ACTOR
Walter Brennan
40 archived facts 4 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
All facts (40)
- #001
Walter Brennan holds the record for winning the most acting Oscars in the shortest time: three in five years.
- #002
He and Katharine Hepburn are the only actors to win three Oscars for three consecutive nominations.
- #003
When he enlisted for World War I at 22, Brennan had already worked in vaudeville. He served in an artillery unit, and although he came through the war unwounded, exposure to poison gas ruined his vocal cords, leaving him with the high-pitched raspy voice that made him a natural for old-man roles while he was still in his thirties.
- #004
Although he was known for playing "old-coot" Southerners, complete with a cackling laugh and a thick Southern accent, Brennan was actually born and raised in Massachusetts and had a slight New England accent.
- #005
He was the first actor to win three Oscars and, as of 2023, remains the only actor to win three Academy Awards for Best Supporting Actor.
- #006
His third Oscar win led to extras being stripped of the right to vote.
- #007
He had four singles in the top 100, including his first five hits, among them "Old Rivers" (Liberty Records), which first entered the charts on 4/7/62. The single spent 11 weeks on the Billboard charts and rose as high as No. 5.
- #008
He almost never played the villain, usually appearing as the hero's slightly eccentric sidekick. The heartless Old Man Clanton in John Ford's My Darling Clementine (1946) was an exception for him. Ford and Brennan did not get along, and Ford was one of the few directors Brennan never collaborated with more than once over the course of his career.
- #009
There was some controversy over the Academy Awards Brennan won, because Academy rules at the time allowed extras to vote for nominees, and Brennan, who had worked as an extra for a time before more substantial roles came along, was popular among his fellow extras, who believed they were voting for one of their own.
- #010
His relatives still live in and around Joseph, OR, where they maintain a working farm and the Indian Lodge Motel, in whose office several portraits of him are displayed.
- #011
After his military service during World War I, he moved to Los Angeles, where he entered the real estate market and made a fortune. Unfortunately the market took a sudden downturn and he lost nearly all of his money. Penniless, he began taking small roles in films to earn money, and his career took off from there.
- #012
His mansion in Los Angeles had a shelter fully stocked with firearms and survival supplies in case of a Soviet invasion.
- #013
In 1925 Gary Cooper befriended another young, struggling, would-be actor named Walter Brennan. At one point they were even on the casting office team together, and although Cooper broke through to big and leading roles first, they would work together in the good years as well. Among their most memorable pairings was The Westerner (1940), where the general critical consensus was that Brennan's under-shown performance was overshadowed because Judge Roy Bean stole the film from Cooper.
- #014
He won his first Best Supporting Actor Oscar for Come and Get It (1936).
- #015
Always financially and ideologically conservative, Brennan became politically active later in life when he believed many of the things he valued were being eroded by the counterculture movement. In 1968 he supported George Wallace's presidential campaign, and in 1972 he backed far-right Republican Representative John Schmitz (Mary Kay Letourneau's father) because incumbent President Richard Nixon was seen by many Republicans as too progressive.
- #016
In June 1928, while shooting a scene in San Diego, CA, he accidentally drove a car into the harbor.
- #017
He actively supported Ronald Reagan's 1966 campaign for Governor of California.
- #018
The Real McCoys (1957) was such a hit that John Wayne's production company, Batjac, was persuaded to release William A. Wellman's previously shelved film Good-bye, My Lady (1956), about a boy, an old man and a dog, during the series' run.
- #019
In 1970, Walter Brennan was inducted into the Hall of Great Westerners at the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum.
- #020
He begged his daughter not to give his grandchildren The Beatles' records so they would not be influenced by corrupt modernity.
- #021
Walter Brennan was buried in San Fernando Mission Cemetery in San Fernando, Los Angeles County, CA.
- #022
In the 1960s he believed that the anti-Vietnam War and civil rights movements were run by overseas communists, and he said so in interviews. He told journalists he believed that the civil rights movement in particular, and the riots in places such as Watts (CA) and Newark (NJ) and the demonstrations in Birmingham (AL), were the result of "negroes" being stirred up by a handful of troublemakers and Communist agitators with an anti-American agenda.
