John Grant Mitchell Jr (1874-1957) was the only son of a Union general in the American Civil War (not many could say that), and a Harvard Law School graduate who was actually practising law when he gave it all up to become an actor. Unsurprising, then, that as a character actor in Hollywood he looked like a disciplinarian and was often cast as lawyers and businessmen.
Mitchell initially worked on the stage, making his first Broadway appearance in 1902. He went on to play many leading roles. He made one film in New York in 1916, and starred in another in 1923, but his film career only began seriously in 1930. He travelled to Hollywood as part of the influx of experienced actors required by sound pictures. He was already 56, but he went on to appear in over 120 pictures, usually in credited supporting roles and always a recognizable face.
Mitchell was one of the guests who attended Dinner at Eight and the father of the central character in Wild Boys of the Road (both 1933). Almost inevitably, he was cast as Egeus, the father from hell, in A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1935). He played the French statesman Clemenceau in The Life of Emile Zola (1937) and one of the senators sitting in judgement on James Stewart in Mr Smith Goes to Washington (1939). John Ford gave Mitchell the sympathetic role of the caretaker in The Grapes of Wrath (1940). For Capra, he played the heroine’s father in Arsenic and Old Lace (1944).
Grant Mitchell played character roles in four MGM musicals: Dancing Lady, the 1940 version of New Moon, Cairo and Easy to Wed.
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