I’ve seen Walter Connolly in three movies: Too Hot to Handle, Libeled Lady, and It Happened One Night. In the last two out of those three, he was the overprotective millionaire father to a glamorous young debutante (Myrna Loy and Claudette Colbert, respectively). Like Jessie Ralph, there’s very little biographical information on him, other than the fact that he was born (and is buried) in Cincinnati, which automatically endears him to me for personal reasons. Also like Jessie, there’s a fairly big gap in his career (between 1915’s A Soldier’s Oath and 1930’s Many Happy Returns) for which I can find no explanation. However, he worked steadily from 1930 until the year before his death, making 47 out of his 49 movies in that decade.
Walter was a shortish, rotund man with a nasal, somewhat high-pitched voice. He puts it to good use as "Arthur ‘Gabby’ MacArthur," the Universal Newsreel chief (and Clark Gable’s boss) in Too Hot to Handle. He’s just as good at playing a frustrated, wacky boss as he is at millionaire fathers. He lets out a version of "d’oh!" that’s pretty funny when rascally Gable pulls another outrageous stunt. My favorite role is that of J.B. Allenbury from "Libeled Lady." He’s Myrna’s father who’s suing Spencer Tracy’s paper for libel. William Powell and Jean Harlow team up with Spence to try and trick Myrna into committing the act (stealing a husband) of which she’s been accused, so the story won’t be libelous after all. Walter’s comedic skills are at their best when he and Myrna take Powell trout fishing. When I see Walter’s name listed in the credits, I know the movie is going to have some good laughs.
Walter died in 1940 and is buried in St. Joseph’s New Cemetery in Cincinnati, Ohio.
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