Today is the birthday of one of the greatest character actors in American film, Thomas Mitchell — born in Elizabeth, N.J.. in 1892. Would love for you to name your favorite Thomas Mitchell performance — that's NOT Uncle Billy.
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Joseph Foster in 'Alias Nick Beal'. The film wouldn't work half as well if Mitchell didn't convince you that Foster's soul was worth saving.
jul 12, 2025, 3:39 am • 0 0 • view
Mayor Henderson in High Noon
jul 12, 2025, 11:49 pm • 0 0 • view
His death scene in Only Angels Have Wings is unforgettable.
jul 12, 2025, 2:01 am • 5 0 • view
Mitchell became a running theme during our 1939 season of Awesome Movie Year, when we talked about five of his movies. My favorite among those is 'Only Angels Have Wings.'
jul 12, 2025, 1:34 am • 5 1 • view
I’m hard pressed to find one I don’t love, but for today I’ll answer Mr Smith Goes to Washington
jul 12, 2025, 12:41 am • 2 0 • view
Doc Boone Stagecoach. Or Clopin in Hunchback of Notre Dame.
jul 12, 2025, 12:38 am • 9 0 • view
Make Way for Tomorrow, playing Beulah Bondi’s son rather than her brother-in-law
jul 12, 2025, 12:47 am • 9 0 • view
Only Angels Have Wings!
jul 12, 2025, 1:14 am • 1 0 • view
only angels have wings
jul 12, 2025, 12:35 am • 12 0 • view
Kid.... namesake for one of my past cats
jul 12, 2025, 1:05 am • 2 0 • view
Gorgeous!
jul 12, 2025, 1:53 am • 0 0 • view
He’s the true hero of STAGECOACH. Incredible character stepping up
jul 12, 2025, 1:54 am • 1 0 • view
Looks like no one has said Pocketful of Miracles, a pretty dull movie that roars to life every time he and Edward Everett Horton share the screen.
jul 12, 2025, 1:55 am • 6 0 • view
Truth, they're just about the only reasons to see it
jul 12, 2025, 1:59 am • 2 0 • view
jul 12, 2025, 2:33 am • 6 0 • view
Thomas Mitchell, Margaret O'Brien, Lionel Barrymore, and Lewis Stone all in the same film is...a lot. *squints* Those aren't children, are they.
jul 12, 2025, 2:37 am • 6 0 • view
(leave us not forget Edward Arnold)
jul 12, 2025, 2:45 am • 3 0 • view
The alcoholic doctor in Stagecoach. His scenes with Donald Meek are hilarious and his scenes with Claire Trevor are tender—range!
jul 12, 2025, 1:59 am • 4 0 • view
Didn’t know he was a Jersey boy! Love him as the the conflicted DA in Alias Nick Beal (1949).
jul 12, 2025, 1:43 am • 2 0 • view
And he absolutely breaks your heart in The Fighting Sullivans (1944).
jul 12, 2025, 2:01 am • 2 0 • view
Agreed. Tiny is such a wicked, memorable baddie
jul 12, 2025, 8:04 am • 2 0 • view
I know I’ve seen him in other stuff but the only role I can remember is playing Scarlet’s dad in Gone With the Wind.
jul 12, 2025, 12:56 am • 1 0 • view
He's only got two, maybe three real scenes in it, but you'll never forget them
jul 12, 2025, 12:57 am • 2 0 • view
Oh gosh, great shout. I need to see that again.
jul 12, 2025, 2:56 pm • 1 0 • view
ONLY ANGELS HAVE WINGS for me. His death scene breaks my heart every time.
jul 12, 2025, 3:12 pm • 1 0 • view
Diz from Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. "I gotta go out and drink this over!"
jul 12, 2025, 12:40 am • 12 0 • view
“Does the wind get tired out there?”
jul 12, 2025, 12:42 am • 3 0 • view
"Do we hafta?" 😂 Comedy gold.
jul 12, 2025, 12:45 am • 3 0 • view
And yet he’s so tender to Saunders and so supportive even knowing she’ll never love him
jul 12, 2025, 12:47 am • 6 0 • view
He rocks!
jul 12, 2025, 12:48 am • 2 0 • view
My favorite Mitchell fact - not performance - is that he played the Charles Winninger role of the quack dr. in the musical version of NOTHING SACRED, and won a Tony Award in 1953 for Best Actor in a Musical...and he had NO songs!
jul 12, 2025, 2:09 am • 6 0 • view
Wow!
jul 12, 2025, 2:36 am • 1 0 • view
Definitely Kid Dabb in Only Angels Have Wings. The scene where he and Cary Grant watch (and listen) helplessly to the plane crash is stunning.
jul 12, 2025, 1:00 am • 4 0 • view
Stagecoach!
jul 12, 2025, 12:34 am • 19 0 • view
(me too ♥️) (but there's a large number of other answers, lord knows)
jul 12, 2025, 12:35 am • 4 0 • view
Gone with the wind, is another of my favorites!
jul 12, 2025, 12:53 am • 2 0 • view
God knows it’s not Uncle Billy. I bet you can tell me what I’m going to name, just because I’m me being me.
