Edward Arnold

Edward Arnold

Interment LocationVisited 
Mission Hills, CAMarch 30, 2023 

Photographed March 30, 2023.

If I were the casting director for a Batman film or serial in the 1940s, my choice for the Caped Crusader’s foe the Penguin would have been seasoned actor Edward Arnold. Equipped with a stout figure, receding hairline, and aquiline nose, Arnold was a prolific character actor, primarily with MGM Studios. After a five-decade career that spanned radio, stage, and screen — big and small — Arnold died at his home in Encino, California, at age 66. He was laid to rest in Section D of San Fernando Mission Cemetery. His marker, which bears a cross, remembers him as a husband and father who is “not dead. He is just away.” Arnold was joined at the cemetery less than two years later by his widow, Cleo, despite her remarriage to pharmacist Max Marks. Both Cleo and Edward died of cerebral hemorrhages.

Arnold’s film credits include the 1938 Frank Capra-directed Christmas tale, You Can’t Take It with You, which won Best Picture at the Academy Awards. The movie starred Jimmy Stewart and Jean Arthur, a frequent co-star of Arnold’s. Arnold reunited with Arthur and Stewart for Capra’s next production, the classic Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, from 1939. Also in his filmography are 3 on a Match from 1932 and 1941’s Johnny Eager, both directed by Mervyn LeRoy. Another of his films released in 1941 was All That Money Can Buy (originally titled The Devil and Daniel Webster), where he played the famous lawyer and U.S. senator opposite Walter Huston’s Mr. Scratch. This was not the first time Arnold portrayed a historical figure on screen — he initially gained acclaim as wealthy businessman Diamond Jim Brady in a 1935 biographical feature from Universal Pictures. He reprised the role in Lillian Russell, released in 1940.

Photographed March 30, 2023.
Photographed March 30, 2023.

One of Arnold’s most popular works later in his career was the “family favorite” radio drama, Mr. President. The program highlighted “little known facts in the lives of American presidents.” The featured chief executive rotated each week, but Arnold always played the lead. Whom he was portraying was not revealed until the end of the episode, which prompted listeners to guess that week’s president along the way. The syndicated program aired on the ABC Network from June 1947 to September 1953. Mr. President received international recognition and was used to educate schoolchildren. So influential was the show that, in its final season, television host Helen Parrish informed Arnold that her friend was a second grade teacher, and that two of her students answered that Arnold was the actual commander-in-chief. Harry S. Truman, described in newsprint as an “intimate friend” of the actor, usually addressed his letters to Arnold by calling him “Mr. President.” Truman’s successor, Dwight D. Eisenhower, likewise greeted Arnold as “Mr. President” when they saw each other at Ike’s inauguration in January 1953.


Fast Facts

Born: February 18, 1890 in Manhattan, New York, New York

Spouses: Harriet E. Marshall (m. 1917-1927); Olive Emerson (m. 1929-1949); Cleo Patricia McClain (m. 1951-1956)

Died: April 26, 1956 in Encino, California

Cause of Death: Cerebral Hemorrhage

Age: 66

Interment: San Fernando Mission Cemetery, Mission Hills, Los Angeles, California

"After 46 years in this business and doing 102 pictures in the last 21 years, I feel that I've done everything."
- Edward Arnold
1953 as a guest on the television show It's a Good Idea, hosted by Helen Parrish and broadcast locally in Los Angeles, California, on KNBH
Photographed March 30, 2023.

On January 6, 1942, Edward Arnold added his shoeprints and handprints to the forecourt of Sid Grauman’s Chinese Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard. Arnold also inscribed a thank you message to the movie palace proprietor and proclaimed, “Thumbs-up.”

Sources Consulted and Further Reading

Denton [Texas] Record-Chronicle. “Edward Arnold Is Often Called ‘Mr. President’ In Real Life.” February 3, 1952. Page 14. https://www.newspapers.com/article/denton-record-chronicle/3043765/.

graumanschinese.org. “Edward Arnold.” Accessed August 29, 2023. http://www.graumanschinese.org/forecourt/arnold-edward.html.

IMDb. “Edward Arnold (1890-1956).” Accessed May 12, 2024. https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0036427/.

jeffsabu. “It’s a Good Idea with guests Edward Arnold and his wife Cleo McLain.” YouTube video, 14:24. March 10, 2021. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3sj_VMtX3k8.

Join a community of water activists
Join a community of water activists