Early years Gwenn was born in
Wandsworth, London to John and Catherine ( Oliver) Kellaway. His brother was the actor
Arthur Chesney, and his cousin was the actor
Cecil Kellaway. Gwenn was educated at
St. Olave's School and later at
King's College London. He began his acting career in the theatre in 1895, and learned his craft as a member of
Willie Edouin's company, playing brash comic roles. Later, the couple appeared on stage together in London in a farce called
What the Butler Saw in 1905 and, in 1911, when
Irene Vanbrugh made her debut in variety, she chose Terry and Gwenn to join her in a short play specially written by
J. M. Barrie. When he returned to London, Gwenn appeared not in low comedy but in what
The Times called "a notably intellectual and even sophisticated setting" at the
Court Theatre under the management of
J. E. Vedrenne and
Harley Granville-Barker. and in works by other contemporaries. In Barrie's
What Every Woman Knows (1908) in the role of the over-enthusiastic James Wylie he impressed the producer
Charles Frohman, who engaged him for his repertory company at the
Duke of York's Theatre. Looking back at Gwenn's career,
The Times considered, "Out of scores of other parts which he played in England and in America, the best remembered are probably Hornblower in Galsworthy's
The Skin Game, the Viennese paterfamilias in
Lilac Time and Samuel Pepys in
Fagan's
And So to Bed in 1926." Gwenn appeared in more than eighty films, including
Pride and Prejudice (1940),
Cheers for Miss Bishop,
Of Human Bondage and
The Keys of the Kingdom.
George Cukor's
Sylvia Scarlett (1935) was his first appearance in a
Hollywood film, as
Katharine Hepburn's father. He settled in Hollywood in 1940 and became part of its British colony. He had a small role as a Cockney assassin in a
Hitchcock film,
Foreign Correspondent in 1940. On
Broadway Gwenn starred in the acclaimed 1942 production of
Chekhov's Three Sisters, starring
Katharine Cornell (who was also the producer),
Judith Anderson, and
Ruth Gordon.
Time proclaimed it, "a dream production by anybody's reckoning – the most glittering cast the theatre has seen, commercially, in this generation."
Later years Gwenn remained a British subject all his life. When he first moved to Hollywood, he lived at the
Beverly Wilshire Hotel in
Beverly Hills. His home in London had been reduced to rubble during the bombings by the German
Luftwaffe in the
Second World War. Only the fireplace survived. What Gwenn regretted most was the loss of the memorabilia he had collected of the actor
Henry Irving. Eventually, Gwenn bought a house at 617 North Bedford Drive in Beverly Hills, which he later shared with the former Olympic athlete
Rodney Soher. At the age of 78 he travelled from his home in California for a reunion with his ex-wife in London. He told a reporter, "I never married again because I was very happy with my wife. I simply stayed faithful to the memory of that happiness." ==Acting credits==