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Granville Bates (January 7, 1882 – July 8, 1940) was an American character actor and bit player, appearing in over ninety films.

Biography

Bates was born in Chicago in 1882 to Granville Bates, Sr., a developer and builder,[1] and Adaline Bates (née Gleason). He grew up in the Lakeview neighborhood of Chicago on the southeast corner of Evanston (now Broadway) Ave. and Oakdale Ave.[2] in a townhouse that his father later demolished, along with all of the others on the block, to redevelop as a four-story commercial building with apartments above.[3]

Bates began his film career in the 1910s with Essanay Studios of the Chicago film industry,[4] and his World War I draft Registration Card listed him as a travelling actor for Francis Owen & Co. He appeared on Broadway in the late 1920s and early 1930s, notably in the original production of Merrily We Roll Along (1934) by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart.[5] He was also the Conductor in the original production of Twentieth Century (1932).[6]

Bates’ grave at Graceland Cemetery

From the 1930s, he appeared in a number of classic films, although sometimes uncredited. He received favorable notice for his character roles, such as in My Favorite Wife (1940), where he played an irascible judge – The New York Times critic Bosley Crowther wrote “Mr. Bates deserves a separate mention for his masterpiece of comic creation.”[7] Another New York Times reviewer noted that “Edward Ellis and Granville Bates provoked an early audience yesterday to gentle laughter in a brief but quietly amusing sequence” in Chatterbox (1936),[8] while Crowther praised his work in Men Against the Sky (1940): “The players’ performances are stock and pedestrian, excepting that of Granville Bates as a cynical banker”.[9]

Bates died of a heart attack in Hollywood on July 9, 1940.[10] He was buried at Graceland Cemetery in Chicago.[11]

Select stage credits

Run Title Character Playwright(s) Theater/Location
Nov 12, 1924 – Jan 1925 Silence Dr. Thorpe Max Marcin
List
Oct 06, 1927 – Oct 22, 1927 My Princess Mitchell Edward Sheldon and Dorothy Donnelly
List
Nov 07, 1927 – Nov 1927 The Stairs Gianfranchi Rosso di San Secondo
List
Aug 27, 1928 – Dec 1928 Gentlemen of the Press Braddock Ward Morehouse
List
Jan 08, 1930 – Jan 1930 So Was Napoleon (Sap from Syracuse) Solomon Hycross Jack O’Donnell and John Wray
List
Sep 24, 1930 – Sep 05, 1931 Once in a Lifetime Bishop (replacement) Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman
List
Feb 18, 1932 – Apr 1932 Trick for Trick Lieutenant Jed Dodson Vivian Crosby, Shirley Warde and Harry Wagstaff Gribble
List
Sep 19, 1932 – Oct 1932 Lilly Turner Dave Turner George Abbott and Philip Dunning
List
Dec 29, 1932 – May 20, 1933 Twentieth Century Conductor Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur; Based on a play by Charles Bruce Millholland
List
Sep 21, 1933 – Jan 1934 Double Door Mortimer Neff Elizabeth McFadden
List
May 15, 1934 – Jun 02, 1934 Come What May Dr. Hughes Richard F. Flournoy
List
Sep 29, 1934 – Feb 1935 Merrily We Roll Along Mr. Murney George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart
List
  • – Music Box Theatre
  • – New York, NY
Feb 12, 1935 – Mar 1935 Rain Joe Horn John Colton and Clemence Randolph; from a story by W. Somerset Maugham
List
  • – Music Box Theatre
  • – New York, NY


Filmography

References

  1. ^ “GENERAL NOTICES – Champion Builders of Chicago”. The Chicago Tribune. XXIII (213): 1. January 19, 1870.
  2. ^ The Lakeview Directory. Chicago: R.R. Donnelly & Sons. 1888. p. 86.
  3. ^ “Recent Sales, Leases and Loans”. The Chicago Tribune. LIX (329): 38. November 25, 1900.
  4. ^ “No Holiday for Death”. Oakland (CA) Tribune. July 14, 1940. Retrieved January 1, 2018.
  5. ^ “Granville Bates”. Playbill. Retrieved January 1, 2018.
  6. ^ “Twentieth Century“. IBDB.com. Internet Broadway Database.
  7. ^ Bosley Crowther (May 31, 1940). “The Screen; ‘My Favorite Wife’ a Lively Farce, With Cary Grant and Irene Dunne, at the Music Hall–2 Other Films”. The New York Times.
  8. ^ T. M. P. (February 15, 1936). “At the RKO Albee”. The New York Times.
  9. ^ Bosley Crowther (September 12, 1940). “The Screen; At the Rialto”. The New York Times.
  10. ^ “Veteran Actor Taken by Death”. Los Angeles Times. July 10, 1940. p. 37. Retrieved November 21, 2021 – via Newspapers.com.
  11. ^ “OBITUARIES – Granville Bates”. The Chicago Tribune. XCIX (167): 14. July 12, 1940.
  12. ^ The American Film Institute Catalog of Motion Pictures Produced in the United States, Volume 1. University of California Press. 1993. p. 63. ISBN 9780520079083. Retrieved January 1, 2018.