Even his more courteous, somewhat friendlier types gave one pause for
concern. The tall, beefy, balding, icy-eyed character actor Moroni
Olsen was one of Hollywood's more popular and imposing performers of
film during the late 1930s, 1940s and early 1950s.
The versatile player was born Moroni Olsen and raised
in Utah to Mormon parents (Edward Arenholt Olsen and Marsha
Holverholst). Acting in church theatricals, Olsen attended and
graduated from Weber State Academy before studying drama and elocution
at the University of Utah. The voice training he received there served
him quite well in the years to come, both on the Broadway stage and in
Hollywood. After scattered performances in stage and tent shows in the
East, he spent some time selling war bonds during World War I, then
organized The Moroni Olsen Players in his native Ogden. The Utah-formed
touring company eventually became one of the better known repertory
companies around the county.
Olsen made his Broadway debut portraying Jason in "Medea" in 1920, and
continued in NY for the next couple of years with a series of classical
plays that included "The Trial of Joan of Arc," "Iphegenia in Aulis,"
"Mr. Faust" and "Candida". For the next eight seasons he continued to
direct and coach his repertory Players, while also handling scenery,
staging and choreographing duties. The actor returned to Broadway
(after a decade's absence) in 1933 with "Her Man of Wax," which was
followed by appearances in "Mary of Scotland" (as John Knox),
Katharine Cornell's production of
"Romeo and Juliet" (as Lord Capulet) and in 1935's "The Barretts of
Wimpole Street" (as Doctor Chambers).
Olsen made a tepid film debut as Porthos in
The Three Musketeers (1935),
a rather dull version of the classic Dumas story that starred an
uninspired Walter Abel as D'Artagnan. His
strong, regal bearing and classically trained voice, however, was not
to be denied and he proved quite suitable for movies in the ongoing
years. Staying in Hollywood, he played a formidable Buffalo Bill
opposite Barbara Stanwyck's
Annie Oakley (1935) and, in other
key historical supports, was quite good in the
Katharine Hepburn vehicle
Maria von Schottland (1936) (again
as John Knox, the role he played on Broadway),
Der Pflug und die Sterne (1936)
(as Gen. Connolly),
Land der Gottlosen (1940) (as Robert
E. Lee) and Mann gegen Mann (1952) as Sam
Houston. He played a much older Porthos (at age 63) in
Die Söhne der drei Musketiere (1952) opposite
Cornel Wilde's D'Artagnan and
Alan Hale Jr. as the younger, more
limber Athos. Olsen's voice will be forever recognized from the Disney
animated movie classic
Schneewittchen und die sieben Zwerge (1937)
as the prophetic baritone voice of the Magic Mirror ("Mirror, mirror,
on the wall...). The actor's intimidating, unsympathetic features were
very much in demand during the 40s and 50s and he proved quite at home
portraying corrupt villains, dogged inspectors, no-nonsense doctors,
barnstorming preachers, powerful attorneys and other men of
distinction.
In between film assignments Olsen was active with the Pasadena
Playhouse as both director and performer. For several years, the
character actor and devout Mormon also directed the Pilgrimage Play,
Hollywood's great passion play that predated the arrival of motion
pictures. One of his last film assignments was as Pope Leo I in
Attila, der Hunnenkönig (1954). The
never-married actor died of a heart attack in Los Angeles on November
22, 1954, and was survived by a nephew, Edward Olsen (of Los Angeles).
Funeral services were held back in his native Ogden, Utah, and was
buried there at the Ogden City Cemetery.
