Wendell Corey

About Wendell Corey

Who is it?: Actor
Birth Day: March 20, 1914
Birth Place:  Dracut, Massachusetts, United States
Died On: November 8, 1968(1968-11-08) (aged 54)\nWoodland Hills, California, U.S.
Birth Sign: Aries
Cause of death: Cirrhosis
Spouse(s): Alice Wiley (1939-1968) (his death) 4 children- Jonathan, Jennifer, Bonnie Alice, Robin
Occupation: Actor/Politician

Wendell Corey Net Worth

Wendell Corey was born on March 20, 1914 in  Dracut, Massachusetts, United States, is Actor. Wendell Corey was a hard-working American character actor who appeared in numerous movies and television productions in the 1940s, '50s and '60s. Born on March 20, 1914 in Dracut, Massachusetts, in the northeastern part of the Commonwealth near the New Hampshire border, Corey was the son of a Congregationalist clergyman. After receiving his education, Corey began his acting career in summer stock. During the Depression he worked with the Federal Theater Project, part of the Works Progress Administration that had been created by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to put the unemployed to work. It was while working with the Federal Theater Project in the late 1930s that he met his wife, Alice Wiley.He made his Broadway debut in "Comes the Revelation" in 1942, a flop that lasted only two performances. His next play, "Strip for Action" (1942-43), was more successful, lasting 110 performances. He appeared in more plays in supporting roles from 1943-45, before making his reputation as the cynical newspaperman in Elmer Rice's hit comedy "Dream Girl," which ran for 341 performances in the 1945-46 season. He was discovered during the run of the play by producer Hal B. Wallis, the former head of production at Warner Bros. who was an independent producer affiliated with Paramount Pictures. Wallis, who discovered Burt Lancaster shortly after the war, signed Corey to a Paramount contract.It was at Paramount that he made his movie debut in Desert Fury (1947). He went on to a career as a supporting player in the '40s and '50s in A-level productions with top Hollywood stars. He also carved a niche for himself in television and in the late 1950s starred in the TV series Peck's Bad Girl (1959). In the 1960s he worked mostly in television.Like Ronald Reagan, who was then a Democrat, the Republican Corey was interested in politics. He was elected to membership on the board of directors of the Screen Actors Guild and served as president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences from 1961 to 1963. As a Republican, he was elected to the City Council in Santa Monica, California, in 1965. He made a bid for the Republican nomination to contest a seat in Congress in 1966, but was defeated in the primary.Corey was still serving on the Santa Monica City Council when he died on November 8, 1968 at the Motion Picture & Television Hospital in Woodland Hills, California. He was 54 years old.
Wendell Corey is a member of Actor

💰Wendell Corey Net worth: $17 Million

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Biography/Timeline

1879

Corey was born in Dracut, Massachusetts, the son of Milton Rothwell Corey (October 24, 1879 – October 23, 1951) and Julia Etta McKenney (April 11, 1882 – June 16, 1947). His father was a Congregationalist clergyman. Wendell was educated in Springfield. His ancestors included U.S. Presidents John Adams and John Quincy Adams.

1914

Wendell Reid Corey (March 20, 1914 – November 8, 1968) was an American actor and Politician.

1938

Corey "began acting in 1938 with the depression-spawned Federal Theatre Project".

1942

He followed it with the mildly popular Strip for Action (1942-43) by Lindsay and Crouse; The First Million (1943); Manhattan Nocturne (1943) directed by Stella Adler; Jackpot (1944); But Not Goodbye (1944) by George Seaton; and The Wind is Ninety with Kirk Douglas.

1945

Most of these had short runs. Corey had his first hit as a cynical newspaperman in Elmer Rice's comedy Dream Girl (1945).

1947

His movie debut came as a gangster in Wallis' Desert Fury (1947) starring Burt Lancaster, John Hodiak, Lizabeth Scott, and Mary Astor. In 1947 he appeared in The Voice of the Turtle on stage with Margaret Sullavan in England.

