Olin Howland

Acting

Olin Howland

Born 1886-02-09 · Denver, Colorado, USA

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Olin Ross Howland (February 10, 1886 – September 20, 1959) was an American film and theatre actor. Howland was born in Denver, Colorado, to Joby A. Howland, one of the youngest enlisted participants in the Civil War, and Mary C. Bunting. His older sister was the famous stage actress Jobyna Howland. From 1909 to 1927, Howland appeared on Broadway in musicals, occasionally performing in silent films. The musicals include Leave It to Jane (1917), Two Little Girls in Blue (1921) and Wildflower (1923). He was in the film Janice Meredith (1924) with Marion Davies. With the advent of sound films, his theatre background proved an asset, and he concentrated mostly on films thereafter, appearing in nearly two hundred movies between 1918 and 1958. Howland often played eccentric and rural roles in Hollywood. His parts were often small and uncredited, and he never got a leading role. He was a personal favorite of David O. Selznick, who cast him in his movies Nothing Sacred (1937) as a strange luggage man, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1938, as the teacher Mr. Dobbins) and Gone with the Wind (1939) as a carpetbagger businessman. He also played in numerous westerns from Republic Pictures, including the John Wayne films In Old California (1942) and Angel and the Badman (1947). As a young man, Howland learned to fly at the Wright Flying School and soloed on a Wright Model B. This lent special sentiment in his scenes with James Stewart in the film The Spirit of St. Louis (1957), as Stewart was also a pilot in real life. The Spirit of St. Louis and Them (1954),where he played a drunken old man, and The Blob (1958) were his last films. He also played in telelevision shows during the 1950s. In 1958 and 1959, he was cast as Charley Perkins in five episodes of ABC's sitcom The Real McCoys, starring Walter Brennan. Howland never married and had no children. He worked until his death in Hollywood, California, at the age of 73.

Acting credits

Gone with the Wind poster
7.9

The spoiled daughter of a Georgia plantation owner conducts a tumultuous romance with a cynical profiteer during the American Civil War and Reconstruction Era.

Gone with the Wind

1939

The Blob poster
6.2

A drive-in favorite, this sci-fi classic follows teenagers Steve and his best girl, Jane, as they try to protect their hometown from a gelatinous alien life form that engulfs everything it touches. The first to discover the substance and live to tell about it, Steve and Jane witness the blob destroying an elderly man, then it growing to a terrifying size. But no one else has seen the goo, and policeman Dave refuses to believe the kids without proof.

The Blob

1958

Little Women poster
7.4

Four sisters come of age in America in the aftermath of the Civil War.

Little Women

1949

Them! poster
6.8

As a result of nuclear testing, gigantic, ferocious mutant ants appear in the American desert southwest, and a father-daughter team of entomologists join forces with the state police officer who first discovers their existence, an FBI agent and, eventually, the US Army to eradicate the menace, before it spreads across the continent — and the world.

Them!

1954

Fallen Angel poster
6.5

An unemployed drifter, Eric Stanton wanders into a small California town and begins hanging around the local diner. While Eric falls for the lovely waitress Stella, he also begins romancing a quiet and well-to-do woman named June Mills. Since Stella isn't interested in Eric unless he has money, the lovelorn guy comes up with a scheme to win her over, and it involves June. Before long, murder works its way into this passionate love triangle.

Fallen Angel

1945

Home Sweet Homicide poster
4.5

Mystery writer Marian Carstairs is hard at work trying to finish her latest novel. Her three children meanwhile are entertaining themselves by trying to solve a murder in their own neighborhood. In between gathering clues, the kids play matchmaker by trying to fix up their widowed mom with the handsome detective investigating the case.

Home Sweet Homicide

1946

A Star Is Born poster
7.1

A movie star helps a young singer-actress find fame, even as age and alcoholism send his own career into a downward spiral.

A Star Is Born

1954

Little Women poster
6.8

Four sisters come of age in America in the aftermath of the Civil War.

Little Women

1933

Two-Faced Woman poster
6.4

A woman pretends to be her own twin sister to win back her straying husband.

Two-Faced Woman

1941

Treasure Island poster
6.5

In this early film adaptation of the classic novel by Robert Louis Stevenson, young Jim Hawkins is caught up with the pirate Long John Silver in search of buccaneer Captain Flint's buried treasure.

