Henry Kolker Biography

Heavy-set, heavy-eyebrowed, heavily-mustached and icily forbidding, actor Henry Kolker was a reliable screen menace for over 30 years. After nearly a quarter century on stage, Kolker made his first film, The Bigger Man, in 1915. He harrumphed and glowered his way through dozens of talkies, most often as unpleasant corporate types; sometimes, as in his portrayal of Friar Laurence in MGM's Romeo and Juliet, he could rechannel his negative authoritativeness into a more positive vein. One of Henry Kolker's largest and most representative roles was Edward Seton, the "old money" father of Katharine Hepburn, in Holiday (1938). ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi