Biography for
Edward Arnold (I) More at IMDbPro »

Date of Birth

18 February 1890, New York City, New York, USA

Date of Death

26 April 1956, Encino, California, USA (cerebral hemorrhage)

Birth Name

Gunther Edward Arnold Schneider

Height

5' 10" (1.78 m)

Mini Biography

Born Gunther Schneider in New York City in 1890, Edward Arnold began his acting career on the New York stage and became a film actor in 1916. A burly man with a commanding style and superb baritone voice, he was a popular screen personality for decades, and was the star of such film classics as Diamond Jim (1935) (a role he reprised in Lillian Russell (1940)) Arnold appeared in over 150 films and was President of The Screen Actors Guild shortly before his death in 1956.

IMDb Mini Biography By: Tom McDonough

Spouse

Cleo Arnold	(1951 - 26 April 1956) (his death)
Olive Emerson	(1929 - 1948) (divorced)
Harriet Marshall	(1917 - 1927) (divorced) children: Elizabeth, Jane, William.

Trivia

Screen, stage, and television actor.

Father of actor Edward Arnold Jr.

Entered films in 1915 with Essanay.

Interred at San Fernando Mission Cemetery, Mission Hills, California, USA, Section D, Lot 132, Grave 9.

President of Screen Actors Guild (SAG). [1940-1942]

Was an MC on the radio program called "The Chase and Sanborn Hour" starring Nelson Eddy, Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy, in 1938.

One of the first actors to seriously consider running for public office, Arnold ran for Los Angeles City Alderman in the mid-1940s. He lost, in a close election, and expressed his views afterward that entertainment and politics were incompatible. Of course, he has been proven wrong numerous times since then.

Arnold actually played both the Devil and Daniel Webster in succeeding years, playing Webster in All That Money Can Buy (1941) and the Devil in the WWII propaganda short Inflation (1942) the following year. The latter film, incidentally, also marked the film debut of Esther Williams.

Portrayed a different president each week on ABC Radio's "Mr. President" (1947-1953).

A lifelong conservative Republican and staunch anti-communist, he was nonetheless an early and ardent opponent of the studio blacklisting of suspected communists.

Salary

Okay, America! (1932)

$900

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