Thomas Mitchell (actor)

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A scene form It's a Wonderful Life; Uncle Billy (Thomas Mitchell) can't find the money that Mr. Potter (Lionel Barrymore) stole, so George (James Stewart) becomes enraged.

Thomas Mitchell (July 11, 1892 – December 17, 1962) was an American film actor.

Born in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Mitchell began his film career in 1923, and went on to become one of the screen's most successful character actors. He won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for Stagecoach (1939), an Emmy Award as the Best Actor of 1953, and a Tony Award in 1953 for the musical Hazell Flagg (based on the Carole Lombard film Nothing Sacred).

He is also remembered as Scarlett's father, Gerald O'Hara in Gone with the Wind (1939). Ironically, however, he won the Academy Award that year as Best Supporting Actor for a different movie, Stagecoach. Many speculate that had he been nominated for Gone With The Wind, he would have won for that movie, boosting GWTW's tally of Oscars.

In the early 1960s, he originated the stage role of "Columbo", later made famous on television by Peter Falk. Moreover, the pair had supporting roles in Mitchell's last film, 1961's "Pocketful of Miracles."

Thomas Mitchell died in 1962 from cancer in Beverly Hills, California. He was cremated and his ashes stored in the vault at the Chapel of the Pines Crematory in Los Angeles.

Thomas Mitchell has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, for Motion Pictures at 1651 Vine St., and for television at 6100 Hollywood Boulevard.

Selected filmography

• Craig's Wife (1936)
• Theodora Goes Wild (1936)
• Lost Horizon (1937)
• The Hurricane (1937)
• Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
• The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939)
• Only Angels Have Wings (1939)
• Stagecoach (1939)
• Gone with the Wind (1939)
• The Long Voyage Home (1940)
• Our Town (1940)
• Out of the Fog (1941)
• The Devil and Daniel Webster (1941)
• The Black Swan (1942)
• Tales of Manhattan (1942)
• The Outlaw (1943)
• Immortal Sargeant (1943)
• Bataan (1943)
• The Sullivans (1944)
• Wilson (1944)
• The Keys of the Kingdom (1944)
• The Dark Mirror (1946)
• It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
• High Noon (1952)
• While the City Sleeps (1956)
• Pocketful of Miracles (1961)

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