Louis Wolheim - Overview

It was Lionel Barrymore who gave Louis Wolheim his start as an actor. Wolheim had had his face more or less smashed in and his nose nicely fractured while playing on a scrub Cornell football team. Later as a Cornell Instructor he found life none too easy. He had worked off and on as an extra in the Wharton studio but never received much attention. Barrymore had only to look at him once to realize that Wolheim's face was his fortune. Through Barrymore, Wolheim gained an entree into New York theatrical life. On the legitimate stage he made a great success in "Welcome Wing" and "The Hairy Ape", climaxing these plays by his triumph in "What Price Glory". Louis Wolheim died in Los Angeles, California on 18 February 1931, the result of stomach cancer.