Thomas Mitchell was one of the great American character actors, whose credits read like a list of the greatest films of the 20th century: Lost Horizon, Stagecoach, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Gone with the Wind, It's a Wonderful Life, and High Noon. His portrayals are so diverse and convincing that most people don't even realize that one actor could have played them all. He won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar in 1940 for his role as the drunken Doc Boone in John Ford's "Stagecoach."


Stagecoach (1939): $12,000

1953: When he claimed the Tony Award as Best Actor in a Musical for "Hazel Flagg", a musical version of the film Nothing Sacred (1937), he became the first performer to claim the Triple Crown of acting awards: Tony, Emmy (as TV's Best Actor of 1953) and Oscar (for Stagecoach (1939)). Brother of James P. Mitchell, President Dwight D. Eisenhower's Secretary of Labor 1953-1961. Was a close friend to John Barrymore and became part of his Hollywood entourage of drinkers and raconteurs, which also included Charles MacArthur, W.C. Fields, Errol Flynn, Roland Young and Anthony Quinn. Was an avid collector of fine art, which included a Rembrandt panel acquired in 1940 from a Polish prince. Daughter Anne, born of his first marriage, was his only child. The youngest of seven children born to Irish immigrants who settled in New Jersey, his father James Mitchell, worked in the newspaper industry and died when Thomas was a young boy; his mother's name was Mary.