By the time Edmund Gwenn came to Hollywood in 1935 when he was in his 50s, he’d already had a distinguished career as a British stage actor, according to “The Encyclopedia of Hollywood Film Actors: From the Silent Era to 1965.” This included a succession of roles in several of George Bernard Shaw’s plays, for which the cantankerous playwright had handpicked Gwenn, per The Los Angeles Times. He had also starred in many British films, and continued his streak in America, bouncing between Broadway and Hollywood, where he worked with such iconic filmmakers as Alfred Hitchcock and fellow actors including Katharine Hepburn and Frederick March.
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By the 1950s, Gwenn’s career was winding down in part due to his arthritis. In 1955, during the filming of Alfred Hitchcock’s “The Trouble With Harry,” Gwenn suffered terribly from the disease that affected his acting, according to “Hitchcock and the Censors.” His final film was a Spanish production from 1956 called “Rocket From Calabuch,” which didn’t get wide distribution in the U.S. That same year, his arthritis required him to use a wheelchair, per The Los Angeles Times. Even so, in 1957, he appeared on two television shows with his final role being on “Alfred Hitchcock Presents,” per IMDb. For more than 60 years, Edmund Gwenn had made his life as an actor.