Treasure Island

1934

The Shepherd of the Hills poster
6.6

Young Matt Matthews, an Ozark Mountains moonshiner, hates the father he has never seen, who apparently deserted Matt's mother and left her to die. His obsession contributes to the hatred rampant in the mountains. However, the arrival of a stranger, Daniel Howitt, begins to positively affect the mountain people, who learn to shed their hatred under his gentle influence.

The Shepherd of the Hills

1941

Zenobia poster
5.0

A modest country doctor in the antebellum South has to contend with his daughter's upcoming marriage and an affectionate medicine show elephant.

Zenobia

1939

Nothing But Trouble poster
6.3

Two bumbling servants are hired by a dizzy society matron to cook and serve a meal for visiting royalty.

Nothing But Trouble

1944

Naughty Marietta poster
5.5

In order to avoid a prearranged marriage, a rebellious French princess sheds her identity and escapes to colonial New Orleans, where she finds an unlikely true love.

Naughty Marietta

1935

Angel and the Badman poster
6.4

Notorious shootist and womanizer Quirt Evans' horse collapses as he passes a Quaker family's home. Quirt has been wounded, and the kindly family takes him in to nurse him back to health against the advice of others. The handsome Evans quickly attracts the affections of their beautiful daughter, Penelope. He develops an affection for the family and their faith, but his troubled past follows him.

Angel and the Badman

1947

Hick Manhattan poster
10.0

This story revolves around a young woman who loses her job and a young man who has been unable to make a success as an art photographer. A fire breaks out in the house where the woman is rooming, and she rushes to the street en dishabille, just as the man appears. Immediately he has visions of a fortune, and persuades her to pose as a wild Greek girl. He has her arrested for performing Grecian dances in the street in her scanty attire.

Hick Manhattan

1918

I Walk Alone poster
6.6

Bootleggers on the lam Frankie and Noll split up to evade capture by the police. Frankie is caught and jailed, but Noll manages to escape and open a posh New York City nightclub. 14 years later, Frankie is released from the clink and visits Noll with the intention of collecting his half of the nightclub's profits. But Noll, who has no intention of being so equitable, uses his ex-girlfriend Kay to divert Frankie from his intended goal.

I Walk Alone

1947

The Return of Doctor X poster
6.0

When news reporter Walter Garrett arrives at the hotel room of bombshell actress Angela Merrova to conduct an interview, he finds her dead from multiple stab wounds. He returns with the police to find the hotel empty and the body vanished. Garrett writes about the incident but is fired when Merrova, alive and well, goes to the paper to complain. Now his only chance to get his job back is to find the truth, which involves the grisly scheme of a madman.

The Return of Doctor X

1939

This Gun for Hire poster
7.0

Sadistic killer-for-hire Philip Raven becomes enraged when his latest job is paid off in marked bills. Vowing to track down his double-crossing boss, nightclub executive Gates, Raven sits beside Gates' lovely new employee, Ellen, on a train out of town. Although Ellen is engaged to marry the police lieutenant who's hunting down Raven, she decides to try and set the misguided hit man straight as he hides from the cops and plots his revenge.

This Gun for Hire

1942

Nothing Sacred poster
6.3

When a small-town girl is incorrectly diagnosed with a rare, deadly disease, an unknowing newspaper columnist turns her into a national heroine.

Nothing Sacred

1937

The Sky's the Limit poster
6.3

Flying Tiger Fred Atwell sneaks away from his famous squadron's personal appearance tour and goes incognito for several days of leave. He quickly falls for photographer Joan Manion, pursuing her in the guise of a carefree drifter.

The Sky's the Limit

1943

The Spirit of St. Louis poster
6.7

In 1927, Charles Lindbergh struggles to finance and design an airplane that will make his New York to Paris flight the first solo transatlantic crossing.

The Spirit of St. Louis

1957

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court poster
6.2

A bump on the head sends Hank Martin, 1905 auto mechanic, to Arthurian England, 528 A.D., where he is befriended by Sir Sagramore le Desirous and gains power by judicious use of technology. He and Alisande, the King's niece, fall in love at first sight, which draws unwelcome attention from her fiancée Sir Lancelot; but worse trouble befalls when Hank meddles in the kingdom's politics.

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court

1949

The Strange Love of Martha Ivers poster
7.1

Three childhood friends, Martha, Walter and Sam, share a terrible secret. Over time, the ambitious Martha and the pusillanimous Walter have married. She is a cold businesswoman; he is the district attorney: a perfect combination to dominate the corrupt city of Iverstown at will. But the unexpected return of Sam, after years of absence, deeply disturbs the life of the odd couple.

The Strange Love of Martha Ivers

1946