Charles Douville Coburn (June 19, 1877 – August 30, 1961) was an Academy Award-winning American film and theater actor.
Coburn was born in Savannah, Georgia, the son of Scots-Irish Americans Emma Louise Sprigman and Moses Douville Coburn. He started out doing odd jobs at the local theater, handing out programs, ushering, being the doorman. By the age of 17 or 18, he was the theater manager. He later moved on to acting and made his debut on Broadway in 1901. Coburn formed an acting company with Ivah Wills in 1905. They married in 1906. In addition to managing the company, the couple performed frequently on Broadway.
After his wife's death in 1937, Coburn relocated to Los Angeles, California and began acting in films. He won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role as a retired millionaire playing Cupid in The More the Merrier in 1943. He was also nominated for The Devil and Miss Jones in 1941 and The Green Years in 1946. Other notable film credits include Of Human Hearts (1938), The Lady Eve (1941), Kings Row (1942), The Constant Nymph (1943), Heaven Can Wait (1943), Wilson (1944), Impact (1949), The Paradine Case (1947), Everybody Does It (1950), Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953) and John Paul Jones (1959). He usually played comedic parts, but Kings Row and Wilson were dramatic parts, showing his versatility.
Coburn has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his contributions to motion pictures at 6240 Hollywood Boulevard.
In the 1940s, Coburn served as vice-president of the Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals, a right-wing group opposed to Communists in Hollywood. His support for the Hollywood blacklist of anyone suspected of having any connection to Communism, supported by, among others, John Wayne, Hedda Hopper, Adolphe Menjou, Ward Bond, Robert Taylor, and Ginger Rogers led to many talented actors, writers and directors forced out of Hollywood and deprived of their livelihood.
He married two times. His first wife was Ivah Wills Coburn (c. 1882-1937), an American actress and theatrical producer. In 1959, Coburn married Winifred Natzka, who was forty-one years his junior and the widow of Oscar Natzka, a famed New Zealand operatic bass baritone.
He died from a heart attack on August 30, 1961 in New York, New York, aged 84.
