Edmund Breese
actor, director, writer
- Born:
- 1871-06-18, Brooklyn, New York, USA
- Died:
- 1936-04-06, New York City, New York, USA
- Professions:
- actor, director, writer
Biography
Brooklyn, 18 June 1871: Edmund Breese enters the world, and by the time the curtains rise on the 20th century he has already turned playwriting and performing into a single, restless vocation. Audiences first applauded his pen, then his voice, then the sly glint in his eye that could sell a line or a lie with equal ease. Hollywood eventually beckoned: in Platinum Blonde (1931) he traded barbed quips with Jean Harlow; in The Hurricane Express (1932) he shared track-side intrigue with John Wayne; and in Duck Soup (1933) he stalked through the Marx Brothers’ anarchy as the exasperated Zander, sealing his place in comedy folklore. Off-screen, two marriages—first to Genevieve Landry, later to Harriet A. Beach—mapped a personal life kept mostly from the klieg lights. The final curtain fell on 6 April 1936 in New York City, the same metropolis that had watched him begin his climb from Brooklyn boy to stage-seasoned, screen-savvy showman.
