Monroe Owsley

Largely forgotten today, actor Monroe Owsley was born in Atlanta around the turn of the century and raised by his mother, stage actress Gertrude Owsley. His own theater career started up as a teen and he eventually hit Broadway in the mid 1920s, migrating to films around the advent of sound. His first movie role was as a young suitor in The First Kiss (1928) starring Fay Wray, but he made the most impact playing the role of Ned, the tipsy younger brother of the socialite heroine, in the first filming of Philip Barry's classic play Holiday (1930), which starred Ann Harding. Katharine Hepburn's version came out eight years later with Lew Ayres playing Monroe's role. Monroe had already performed this standout role on Broadway two years earlier. From there he was cast opposite such great female stars as Clara Bow, Barbara Stanwyck, Helen Twelvetrees, and Kay Francis in their melodramatic vehicles. Unfortunately, the role of the inebriated Ned severely typecast him in an unappealing vein as the weakling son, charming cad, jellyfish husband, or debauched "Richie Rich" type, and his career took a downslide. In 1937, Monroe died from cardiac arrest triggered by a car accident. He was only 36.