I'm hoping you can straighten ...
Question: I'm hoping you can straighten me out. In the Western Rio Bravo, Walter Brennan's character, Stumpy, is crippled and his performance didn't look like acting. Was his injury real, or did he win his Oscars for good acting?
Answer: Although life knocked character actor Walter Brennan around — both before and after he entered the movie industry — he wasn't disabled in real life. But his performance in Rio Bravo (1959) was so convincing that many people believed he was. Brennan's distinctive, reedy voice was the result of poison-gas exposure during World War I; it permanently damaged his vocal cords. Brennan also lost his front teeth in an on-set accident early in his career; between the voice and the missing teeth, he began playing old-coot parts before he turned 40. Brennan was nominated for four supporting actor Oscars and won three, for Kentucky (1930), Come and Get It (1937) and The Westerner (1941); he did not win for Sergeant York (1942) and wasn't nominated for Rio Bravo, though critics consistently singled him out for praise.
