British actor Edmund Gwenn, then 36, in costume as a character named "Shock-Headed Peter" in an autographed theatrical publicity portrait from 1913 (Edward Scissorhands ~who~?!!). "Shock-Headed Peter" was based on a character named "Struwwelpeter" from a series of darkly comical children's poems written by Heinrich Hoffmann in the 1800s and Edmund portrayed the character during a vaudeville tour. Gwenn is notably remembered today for his Best Supporting Actor Academy Award winning role as Santa Claus in the 1947 20th Century Fox/George Seaton holiday classic Miracle on 34th Street with Natalie Wood and Maureen O'Hara, as seen below.
Very briefly married to an actress named Minnie Terry from a respected British theatrical dynasty, their marriage was annulled within days and Gwenn never married again, though he remained friends with Minnie, who stayed in England, until his passing in 1959 at the age of 81 (when asked by the press why he remained single, Edmund replied "I was very happy with my wife; I simply stayed faithful to the memory of that happiness"). Preferring the company of gentlemen, Edmund lived first with his personal secretary and "confidence man" Ernest C. Bach at his Beverly Hills home on North Bedford Drive and then with younger silver medal- winning Olympic bobsledder Rodney Soher. Following Edmund's passing, Bach took Soher to court and fought for a larger share of his estate, which Gwenn had divided into shares between the two men and his ex-wife Minnie, with Bach cattily accusing Soher of "unduly influencing" Edmund to leave Soher a larger share of the estate. In an amusing incident during his final days, a visitor to Gwenn's bedside at the Motion Picture Home in Woodland Hills, California remarked that "it must be hard to die". Overhearing the comment and though very ill and on his deathbed, the quick-witted Edmund replied: "Death is easy. Comedy is hard."