jul 12, 2025, 1:12 am • 4 0 • view
Blind guess but ... Theodora Goes Wild?
jul 12, 2025, 1:55 am • 8 0 • view
ding ding ding ding ding ding ding
jul 12, 2025, 1:56 am • 5 0 • view
jul 12, 2025, 1:58 am • 5 0 • view
I was considering, for a second, going with Clopin in Hunchback, but the MVPs in that movie are surely, besides CL and MO'H, Cedric Hardwicke, Walter Hampden, and Harry Davenport. And maybe Fritz Leiber.
jul 12, 2025, 2:04 am • 2 0 • view
He's great in Hunchback but it's true, there's like seven other great performances ahead of him (mostly because the parts were more substantial, not because the actors were more talented)
jul 12, 2025, 2:05 am • 1 0 • view
*whispers* And Minna Gombell.
jul 12, 2025, 2:07 am • 1 0 • view
Can’t name one off the top of my head but I hold a firm belief—in spite of knowing that it’s not factually true—that Thomas Mitchell or Ward Bond were in every movie made between 1920-something and 1960.
jul 12, 2025, 12:53 am • 1 0 • view
Moontide
jul 12, 2025, 12:34 am • 7 0 • view
excellent movie, and his character is so dark and complex
jul 12, 2025, 12:36 am • 3 0 • view
What passes across his face when his guilt is revealed…just top class film acting
jul 12, 2025, 12:38 am • 3 0 • view
My favorites have all been mentioned, but he's great fun as Charlton Heston's amoral rival in SECRET OF THE INCAS
jul 12, 2025, 12:56 am • 6 0 • view
I haven't seen that one!
jul 12, 2025, 12:57 am • 1 0 • view
I so want to see this film because it was filmed partly in Peru and has legendary Peruvian singer Yma Súmac in the cast.
jul 14, 2025, 11:49 pm • 1 0 • view
When Kid gets grounded youtu.be/n9JhZECZ6tU?...
jul 12, 2025, 3:37 am • 12 3 • view
This is SUCH a good movie.
jul 12, 2025, 3:00 pm • 1 0 • view
Stagecoach, yeah; but as a die hard Lupino fan I’ll say he caught my eye in both Moontide and Out of the Fog.
jul 12, 2025, 1:12 am • 4 0 • view
He’s fantastic as a good man who is unable to resist being corrupted by a very devilish Ray Milland in Alias Nick Beal.
jul 12, 2025, 12:47 am • 1 0 • view
I love him in that movie, and I'm so glad Kino has put it out and made it easier to see.
jul 12, 2025, 12:50 am • 1 0 • view
Diz Moore in Mr Smith Goes to Washington
jul 12, 2025, 2:40 am • 0 0 • view
Only Angels!
jul 12, 2025, 1:14 am • 1 0 • view
jul 12, 2025, 10:58 am • 2 0 • view
same!
jul 12, 2025, 2:54 pm • 1 0 • view
Long Voyage Home for the accent
jul 12, 2025, 12:57 am • 1 0 • view
Ha! That movie is one I'd point to, if someone were asking me to argue "Why Faithful Accents Don't Matter"
jul 12, 2025, 12:59 am • 1 0 • view
Mitchell replaced Lee J. Cobb in Death of a Salesman on Broadway and then toured with it; by all accounts (including Arthur Miller), a great performance.
jul 12, 2025, 1:35 am • 4 0 • view
He had a juicy role in High Noon.
jul 12, 2025, 12:42 am • 4 0 • view
One of his shorter ones, but he could take five minutes or less and give you something to remember always.
jul 12, 2025, 12:44 am • 3 0 • view
I find his performance in The Long Voyage Home quite poignant. And I love his cynical newspaperman in While The City Sleeps.
jul 12, 2025, 1:00 am • 5 0 • view
Alias Nick Beal for me. But he was also the very first Columbo on stage!
jul 12, 2025, 12:55 am • 10 0 • view
That's right -- a fact I have a hard time keeping in my head.
jul 12, 2025, 12:56 am • 3 0 • view
Right? Apparently he didn’t even remember doing it according to the Columbophile book lol
jul 12, 2025, 12:56 am • 1 0 • view
He is so, so good in Alias Nick Beal
jul 12, 2025, 12:36 am • 5 0 • view
Isn't he though???
jul 12, 2025, 12:37 am • 4 0 • view
I have a real soft spot for him and John Qualen vs. John Garfield in “Out of the Fog”.
jul 12, 2025, 12:39 am • 11 1 • view
Oof, they really made supporting actors in those days, didn't they?
jul 12, 2025, 12:44 am • 2 0 • view
Tiny role and a just demented ending but I’m gonna throw caution to the wind and say The Black Swan
jul 12, 2025, 1:00 am • 9 1 • view
He’s great as the doctor with a drink problem in Stagecoach
jul 12, 2025, 8:03 am • 1 0 • view
Toss up between Thomas Sullivan and Gene Gibbons, but honestly there’s basically no bad choices here
jul 12, 2025, 2:01 am • 2 1 • view
Probably Stagecoach but he was pretty much the ideal Doc Gibbs in the flawed Our Town.
jul 12, 2025, 1:39 am • 4 0 • view