Leon Ames was born Harry Wycoff in Portland, Indiana, to Cora Alice
(DeMoss) and Charles Elmer Wycoff. He had always wanted to be an actor
and he did it the hard way, serving a long apprenticeship in touring
amateur theatre companies -- even selling shoes for a while on 42nd
Street in the 1920s. It took him until 1933 to make his debut on
Broadway. His play at the Morosco Theatre, "It Pays to Sin," lasted for
only three performances after receiving disastrous critical reviews. By
then he had already appeared in his first movie, the sombre,
expressionistic
Das Geheimnis des Dr. Mirakel (1932),
an Edgar Allan Poe adaptation, in which
Leon played the dependable love interest of heroine
Sidney Fox.
For the next three year, he appeared under his birth name (Leon
Waycoff) in a variety of B-movies for "Poverty Row" studios like
Mayfair, Showmen's Pictures, World-Wide, Empire and Majestic.
His first film as 'Leon Ames' was the
Shirley Temple vehicle,
Stowaway (1932). For the next few years
he served yet another apprenticeship, playing a variety of stalwart
characters and the occasional bad guy in such cheerful potboilers as
the anemic
Murder in Greenwich Village (1937),
the amusing
Mr. Moto und der Kronleuchter (1938)
and the eminently forgettable
Secrets of a Nurse (1938).
There were also occasional highlights: he popped up in
Ernst Lubitsch's last film at Paramount,
Blaubarts achte Frau (1938),
with Gary Cooper and
Myrna Loy, and even starred as the leading man
of Cipher Bureau (1938) and
Panama Patrol (1939), albeit at
Grand National.
Leon's career improved dramatically after playing
Judy Garland's father Alonzo (along with
Mary Astor as the matriarch of the family) in
MGM's classic,
Heimweh nach St. Louis (1944),
directed by Vincente Minnelli. For the
first time, Leon's acting abilities were well employed,
especially his ability to deliver dryly humorous one-liners. Signed
to a contract at MGM, Leon was now cast in pivotal character roles in
more important A-grade output, usually as put-upon, loving fathers:
Wirbel um Judy (1948),
Kleine tapfere Jo (1949), (where he again
teamed up with Mary Astor),
Heiratet Marjorie? (1953),
to name but a few. For something completely different, he also played
district attorney Kyle Sackett in the film noir,
Im Netz der Leidenschaften (1946)
and, against type, portrayed
Paul Newman's thoroughly unpleasant
father in
Von der Terrasse (1960).
Leon continued in films well until his twilight years and was last seen as
Kathleen Turner's grandfather in
Peggy Sue hat geheiratet (1986).
On television, he had a popular run starring in
Wenn Vater nicht wär... (1953) and
Father of the Bride (1961)
(played by Spencer Tracy on the
big screen) as well as playing Wilbur Post's neighbor Gordon Kirkwood in
Mister Ed (1961).
Leon had another
claim to fame in being one of 19 actors, who -- after a clandestine
meeting in June 1933 -- established the Screen Actor's Guild. For thirty
years (commencing in 1945) he held a senior executive position as recording
secretary and served as national president of the organization between
1957 and 1979. He also served on the board of governors of
the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The dapper actor and
avid unionist died at a Laguna Beach nursing home at the
ripe old age of 91 on October 12, 1993.
