Tom Ewell(1909-1994)
- Actor
- Soundtrack
Beleaguered character actor Tom Ewell, the unlikely film and TV star
with the trademark lumpy figure and droopy, lugubrious mug, was born
Samuel Yewell Tompkins on April 29, 1909, in Kentucky. His family tried
to steer him towards a law career but he chose the path of acting
instead after becoming involved in college productions at the
University of Wisconsin.
Ewell began his career at the age of 19 in summer stock roles, marking
his professional stage debut in the play "The Spider" in 1928, before
making an emphatic move to New York three years later. A former
salesman at Macy's, he found an "in" with the famed Actors Studio
(later appearing in a number of their "Actor's Studio" TV episodes in
the late 1940s) before taking his first Broadway curtain call in the
drama "They Shall Not Die" in 1934. For the rest of the decade he
demonstrated his versatility in both comedies and dramas with roles in
such New York plays as "The First Legion," "Geraniums in My Window,"
"Let Freedom Ring," "Ethan Frome," "Tobacco Road," "Stage Door,"
"Brother Rat," "The Merchant of Yonkers" and "Family Portrait".
Ewell made an inauspicious film debut with an unbilled bit in the
comedy
They Knew What They Wanted (1940)
and continued that same year just as bleakly in the westerns
Back in the Saddle (1941),
Desert Bandit (1941) and
The Kid from Kansas (1941).
Better suited for Broadway, he found more challenging roles back East
in "Suzanna and the Elders" (1940), "Liberty Jones" (1941) and "Sunny
River" before his career was suddenly interrupted by World War II
service.
A return to The Great White Way happened almost immediately upon his
discharge and Tom scored with the comedy hits "Apple of His Eye" (1946)
and "John Loves Mary," the latter earning him the Clarence Derwent
Award. He also co-starred in the musical revue "Small Wonder" in 1948.
Hollywood seemed to pay more attention this time around what with his
growing theater reputation and he was handed a terrific role (after
appearing in a couple of Paramount "Pacemaker" short comedies) in the
Spencer Tracy/Katharine Hepburn
classic battle-of-the-sexes film comedy
Adam's Rib (1949). Playing
Judy Holliday's faithless husband in a
part that would later mirror a number of his aging, roving-eye
philanderer (minus the buckshot, of course, courtesy of Judy!), Tom's
film career finally kicked into high gear.
A succession of wisecracking character supports came his way but the
first two were played against his comedy typecast. He was third-billed
behind Lana Turner and
Ray Milland in the elegant romantic meller
A Life of Her Own (1950) as
Turner's suave modeling agent and played a fellow reporter along with
Tyrone Power in the WWII drama
American Guerrilla in the Philippines (1950).
Back in the comedy fold, he appeared in the
Bing Crosby musical film
Mr. Music (1950) before sharing co-star
billing with David Wayne in the
Willie and Joe war comedy
Up Front (1951). He finally received top
billing in the comedy
Finders Keepers (1951) and again
in Back at the Front (1952)
when he reprised his Willie character alongside
Harvey Lembeck, who replaced a departing
David Wayne as Joe.
By far Tom's most successful part began on Broadway in 1952 with "The
Seven Year Itch" opposite a delectable
Vanessa Brown as "The Girl
Upstairs". The show ran for nearly three years and Ewell played the
daydreaming adulterer wannabe Richard Sherman part more than 900 times,
ultimately winning the Tony Award for his comedic tour de force.
Fortunately, he was allowed to recreate the wayward husband role when
The Seven Year Itch (1955)
transferred to film co-starring Hollywood's hottest property at the
time, Marilyn Monroe. Although an Oscar
nomination eluded him for this performance, he won a Golden Globe Award
and character movie stardom was assured...at least for a time.
The pudding-faced actor tried to patent his leering "ordinary man" with
other female knockouts --
The Girl Can't Help It (1956)
opposite blonde bombshell
Jayne Mansfield,
The Great American Pastime (1956)
with fetching Anne Francis and
The Lieutenant Wore Skirts (1956)
co-starring sexy Sheree North, but the
vehicles were mild in comparison. The horse-racing yarn
A Nice Little Bank That Should Be Robbed (1958)
co-starring Mickey Rooney wrapped
up Tom's starring career in films.
The middle-aged actor turned more and more of his attention to stage
and television at this juncture. He enjoyed great applause once again
for the Broadway comedies "The Tunnel of Love" and "A Thurber Carnival"
and went on to star in his own sitcom,
The Tom Ewell Show (1960),
portraying a real estate agent whose domestic life is complicated by
all the women in his life (wife, three daughters, mother-in-law). It
lasted one complete season. He subsequently appeared in standard guest
appearances on TV over the years, plus a few films here and there. The
60-year-old actor rejuvenated on TV with the success of the
Robert Blake series
Baretta (1975). Tom retired in the
mid-1980s after finishing work on both the TV series comedy
Best of the West (1981) and
the Rodney Dangerfield slapstick film
Easy Money (1983).
The actor's first marriage to Judith Ann Abbott, the only child of
famed Broadway director
George Abbott lasted just a year,
but his marriage to Marjorie Sanborn on May 5, 1948, endured a lifetime
and produced one son. Tom's health declined sharply in his final years
and he died on September 12, 1994, of complications from a number of
maladies at the Motion Picture Country House and Hospital in Woodland
Hills, California. He was 85. Ewell's mother outlived him, passing away
in 1998 at the age of 109.
with the trademark lumpy figure and droopy, lugubrious mug, was born
Samuel Yewell Tompkins on April 29, 1909, in Kentucky. His family tried
to steer him towards a law career but he chose the path of acting
instead after becoming involved in college productions at the
University of Wisconsin.
