Charles Wagenheim

• Date of Birth:

  6 March 1896 Newark, New Jersey, USA

In a career comprised of hundreds upon hundreds of minor character parts on stage, film and TV, diminutive actor Charles Wagenheim was initially drawn to acting to counterbalance an acute case of shyness. Born in Newark, New Jersey in 1896, he was the son of immigrant parents. Wounded in World War I, he was compensated for an education by the government and chose to study dramatics at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York, graduating in 1923. After touring with a Shakespearean company, Charli... more

In a career comprised of hundreds upon hundreds of minor character parts on stage, film and TV, diminutive actor Charles Wagenheim was initially drawn to acting to counterbalance an acute case of shyness. Born in Newark, New Jersey in 1896, he was the son of immigrant parents. Wounded in World War I, he was compensated for an education by the government and chose to study dramatics at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York, graduating in 1923. After touring with a Shakespearean company, Charlie appeared in a host of Broadway plays, several of them written, directed and/or produced by the prolific George Abbott, including "A Holy Terror" (1925), "Four Walls" (1927) and "Ringside" (1928). Following his stage role in "Schoolhouse on the Lot" (1938), Wagenheim turned indefinitely to Hollywood where his dark, graveside manner, baggy-eyed scowl, thick and unruly mustache and lowlife countenance proved ideal for a number of genres, particularly crimers and westerns. In films from 1929, he scored well when Alfred Hitchcock chose him to play the assassin in Foreign Correspondent (1940). He went on to enact a number of seedy, unappetizing roles (tramps, drunks, thieves) over the years but never found the one juicy part that could have put him in the top character ranks. Usually billed tenth or lower, he was more atmospheric filler than anything else as his various cabbies, waiters, deputies, clerks, morgue attendants, junkmen, etc. will attest. Some of his better delineated roles came with Two Girls on Broadway (1940); Charlie Chan at the Wax Museum (1940); Half Way to Shanghai (1942); the cliffhangers Don Winslow of the Navy (1942) and Raiders of Ghost City (1944); The House on 92nd Street (1945); A Lady Without Passport (1950); Beneath the 12-Mile Reef (1953); and Canyon Crossroads (1955). One of his more promising cronies came as "The Runt" in Meet Boston Blackie (1941), which started Chester Morris off in the popular 40s "B" series as the thief-cum-crimefighter, but the sidekick role was subsequently taken over by George E. Stone. Of his latter filming, Wagenheim was cast in the very small but tense and pivotal role of the thief who breaks into the storefront in which the Frank family is hiding above in The Diary of Anne Frank (1959). TV took up much of his time in later years and he kept fairly busy throughout the 60s and 70s. Wagenheim played the recurring role of Halligan on Gunsmoke (1967-1975) and performed until the very end on such shows as "All in the Family" and "Baretta." On March 6, 1979, the 83-year-old Wagenheim was bludgeoned to death in his Hollywood apartment after he was surprised coming home from grocery shopping during an act of robbery. By sheer horrific coincidence, elderly character actor Victor Kilian, of "Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman" fame, was beaten to death by burglars in his Los Angeles-area apartment.