Jean Hersholt

His IMDb bio is little short of a hagiography, though it starts by calling him a Great Dane. Dane he certainly was; Jean Pierre Carl Buron was born in Copenhagen. Great he seems to have been; his reputation for philanthropy was so great that the Academy named their humanitarian award after him. In fact, his half-nephew-by-marriage [shrugs] said of him that he regretted Hersholt (no one seems to have details of why he chose the stage name, and most bios of him copy Wikipedia) died before they really got to know each other. The nephew used to brag about having such a famous uncle, and people no doubt responded with, “Surely, you can’t be serious.”

One of the things copied from sources other than the Wikipedia page is that Hersholt was from a Danish theatrical family. The Wikipedia page, however, says that this is not true and that his family were hairdressers. To be charitable, we may suggest that they were theatrical hairdressers. Either way, he made his first two shorts in Denmark in 1906, but he did not have the immediate success in Danish film as, say, Mads Mikkelsen. In 1913, he moved to the US, and within a few years he’d launched on a career that would last until his death of cancer forty-three years later.

Many of Hersholt’s movies have faded from public awareness over the decades. Even Shirley Temple’s Heidi is hardly spoken of, overshadowed perhaps by the made-for-TV one that famously interrupted a football game once. Grand Hotel was impressive in 1932—it has two Barrymores!—but is seldom seen these days. Greed is discussed, but few people have actually seen it. The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse starred Rudolph Valentino, but who these days still watches Valentino pictures? And perhaps it’s for the best that the Mr. Moto pictures aren’t discussed much these days, but you know, he was in a Mr. Moto picture?

Hersholt’s name, however, comes up all the time. The Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award is not given out by the Academy every year. It was given for the first time the ceremony after he died, and if no one is clear on what philanthropy Y. Frank Freeman was honoured for, there are plenty of other names on the list of people whose works are without question. Audrey Hepburn, Elizabeth Taylor, and Paul Newman were given the award in 1992 and ‘93, for example. Jerry Lewis is not by all accounts likable, but everyone knows what he’s doing. Martha Raye and Bob Hope are both well established for their work with the USO. Oprah Winfrey is another obvious recipient.

What did Hersholt himself do? As president of what was then the Motion Picture Relief Fund, now the Motion Picture and Television Fund, he found the land on which the Motion Picture Country House was established. The Motion Picture Hospital would be built on the grounds in a few years. By all accounts, people are admitted into the home on a strictly first-come, first-serve basis. If you’re at least seventy and have worked at least twenty years in the industry, you and your spouse can be eligible for a cottage there. The waiting list is a few months, but you don’t bump up the list because you’re extra famous or can pay, and people only pay what they can afford. It’s a fine charity, one that recently itself became the first organization to with a Hersholt Award. There’s a nice symmetry to that.