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Charley Grapewin
Charley Grapewin

Charley Grapewin

Actor
86 years (Dec 20, 1869 – Feb 2, 1956)Xenia, Ohio, USA
Known for
  1. 1939 Uncle Henryin The Wizard of Oz
  2. 1941 Jeeter Lesterin Tobacco Road
  3. 1940 Grandpa Joadin The Grapes of Wrath
Charley Grapewin counts as a veteran of both film and television known to audiences from a long list of titles rather than from one. The career now covers more than 126 years. If one title has to stand in for the rest, it is 'The Wizard of Oz'. 'The Grapes of Wrath' belongs on any short list of his work. The trail of credits goes back as far as 1900. By genre, drama dominates the list.
Known for
  1. 1939 Uncle Henryin The Wizard of Oz
  2. 1941 Jeeter Lesterin Tobacco Road
  3. 1940 Grandpa Joadin The Grapes of Wrath
Charley Grapewin counts as a veteran of both film and television known to audiences from a long list of titles rather than from one. The career now covers more than 126 years. If one title has to stand in for the rest, it is 'The Wizard of Oz'. 'The Grapes of Wrath' belongs on any short list of his work. The trail of credits goes back as far as 1900. By genre, drama dominates the list.
93 Movies
Latest Trailers
Crash Dive
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Crash Dive
Full Filmography
When I Grow Up
Grandpa Reed
★ 7.3
1951
Sand
Doug
★ 5.6
1949
The Enchanted Valley
Grandpa
★ 10.0
1948
Gunfighters
Rancher Inskip
★ 5.6
1947
Atlantic City
Jake Taylor
★ 6.3
1944
The Impatient Years
Benjamin L. Pidgeon, Bellboy
★ 6.4
1944
Follow the Boys
Nick West
★ 5.7
1944
Crash Dive
Pop
★ 6.4
1943
Enemy Agents Meet Ellery Queen
Inspector Richard Queen
★ 6.5
1942
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Charley Grapewin still alive?
Charley Grapewin passed away on February 2, 1956 at age 86.
What are the most famous roles of Charley Grapewin?
Charley Grapewin is best known for roles in The Wizard of Oz, The Grapes of Wrath, The Petrified Forest.
How many movies has Charley Grapewin been in?
Charley Grapewin has appeared in 93 movies and 0 TV shows.
What was Charley Grapewin's first movie?
The career of Charley Grapewin began with Above the Limit (1900).
What is Charley Grapewin's most recent movie or series?
Charley Grapewin's most recent release is MGM Parade, which premiered on September 14, 1955.
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Charley Grapewin
Charley Grapewin
1869-12-20 · Xenia, Ohio, USA

Charles Ellsworth Grapewin (December 20, 1869 – February 2, 1956) was an American vaudeville performer, writer and a stage and silent and sound actor, and comedian who was best known for portraying Aunt Em's husband, Uncle Henry in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's The Wizard of Oz (1939) as well as Grandpa Joad in The Grapes of Wrath (1940) and Jeeter Lester in Tobacco Road (1941). He usually portrayed elderly folksy-type characters in a rustic setting, in all appearing in over 100 films. He was the oldest cast member of The Wizard of Oz.

Born in Xenia, Ohio, Charles Ellsworth Grapewin ran away from home to be a circus acrobat which led him to work as an aerialist and trapeze artist in a traveling circus before turning to acting. He traveled all over the world with the famous P. T. Barnum circus. Grapewin also appeared in the original 1903 Broadway production of The Wizard of Oz, 36 years before he would appear in the famous Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film version.

After this he continued in theatre, on and offstage, for the next thirty years, starting with various stock companies, and wrote stage plays as a vehicle for himself. His sole Broadway theatre credit was the short-lived play It's Up to You John Henry in 1905.

Grapewin married actress Anna Chance (1875–1943) in 1896, and they remained a devoted couple until her death some 47 years later. Two years after his first wife's death, Grapewin married Loretta McGowan Becker on Jan 10, 1945.

Grapewin began in silent films at the turn of the twentieth century. His very first films were two "moving image shorts" made by Frederick S. Armitage and released in November 1900; Chimmie Hicks at the Races (also known as Above the Limit) and Chimmie Hicks and the Rum Omelet, both shot in September and October 1900 and released in November of that year. During his long career, Grapewin appeared in more than one hundred films, including The Good Earth, The Grapes of Wrath, Tobacco Road, and in what is probably his best-remembered role: Uncle Henry in The Wizard of Oz. He also had a recurring role as Inspector Queen in the Ellery Queen film series of the early 1940s.

Grapewin died of natural causes in Corona, California at age 86, and his ashes are interred with his wife's in Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California, at the Great Mausoleum's Columbarium of Inspiration.

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