Henry Travers
Actor
Biography
British-born Henry Travers was a veteran of the English stage before emigrating to the U.S. in 1917. He gained more stage experience there on Broadway working with the Theatre Guild, and began his long film career with Reunion in Vienna (1933). Travers' kindly, grandfatherly demeanor became familiar to filmgoers over the next 25 years, especially in films like High Sierra (1941), where he played Joan Leslie's kindly but slyly observant uncle, and the generous Mr. Bogardus in The Bells of St. Mary's (1945), but it's as the somewhat befuddled angel Clarence Oddbody assigned to James Stewart in the classic It's a Wonderful Life (1946) that Travers will forever be known. After a long and successful career, he retired from the screen in 1949, and died in Hollywood in 1965.
Filmography
Shadow of a Doubt
as Joseph Newton 1943
The Invisible Man
as Dr. Cranley 1933
High Sierra
as Pa 1941
Mrs. Miniver
as Mr. Ballard 1942
Ball of Fire
as Prof. Jerome 1941
Dark Victory
as Dr. Parsons 1939
The Bells of St. Mary's
as Horace P. Bogardus 1945
Random Harvest
as Dr. Sims 1942
Dodge City
as Dr. Irving 1939
The Yearling
as Mr. Boyles 1946
Death Takes a Holiday
as Baron Cesarea 1934
Madame Curie
as Eugene Curie 1943
None Shall Escape
as Father Warecki 1944
The Naughty Nineties
as Capt. Sam Jackson 1945
Edison, the Man
as Ben Els 1940
Primrose Path
as Gramp 1940