1931 to her death in 1954. He married Ann G. Murphy, who survived him in 1955.

Travers died of arteriosclerosis in 1965, at the age of 91, after many years in retirement. He and his second wife are buried in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Glendale) in California.

The Henry Travers Studio in Berwick-upon-Tweed is named after him.

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Acting career

Travers began working in England's repertory theatre. Travers Heagerty was billed as Travers Heagerty in December 1895. He appeared in character roles from the start of his acting career in 1894, notably in figures that were older than himself. He appeared in The Price of Peace (1901) for the first time, but he returned to England. Travers stayed in the United States and appeared on Broadway from November 1917 to December 1938 in over 30 shows, and was named in The New Yorker as "one of the most consistent performers in the American theatre now," while at the same time one of the country's least admired." His last appearance on Broadway You Can't Take It With You is his most well-known, where he appeared in over 380 performances in two years. Lionel Barrymore played Travers in the Oscar-winning film You Can't Take It With You.

He made his first film in theaters only with the advent of sound films, like many other theatre actors. In 1933, Reunion in Vienna was the first of his kind. In the same year, he portrayed Gloria Stuart in the horror film The Invisible Man. He often portrayed doctors, judges, and fathers of the main characters in supporting roles. Travers were trained to portraying younger men with a smidgeon, bumbling, but friendly and lovable older man. In Random Harvest (1942), he appeared with Greer Garson and Ronald Colman (1942), as well as in The Bells of St. Mary's (1945). In Shadow of a Doubt (1943), Alfred Hitchcock played a bank clerk with a passion for criminal magazines. Mr. Ballard, the railway station master, was also portrayed with a passion for roses, who won the annual flower show in his village a few days before succumbing to the plague in Mrs. Miniver. For this appearance, he was nominated for the Best Support Actor by the Academy Awards.

In Frank Capra's 1946 film It's a Wonderful Life, Travers' best remembered role was as James Stewart's befuddled but kind-hearted guardian angel Clarence Odbody. Stewart is saved from suicide by Travers' character, who then shows him how amazing his life really is. Despite the fact that the film was a financial loss, it became a Christmas classic later this year.

Travers died in 1949 after his playing part in The Girl From Jones Beach. He appeared in 52 films in total.

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