About Melvyn Douglas
Melvyn Douglas (born Melvyn Edouard Hesselberg, April 5, 1901 – August 4, 1981) was an American actor, whose stage and screen careers spanned from the late 1920s until the early 1980s. He was one of 24 performers to win the Triple Crown of Acting – winning two Academy Awards (both in the Best Supporting Actor category), a Primetime Emmy Award, and a Tony Award. Douglas came to prominence in 1929 as a suave leading man, perhaps best typified by his performance in the romantic comedy Ninotchka (1939) with Greta Garbo, and appeared in many films during the Golden Age of Hollywood. Douglas later played mature and fatherly characters, as in his Oscar-winning performances in Hud (1963) and Being There (1979) and his Oscar–nominated performance in I Never Sang for My Father (1970). He won a Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play for Gore Vidal's play The Best Man (1960). According to his granddaughter Illeana Douglas, Melvyn Douglas first met Peter Sellers, his future Being There co-star while in Burma, when Sellers was serving in the Royal Air Force during the war. He took the surname of his maternal grandmother and became known as Melvyn Douglas. He won his second Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for the comedy-drama Being There (1979). He was one of 24 performers to win the Triple Crown of Acting - winning two Academy Awards, a Primetime Emmy Award, and a Tony Award.
Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.