- #023
While "Red River" was being made, director Howard Hawks asked John Wayne to study Walter Brennan and copy the old man's walk and gait. Wayne refused and deliberately walked differently in the film. On "Rio Bravo" Hawks wanted Brennan to limp; Brennan obeyed, but since he did not naturally limp he had to be reminded which leg was supposed to limp. He continued to use the limp on "The Real McCoys."
- #024
In the 1964 presidential election he campaigned for Barry Goldwater after the senator voted against the Civil Rights Act.
- #025
Among all actors who have won at least three acting Oscars, he was the only one who went thirty years without winning an award. He won the Best Supporting Actor award in 1936, 1938 and 1940.
- #026
Among all actors who have won at least three acting Oscars, he was the only one never to appear in a Best Picture nominee, because Come and Get It (1936), Kentucky (1938) and The Westerner (1940) were not nominated for Best Picture.
- #027
Two of his three Oscar-winning performances were directed by William Wyler. This makes him one of four actors to win two Oscars under the same director. The other three are: Jack Nicholson (Terms of Endearment (1983) and As Good as It Gets (1997), both directed by James L. Brooks), Dianne Wiest for Hannah and Her Sisters (1986) and Bullets Over Broadway (1994) (both directed by Woody Allen), and Christoph Waltz for Inglourious Basterds (2009) and Django Unchained (2012) (both directed by Quentin Tarantino).
- #028
In his later years he was known to ask his co-workers questions about their voting habits.
- #029
He largely copied his on-screen persona from George "Gabby" Hayes.
- #030
He appeared in six films directed by Howard Hawks: Barbary Coast (1935), Come and Get It (1936), Sergeant York (1941), To Have and Have Not (1944), Red River (1948) and Rio Bravo (1959).
- #031
On 27 August 2019 he was honored with a day of film programming during Turner Classic Movies' Summer Under the Stars.
- #032
He was the son of William (9/2/1868-8/17/1936) and Margaret (née Flanagan) Brennan ((6/4/1869-2/1/1955). Both parents were born in Massachusetts and died in California.
- #033
On 8 February 1960 he was awarded a star on the Walk of Fame at 6501 Hollywood Blvd.
- #034
Actor Basil Rathbone, who was twice nominated for the Best Supporting Actor Oscar, was beaten both times by Walter Brennan, in 1937 and 1939.
- #035
He was the maternal great-grandson of John (1807-1882) and Bridget (née Neagle) Hewett (1817-1858). Both were born in Ireland and died in Massachusetts.
- #036
On the set of his last series, The Guns of Will Sonnett (1967), in which he played the surprisingly complex role of a former army scout trying to make up for the damage caused by his largely absent father, cast and crew said he chuckled with delight and danced a little when they learned of Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination.
- #037
Film editor Stanley Frazen, who was on the set of Walter Brennan's television series The Guns of Will Sonnett (1967) when Brennan celebrated the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., said Brennan had another joyful moment later when Robert F. Kennedy was killed in June 1968. Frazen recalled that when he was told, the cast and crew were "incredulous" at the jig the elderly Brennan danced.
- #038
Walter Brennan had a record of four hits: Dutchman's Gold, which stayed on the charts for 12 weeks; Old Rivers, which rose to No. 5 in 1962 and spent 11 weeks on the charts; Houdini, which charted for one week; and Mama Sang a Song, which rose to No. 8 and spent 38 weeks on the charts.
- #039
Walter Brennan was the maternal grandson of Michael (1846-1903) and Margaret (née Hewett) Flanagan (1849-1904). Both were born in Ireland and died in Massachusetts.
- #040
Walter Brennan was the paternal grandson of William (1844-1925), who was born in Scotland, and Helen (née Griffith) Brennan (1848-1903), who was born in England. Both died in Massachusetts.
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