1948

For Wallis he supported Lancaster again in Sorry, Wrong Number (1948), playing a Doctor who treats Barbara Stanwyck. He was a cop in The Accused (1949) with Loretta Young and Robert Cummings.

1949

MGM borrowed Corey for a popular romantic comedy Any Number Can Play (1949), supporting Clark Gable and Alexis Smith. Less popular was Holiday Affair (1949) at RKO where Corey was billed after Robert Mitchum and Janet Leigh.

1950

Wallis promoted him to co-star status in The File on Thelma Jordon (1950) where he appeared opposite Barbara Stanwyck. Corey had a good part in Columbia's No Sad Songs for Me (1950) playing Margaret Sullavan's husband. Wallis re-teamed him with Stanwyck in a Western, The Furies (1950), best remembered as Walter Huston's final film. Corey appeared opposite another strong female star, Joan Crawford, in Harriet Craig (1950) at Columbia.

1951

At MGM Corey played Jane Powell's father in a musical Rich, Young and Pretty (1951). He went to Republic Pictures where he was top billed in a war film The Wild Blue Yonder (1951).

1952

Wallis sold Corey's contract to Paramount in 1952. Corey supported Ray Milland in Jamaica Run (1952) for Paramount. He went to England to appear in The Voice of the Turtle on stage. While there he appeared in Laughing Anne (1953) with Margaret Lockwood. Back in the US he was in Hell's Half Acre (1954) for Republic..

1954

Corey had one of his most memorable roles when he played Lt. Thomas Doyle in Hitchcock's Rear Window (1954) starring James Stewart and Grace Kelly. He toured the US on stage in The Caine Mutiny Court Martial in 1954.

1955

He appeared in The Big Knife (1955) starring Jack Palance, Ida Lupino, and Shelley Winters; The Killer Is Loose (1956), playing a Criminal after Joseph Cotten; The Bold and the Brave (1956) with Mickey Rooney at RKO; The Rack (1956), a Korean War drama at MGM, where Corey was billed after Paul Newman.

1956

He made two more films for Wallis: The Rainmaker (1956) starring Burt Lancaster and Katharine Hepburn, and Loving You (1957) with Elvis Presley, in his second starring role, and Lizabeth Scott.

1957

Corey starred with Casey Walters in the television series Harbor Command (1957–1958). For Disney he was in the film The Light in the Forest (1958). Then he played Jesse James in the Bob Hope comedy Alias Jesse James (1959) and had a short Broadway run in Jolly's Progress (1959) with Eartha Kitt.

1961

Corey served as President of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences from 1961 to 1963 and was a member of the board of Directors of the Screen Actors Guild. A Republican campaigner in national politics since 1956, Corey was elected to the Santa Monica City Council in April 1965. The conservative Politician ran for a California seat in the United States Congress in 1966, but lost the primary election. He was still a councilman at the time of his death.

1964

His final films included Blood on the Arrow (1964),a Western; Agent for H.A.R.M. (1966), a spy film; Women of the Prehistoric Planet (1966), a science fiction film in which Corey was top billed; Waco (1966) and Red Tomahawk (1966), two Westerns with Howard Keel; Cyborg 2087 (1966), more science fiction; Picture Mommy Dead (1966) a horror movie with Don Ameche; Buckskin (1968), a Western. His last film appearance was in Ted V. Mikels' The Astro-Zombies (1968).

1966

Corey made guest appearances on a number of programs, including Target: The Corruptors!, Channing, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The Untouchables, Burke's Law, The Road West, and The Wild Wild West. He made a guest appearance during the final season of Perry Mason in 1966 as murder victim Jerome Klee in "The Case of the Unwelcome Well."

1968

Corey died November 8, 1968, at age 54 at the Motion Picture & Television Hospital in Woodland Hills, California, of cirrhosis of the liver as a result of alcoholism. Funeral services were held at First Presbyterian Church in Santa Monica, California. He is interred in Washington Cemetery in Washington, Massachusetts.