Ian Wolfe

For decades, one of the go-to choices for old men was Ian Wolfe. This is not entirely surprising, given he took to the stage after returning from World War I, where he’d served as a volunteer medical specialist. Since his last acting credit is 1990’s Dick Tracy, that gives quite a lengthy career. However, he was playing old men before he was one, including claiming to be an old man in Houdini, made when he was not yet fifty. He just had an Old Man Face, which he knew. How not? He made his career on it for a very long time.

Wolfe was born in Canton, Illinois, and studied at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. His Broadway debut was in The Claw, though he seems to have appeared in it before then. (The Internet Broadway Database lists it as opening in 1921, but Wikipedia gives his stage debut in 1919.) He continued on the stage until The Barrets of Wimpole Street was adapted to the screen. He was eighth-billed. Another film of his, The Fountain, was released first; I don’t know the order in which they were filmed.

You have seen him. In something. I’d be shocked if you hadn’t. For one thing, the man was in quite a lot of stone-cold classics, ranging from Now, Voyager to Witness for the Prosecution and even THX 1138. He played judges, doctors, and grandparents. He was surly at Hayley Mills in Pollyanna and lectured James Dean about astronomy in Rebel Without a Cause. To my great delight, he played the cemetery caretaker in the dreadful Humphrey Bogart horror movie The Return of Dr. X. He was uncredited there; he was uncredited a lot of places. But you saw him.

More a TV person? He’s got you there, too. How about a 1949 episode of The Lone Ranger? He was Annas in The Living Christ Series, the screen debut of Bing Russell—not to mention TV’s first miniseries, in colour despite being made in 1951. He made quite a lot of the early playhouse shows. In more familiar stuff? How about Perry Mason? Hawaii Five-O. He was one of eleven people born in the nineteenth century to appear on Star Trek—and the last one still alive, when he died—and the only person born in the nineteenth century to appear on Cheers.

Oh, you saw him in something. Could’ve been my beloved Emergency! The Andy Griffith Show. The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm or Reds. He did a ton of things, and the things he did were wildly varied. And, yes, he was used to people who recognized him but weren’t sure from where. I’d imagine most character actors are used to that. It’s the sort of thing that happens, when you’re in the business for decades but half your roles only get a minute or two of screen time.