Nat Pendleton

Nathaniel Greene "Nat" Pendleton (August 9, 1895 – October 12, 1967) was an American Olympic wrestler and film actor.

Biography

Early life

Pendleton was born August 8, 1895, in Davenport, Iowa to Adelaide E. and Nathaniel G. Pendleton. He studied at Columbia University where he began his wrestling career. He was twice Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association (EIWA) champion in 1914 and 1915. Chosen to compete in the US wrestling team at the 1920 Summer Olympics in Antwerp, Belgium, Pendleton lost only one match during the competition, and was awarded a silver medal. Returning to the US he became a professional wrestler, and with the celebrity status he had achieved, drifted into films in the late 1920s.

Film career

Pendleton appeared in over 100 films. His early roles were largely uncredited, then he was chosen to appear in Horse Feathers (1932) with the Marx Brothers as one of the two college football players who kidnap Harpo and Chico, and his career began to develop. His role as circus strongman Eugen Sandow in The Great Ziegfeld (1936) brought him the strongest reviews of his career. Pendleton was most often cast in supporting roles as thugs, gangsters, or policemen and was usually typecast playing characters that depended on their brawn but were "none too bright".

He appeared as a circus strongman again in At the Circus (1939), again with the Marx Brothers. He had recurring roles in two MGM film series of the late 1930s and 1940s - as Joe Wayman, the ambulance driver in the Dr. Kildare series, and its spin-off, the Dr. Gillespie series. He made his final film appearances in Scared to Death with Bela Lugosi, and Buck Privates Come Home (both 1947).

Pendleton died in San Diego, California in 1967 from a heart attack.