🎬 Movies Mates PEOPLE
David Wayne
Acting
Biography
David Wayne (January 30, 1914 – February 9, 1995) was an American actor with a career spanning nearly 50 years.
Wayne was born Wayne James McMeekan in Traverse City, Michigan, the son of Helen Matilda (née Mason) and John David McMeekan. He grew up in Bloomingdale, Michigan. Wayne's first major Broadway role was Og the leprechaun in Finian's Rainbow, for which he won the Theatre World Award and the first ever Tony for Best Featured Actor in a Musical. While appearing in the play, he and co-star Albert Sharpe were recruited by producer David O. Selznick to play Irish characters in the film Portrait of Jennie (1948).
It was in 1948 as well that Wayne became one of those fortunate 50 applican…
Read full biography
David Wayne (January 30, 1914 – February 9, 1995) was an American actor with a career spanning nearly 50 years. Wayne was born Wayne James McMeekan in Traverse City, Michigan, the son of Helen Matilda (née Mason) and John David McMeekan. He grew up in Bloomingdale, Michigan. Wayne's first major Broadway role was Og the leprechaun in Finian's Rainbow, for which he won the Theatre World Award and the first ever Tony for Best Featured Actor in a Musical. While appearing in the play, he and co-star Albert Sharpe were recruited by producer David O. Selznick to play Irish characters in the film Portrait of Jennie (1948). It was in 1948 as well that Wayne became one of those fortunate 50 applicants (out of approximately 700) granted membership in New York's newly formed Actors Studio. He was awarded a second Tony for Best Actor in a Play for The Teahouse of the August Moon and was nominated as Best Actor in a Musical for The Happy Time. He originated the role of Ensign Pulver in the classic stage comedy Mister Roberts and also appeared in Say, Darling, After the Fall, and Incident at Vichy.
Biography expanded
BODY OF WORK
David Wayne's Filmography
Select any movie to open its full Movies Mates details page.
Broadway's Lost Treasures III: The Best of The Tony Awards
as Grandpère Bonnard (segment "The Happy Time") (archive footage)
Poker Alice
as Amos
The Survivalist
as Dub Daniels
No Poster
Masters of Photography - Edward Steichen
as Narrator (voice)
Finders Keepers
as Stapleton
An American Christmas Carol
as Merrivale
The Prize Fighter
as Pop Morgan
The Girls in the Office
as Ben Nayfack
The Gift of Love
as O'Henry and Narrator
Lassie: The New Beginning
as Amos
Murder at the Mardi Gras
as Mickey Mills
In the Glitter Palace
as Nate Redstone
That's Entertainment, Part II
as (archive footage)
The Apple Dumpling Gang
as T.R. Clydesdale
Tubby the Tuba
as Pee-Wee the Piccolo (voice)
Ellery Queen: Too Many Suspects
as Insp. Richard Queen
It's a Bird, It's a Plane, It's Superman!
as Dr. Abner Sedgwick
The F.B.I. Story: The FBI Versus Alvin Karpis, Public Enemy Number One
as Maynard Richards
The Front Page
as Roy Bensinger
Return of the Big Cat
as Grandpa Jubal
Huckleberry Finn
as The Duke
The Catcher
as Armand Faber
Mooch Goes to Hollywood
as David Wayne (uncredited)
The African Elephant
as Narrator
The Andromeda Strain
as Dr. Charles Dutton
The Boy Who Stole the Elephant
as Colonel Rufus Ryder
No Poster
With These Hands
as Narrator
Arsenic and Old Lace
as Teddy Brewster
Marilyn
as archive footage
The Big Gamble
as Samuel Brennan
Anatomy of an Accident
as John Avery
The Last Angry Man
as Woodrow Thrasher
No Poster
Sunday Showcase
The Three Faces of Eve
as Ralph White
The Sad Sack
as Corporal Larry Dolan
No Poster
The Jet-Propelled Couch
as Dr. Kirk Allen
The Naked Hills
as Tracy Powell
The Tender Trap
as Joe McCall
Hell and High Water
as Tugboat Walker
How to Marry a Millionaire
as Freddie Denmark
Down Among the Sheltering Palms
as Lt. Carl G. Schmidt
Tonight We Sing
as Sol Hurok
The I Don't Care Girl
as Ed McCoy
O. Henry's Full House
as Horace (segment "The Cop and the Anthem")
We're Not Married!
as Jeff Norris
Wait Till the Sun Shines, Nellie
as Ben Halper
With a Song in My Heart
as Don Ross
As Young as You Feel
as Joe Elliott
Up Front
as Joe
M
as Martin W. Harrow
My Blue Heaven
as Walter Pringle
Stella
as Carl Granger
The Reformer and the Redhead
as Arthur Maxwell
Adam's Rib
as Kip Lurie
Portrait of Jennie
as Gus O'Toole
No Poster
Ditch and Live
as Pilot of Ditching B-17
Stranger on the Third Floor
as Cab Driver (uncredited)