CHARLES TROWBRIDGE
Information from IMDb
Date of Birth
10 January 1882, Veracruz, Mexico
Date of Death
30 October 1967, Los Angeles, California, USA
Birth Name
Charles Silas Richard Trowbridge
Spouse
Helen
Trivia
Interred at Forest Lawn (Hollywood Hills), Los Angeles, California, USA,
in the Court of Remembrance, lot #233.
Brother of Jack Rockwell, who was a Columbia and Republic Film Studios
character actor, mostly in westerns.
Mini Biography
This veteran character and his younger brother, western actor Jack Rockwell,
were born to American parents south of the border in Vera Cruz, Mexico in 1882.
Charles Trowbridge was educated in Napa, California and Hawaii,
then studied for his degree at Stanford University.
He forsook a thriving career as an architect in his twenties for stage acting,
receiving early training at the Alcazar Theatre in San Francisco with Bert Lytell
and Bessie Barriscale. He then moved to New York where he earned a number
of regional roles in the Chicago, Boston and Philadelphia areas before making
his Broadway bow with "The Marriage Game" in 1913.
He proceeded to build up his resume impressively with the plays "Daddy Long Legs" in 1914
and when it was revived in 1918, "The Broken Wing (1920), "Craig's Wife (1925),
"Ladies Leave" (1929) and "Dinner at Eight" (1933).
He made a sampling of silents over the years as well, primarily in drama, with The Fight (1915),
Thais (1917/I) and The Eternal Magdalene (1919) to name a few.
After co-starring opposite Corinne Griffith in Island Wives (1922),
however, he was not seen again for nearly a decade.
After a steady diet of Broadway plays, he was signed by Paramount for character roles
in sound pictures and proceeded to support the top stars.
With his rangy build, piercing blue eyes, premature gray hair and serious countenance,
Trowbridge was particularly useful throughout the 1930s and 1940s in crime yarns,
horrors and in rugged settings starting out with Gary Cooper and Carole Lombard
in the romantic drama I Take This Woman (1931).
Trowbridge usually adopted a friendly but intelligent, officious demeanor as assorted doctors,
judges, bankers, lawyers, military brass and even U.S. presidents.
He appeared rather indiscriminately in a number of "A" quality films including
Captains Courageous (1937), John Doe, Dynamite (1941), Sergeant York (1941)
and Mildred Pierce (1945), and in popular cliffhangers such as King of the Texas Rangers (1941),
Adventures of the Flying Cadets (1943) and Captain America (1944).
He often played well-meaning victims who died in the first reel, notably in horrors.
His last two films were unbilled bits, courtesy of John Ford, in The Wings of Eagles (1957)
and The Last Hurrah (1958). Retired thereafter,
Trowbridge passed away a number of years later at age 85.
IMDb Mini Biography By: Gary Brumburgh
Charles Trowbridge was another member of
the John Ford Stock Company
making 7 movies with the director, including
The Last Hurrah, When Willie Comes Marching Home
Submarine Patrol, The Wings of Eagles, They Were Expendable
Charles in fact made over 230 movies,beginning in the silent days
and was in many well known films an TV series
Charles appeared in 3 movies that included Duke
The Wings of Eagles (1957)...Adm. Crown (uncredited)
Tycoon (1947)...Señor Tobar
They Were Expendable (1945)... Admiral Blackwell
The Fighting Seabees (1944)...Randolph (uncredited)
