Grant Mitchell’s Family: a Quick American History Lesson
Veteran Character Actor Grant Mitchell appeared in over 120 films throughout the 1930s and 1940s playing his share of husbands, dads, businessmen, bank clerks and school principals. Some of his most memorable ‘A-film’ roles include Senator MacPherson in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Mr. Stanley in The Man Who Came to Dinner, and Reverend Harper in Arsenic and Old Lace.
Union Army General John G. Mitchell and his son Character Actor Grant Mitchell
Grant Mitchell (born John Grant Mitchell, Jr.) was the only son of American Civil War Union Army General John Grant Mitchell. General Mitchell participated in several important Civil War campaigns including the Battle of Chickamauga, the Battle of Nashville and The Carolinas Campaign (the final campaign in the Western Theater).
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President Rutherford B. Hayes, Grant Mitchell’s Great Uncle
And if that’s not enough of an American History connection, Grant Mitchell’s Great Uncle was President Rutherford B. Hayes (Mitchell’s paternal grandmother Fanny Arabella Hayes was President Hayes’ sister). And Grant Mitchell’s Great Great Great Grandfather was Ezekiel Hayes, a Connecticut militia captain during the American Revolutionary War (Ezekiel Hayes was President Rutherford B. Hayes and Arabella Hayes’ Great Grandfather).
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–Annmarie Gatti for Classic Movie Hub
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Fascinating background.
Of the actors who got their stage start with legendary George M. Cohan, he claimed his favourites were Spencer Tracy and Grant Mitchell. One of my favourites of Mitchell’s film roles is as the administrator of the “good” camp in “The Grapes of Wrath”. The scene where he greets Ma Joad with the deference and common courtesy she is truly owed fills my heart.