Walter Andrew Brennan was an American actor, whose Disney credits included supporting roles as Alf Simes in Those Calloways (1965), a dual role as D.J. Mulrooney and Knobby in The Gnome-Mobile (1967) and Renssaeler Bower in The One and Only, Genuine, Original Family Band (1968). He was also spoofed by Genie in Aladdin.
Brennan was born in Lynn, Massachusetts, less than two miles from his family's home in Swampscott, Massachusetts. He studied engineering at Rindge Technical High School and became interested in acting. After World War I, he worked as financial reporter and made a fortune in real estate but lost it in the end. Penniless, Brennan took up bit parts in silent films and early talkies.
He is known for his performances in The Prescott Kid, Three Godfathers, Sergeant York, To Have and Have Not, The Texans, The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle, My Darling Clementine, The Pride of the Yankees, Red River, Tammy and the Bachelor, Rio Bravo, How the West Was Won, The Oscar, Support Your Local Sheriff!, and Smoke in the Wind. He won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performances in Come and Get It (1936), Kentucky (1938), and The Westerner (1940), making him one of only three male actors to win three Academy Awards.
Brennan also had memorable television appearances as Grandpa Amos McCoy in The Real McCoys, Watler Andrews in The Tycoon, Will Sonnett in The Guns of Will Sonnett, Andy Pruitt in To Rome with Love, and as Nash Crawford in the The Over-the-Hill Gang TV movies.
Brennan spent his last years mostly in retirement at his ranch in Moorpark in Ventura. He died of emphysema at the age of 80 in Oxnard, California. His remains were interred at San Fernando Mission Cemetery in Los Angeles.
Disney Roles[]
(Those Calloways)
(The Gnome-Mobile)
(The Gnome-Mobile)
(The One and Only, Genuine, Original Family Band)
