Paul Douglas

Born: April 11 1907
Where: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
Died: September 11 1959

The former professional football player and radio sports commentat did not enter films until he was 41 ...and his career only lasted eleven years.

He was an unlikely, down-to-earth lead in both comedies and even romantic dramas throughout the 1950s.

Highlights included the Oscar-winning film noir Panic in the Streets opposite Richard Widmark and the comedy fantasy Angels in the Outfield.

He made his Broadway stage debut in 1935 but only won notice when he electrified Broadway with his comic portrayal of tycoon Harry Brock in the 1946 comedy hit Born Yesterday.

Turning down the plum role in the 1950 film version (which proved film heavy Broderick Crawford to be an equally deft comic performer), Douglas nonetheless signed with 20th Century-Fox.

He made an impressive film debut in Joseph Mankiewicz's A Letter to Three Wives, once again playing a big, blustering, slightly doltish tycoon.

Frequently typecast as slightly dim-witted authority figures or gruff gorillas, Douglas often revealed an appealing vulnerability under the rough exterior.

He gave a sensitive performance as the naive fisherman husband of Barbara Stanwyck in Clash by Nigh and parried enjoyably with Ginger Rogers in Forever Female.

Douglas reteamed with Born Yesterday co-star Judy Holliday as another deflated, cantankerous businessman in the comedy vehicle The Solid Gold Cadillac.

He died aged 52 of a heart attack.