Ewell began his career at the age of 19 in summer stock roles, marking
his professional stage debut in the play "The Spider" in 1928, before
making an emphatic move to New York three years later. A former
salesman at Macy's, he found an "in" with the famed Actors Studio
(later appearing in a number of their "Actor's Studio" TV episodes in
the late 1940s) before taking his first Broadway curtain call in the
drama "They Shall Not Die" in 1934. For the rest of the decade he
demonstrated his versatility in both comedies and dramas with roles in
such New York plays as "The First Legion," "Geraniums in My Window,"
"Let Freedom Ring," "Ethan Frome," "Tobacco Road," "Stage Door,"
"Brother Rat," "The Merchant of Yonkers" and "Family Portrait".
Ewell made an inauspicious film debut with an unbilled bit in the
comedy
They Knew What They Wanted (1940)
and continued that same year just as bleakly in the westerns
Back in the Saddle (1941),
Desert Bandit (1941) and
The Kid from Kansas (1941).
Better suited for Broadway, he found more challenging roles back East
in "Suzanna and the Elders" (1940), "Liberty Jones" (1941) and "Sunny
River" before his career was suddenly interrupted by World War II
service.
A return to The Great White Way happened almost immediately upon his
discharge and Tom scored with the comedy hits "Apple of His Eye" (1946)
and "John Loves Mary," the latter earning him the Clarence Derwent
Award. He also co-starred in the musical revue "Small Wonder" in 1948.
Hollywood seemed to pay more attention this time around what with his
growing theater reputation and he was handed a terrific role (after
appearing in a couple of Paramount "Pacemaker" short comedies) in the
Spencer Tracy/Katharine Hepburn
classic battle-of-the-sexes film comedy
Adam's Rib (1949). Playing
Judy Holliday's faithless husband in a
part that would later mirror a number of his aging, roving-eye
philanderer (minus the buckshot, of course, courtesy of Judy!), Tom's
film career finally kicked into high gear.
A succession of wisecracking character supports came his way but the
first two were played against his comedy typecast. He was third-billed
behind Lana Turner and
Ray Milland in the elegant romantic meller
A Life of Her Own (1950) as
Turner's suave modeling agent and played a fellow reporter along with
Tyrone Power in the WWII drama
American Guerrilla in the Philippines (1950).
Back in the comedy fold, he appeared in the
Bing Crosby musical film
Mr. Music (1950) before sharing co-star
billing with David Wayne in the
Willie and Joe war comedy
Up Front (1951). He finally received top
billing in the comedy
Finders Keepers (1951) and again
in Back at the Front (1952)
when he reprised his Willie character alongside
Harvey Lembeck, who replaced a departing
David Wayne as Joe.
By far Tom's most successful part began on Broadway in 1952 with "The
Seven Year Itch" opposite a delectable
Vanessa Brown as "The Girl
Upstairs". The show ran for nearly three years and Ewell played the
daydreaming adulterer wannabe Richard Sherman part more than 900 times,
ultimately winning the Tony Award for his comedic tour de force.
Fortunately, he was allowed to recreate the wayward husband role when
The Seven Year Itch (1955)
transferred to film co-starring Hollywood's hottest property at the
time, Marilyn Monroe. Although an Oscar
nomination eluded him for this performance, he won a Golden Globe Award
and character movie stardom was assured...at least for a time.
The pudding-faced actor tried to patent his leering "ordinary man" with
other female knockouts --
The Girl Can't Help It (1956)
opposite blonde bombshell
Jayne Mansfield,
The Great American Pastime (1956)
with fetching Anne Francis and
The Lieutenant Wore Skirts (1956)
co-starring sexy Sheree North, but the
vehicles were mild in comparison. The horse-racing yarn
A Nice Little Bank That Should Be Robbed (1958)
co-starring Mickey Rooney wrapped
up Tom's starring career in films.
The middle-aged actor turned more and more of his attention to stage
and television at this juncture. He enjoyed great applause once again
for the Broadway comedies "The Tunnel of Love" and "A Thurber Carnival"
and went on to star in his own sitcom,
The Tom Ewell Show (1960),
portraying a real estate agent whose domestic life is complicated by
all the women in his life (wife, three daughters, mother-in-law). It
lasted one complete season. He subsequently appeared in standard guest
appearances on TV over the years, plus a few films here and there. The
60-year-old actor rejuvenated on TV with the success of the
Robert Blake series
Baretta (1975). Tom retired in the
mid-1980s after finishing work on both the TV series comedy
Best of the West (1981) and
the Rodney Dangerfield slapstick film
Easy Money (1983).
The actor's first marriage to Judith Ann Abbott, the only child of
famed Broadway director
George Abbott lasted just a year,
but his marriage to Marjorie Sanborn on May 5, 1948, endured a lifetime
and produced one son. Tom's health declined sharply in his final years
and he died on September 12, 1994, of complications from a number of
maladies at the Motion Picture Country House and Hospital in Woodland
Hills, California. He was 85. Ewell's mother outlived him, passing away
in 1998 at the age of 109.