Portrait Photos of Melvyn Douglas in the 1930s and ’40s

Born 1901 in Macon, Georgia, American actor Melvyn Douglas came to prominence in the 1930s as a suave leading man, perhaps best typified by his performance in the romantic comedy Ninotchka (1939) with Greta Garbo.

Douglas later played mature and fatherly characters, as in his Academy Award-winning performances in Hud (1963) and Being There (1979) and his Academy Award–nominated performance in I Never Sang for My Father (1970).

Douglas was one of 24 performers to win the Triple Crown of Acting. In the last few years of his life, he appeared in films with supernatural stories involving ghosts. He appeared as “Senator Joseph Carmichael” in The Changeling in 1980 and Ghost Story in 1981 in his final completed film role.

Douglas died in 1981, aged 80, from pneumonia and cardiac complications in New York City. He has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, one for movies at 6423 Hollywood Blvd. and one for television at 6601 Hollywood Blvd. Take a look at these vintage photos to see portraits of young Melvyn Douglas in the 1930s and 1940s.