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Walter Brennan: Real Mccoys
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The Walter Brennan Papers contains movie, and television scripts from his vast body of work including How the West was Won, The Over-the-Hill Gang, The Westerner, and many Real McCoys' episodes. In addition to the movie and television scripts, publicity, celebrity and family photographs make up a large part of the collection. The balance of the collection contains Walter Brennan's numerous, awards, and personal files.
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In many ways the most successful and familiar character actor of American sound films and the only actor to date to win three Oscars for Best Supporting Actor, Walter Brennan attended college in Cambridge, Massachusetts, studying engineering. While in school he became interested in acting and performed in school plays. He worked some in vaudeville and ... in various jobs such as clerking in a bank and as a lumberjack. He toured in small musical comedy companies before entering the military in 1917. After his war service he went to Guatemala and raised pineapples, then migrated to Los Angeles, where he speculated in real estate. A few jobs as a film extra came his way beginning in 1923, then some work as a stuntman.
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Remaining one of the top supporting actors in Hollywood into the 1950s, Brennan's name actually lent some box-office allure to weaker titles such as Scudda-Hoo! Scudda-Hay! in 1948. He worked with Cooper again on Delmer Daves' Task Force (1949) and played prominent roles in John Sturges' Bad Day at Black Rock and Anthony Mann's The Far Country (both 1955). In 1959, the 64-year-old Brennan got one of the biggest roles of his career in Hawks' Rio Bravo, playing Stumpy, the game-legged jailhouse keeper who is backing up the besieged sheriff played by John Wayne. By that time, Brennan had moved to television, starring in the CBS series The Real McCoys, which became a six-season hit built around his portrayal of the cantankerous family patriarch Amos McCoy.
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Unlike many actors, Brennan's career never really went into decline. As the years went on, he was able to find work in dozens of high quality films, and later television appearances throughout the 1950s and 60s. As he grew older, he simply became a more familiar, almost comforting film figure whose performances continued to endear him to new generations of fans. In all, he would appear in more than 230 film and television roles in a career spanning nearly five decades.
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With the explosion of television programs in the 1950's, Brennan gained further popularity through the 1959-1961 series, The Real McCoys. Brennan's Grampa Amos McCoy appeared weekly in millions of homes and became a familiar household character. Continuing through the 1960's and 1970's, Brennan appeared in over 50 feature films, television films, and series' including The Guns of Will Sonnett. At his death from emphysema in 1974, he had achieved the honor, respect, and success, few actors realize in their lifetime.
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The first years of his career saw Brennan working as an extra, with the occastional bit part in addition to being a stunt man . In the early 1930s he began receiving more substantial roles as his talent was recognized. This culminated with his receiving the very first Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in 1937 for his role in Come and Get It . Throughout his career, Brennan was frequently called upon to play characters considerabley older than he was in real life. He was particularly skilled in playing the hero's sidekick or as the "grumpy old man" in a picture.
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