orig. Walter Houghston
born April 6, 1884, Toronto, Ont., Can.
died April 7, 1950, Beverly Hills, Calif., U.S.
Canadian-born U.S. actor.
He made his stage debut in his native Toronto in 1902 and his New York debut in 1905. He and his second wife were a popular vaudeville song-and-dance team (1909–24). On Broadway he won praise in Desire Under the Elms (1924), Dodsworth (1934; film, 1936), and Knickerbocker Holiday (1938), in which he sang "September Song." He appeared in over 50 films, including Abraham Lincoln (1930), Rain (1932), and The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948, Academy Award), directed by his son John Huston .