Wedgwood Nowell
actor, composer, writer
- Birth name:
- Harry Hawkins Nowell
- Born:
- 1878-01-24, Portsmouth, New Hampshire, USA
- Died:
- 1957-06-17, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
- Professions:
- actor, composer, writer
Biography
A sharp-jawed New Englander with a gift for melody, Wedgwood Nowell first drew breath on 24 January 1878 amid the salt-stung wharves of Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Between footlights and film reels he built a double career: composing scores that hummed beneath silent scenes and slipping into characters that leapt from the pages of 813 (1920), The Eternal Flame (1922), and, nearly two decades later, Calling Philo Vance (1939). Offstage he shared his life with two leading ladies—actress Edna Claire Colwell and, later, Irma Stowe. His final curtain fell on 17 June 1957 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, closing a life lived in spotlight and score.
