Nat Pendleton

Nat Pendleton was born as Nathaniel Greene Pendleton in 1895 in Davenport, Iowa to Adelaide Elizabeth (née Johnson) Pendleton (1873–1960) and Nathaniel Greene Pendleton (1861–1914), an attorney,{{cite news |last1=Doxsie |first1=Don |title=Eye Openers: Q-C native Pendleton won silver a century ago |url=https://qctimes.com/sports/baseball/professional/mlb/eye-openers-q-c-native-pendleton-won-silver-a-century-ago/article_1a787c83-7bfb-592f-b25e-a599402f60e2.html |access-date=30 June 2023 |work=The Quad-City Times |date=20 August 2020 |language=en}} who was reportedly a descendant of American Revolutionary general Nathanael Greene.{{cite journal|last1=Rainho|first1=Manny|title=This Month in Movie History|journal=Classic Images|date=August 2015|issue=482|pages=24–26}}"Nat Pendleton, Movie Character Actor, Dies", Los Angeles Times, October 13, 1967, section II, p. 8. ProQuest Historical Newspapers. By March 1899, the Pendletons had moved to Cincinnati,Edmund J. Pendleton and then later to New York. Nat went to Brooklyn's Poly Prep High School.{{cite news |title=Joseph Dana Allen's resignation, headmaster of the Poly Prep |url=https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/58329249/ |access-date=30 June 2023 |work=The Brooklyn Daily Eagle |publisher=Newspapers.com |date=10 April 1925 |location=Brooklyn, New York |language=en}} Nat studied at Columbia University, graduating in 1916.{{cite news |last1=Pickens |first1=Jessica |title=From wrestler to actor – Nat Pendleton carved out career as affable brute |url=https://www.gastongazette.com/story/news/local/2013/12/27/from-wrestler-to-actor-nat/34370695007/ |access-date=30 June 2023 |date=2013-12-27 |work=Gaston Gazette |publisher=Gannett |location=Gastonia, North Carolina}} Pendleton spoke four languages, received an economics degree, and, in 2006, was inducted into the Columbia wrestling hall of fame.

Pendleton began his wrestling career at Columbia University, and served as captain of the school's wrestling team. He was twice Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association (EIWA) champion in 1914 and 1915. Chosen to compete on the United States wrestling team at the 1920 Summer Olympics in Antwerp, Belgium, Pendleton lost only one match during the competition and was awarded a silver medal.{{cite web |url=https://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/athletes/pe/nat-pendleton-1.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200418122429/https://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/athletes/pe/nat-pendleton-1.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=2020-04-18 |title=Nat Pendleton |access-date=2013-09-01 |work=sports-reference.com}} Some controversy continues to surround that outcome. Both Pendleton's Olympic coach, George Pinneo, and his teammate, Fred Meyer, insisted that he won his final match and should have been awarded the gold medal. Pinneo later recalled that loss as the "most unpopular of many unsatisfactory decisions," and Meyer stated, "Pendleton was the winner of that contest, no ifs or buts."{{Cite book|title=Pendleton: The Amazing Story of Columbia's Wrestling Olympian and Star of Hollywood|last=Chapman|first=Mike|pages=30}}

Returning to the US he became a professional wrestler and teamed up with promoter Jack Curley. Curley was aggressively promoting Pendleton and issued a series of haughty challenges, among them boasting that Pendleton could beat Ed "Strangler" Lewis and any other wrestler on the same night. John Pesek was enlisted to face Pendleton, and in a legitimate contest held on January 25, 1923, Pesek defeated and injured Pendleton.{{Cite web|url=https://slamwrestling.net/index.php/2006/05/25/pendletons-unparalleled-route-olympics-pros-hollywood/|title = Pendleton's unparalleled route: Olympics, pros, Hollywood|date = 25 May 2006}}{{cite web |title=Know Your Character Actor – Nat Pendleton |url=https://smumcounty.com/2016/05/21/know-your-character-actor-nat-pendleton/ |website=Smum County |access-date=30 June 2023 |language=en |date=21 May 2016}}{{cite web |last1=Hewitt |first1=Mark |title=BEFORE MMA #3 - The Zenith of Catch-As-Catch-Can Wrestling - Tigerman John Pesek versus Nat Pendleton |url=https://www.scientificwrestling.com/public/BEFORE-MMA-3-The-Zenith-of-CatchAsCatchCan-Wrestling-Tigerman-John-Pesek-versus-Nat-Pendleton.cfm |website=Scientific Wrestling |access-date=30 June 2023 |language=en |date=2 December 2019}} Pendleton continued to wrestle professionally into the 1930s.

• Naughty Cinderella (Nov 09, 1925 - Feb 20, 1926) as "K. O." Bill Smith
• The Grey Fox (Oct 22, 1928 - Jan 05, 1929) as Don Michelotto
• My Girl Friday (Feb 12, 1929 - Sep 1929) as Marcel the Great{{cite web |title=Nat Pendleton |url=https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-cast-staff/nat-pendleton-68521 |website=IBDB |access-date=30 June 2023}}

Pendleton began appearing in Hollywood films in uncredited parts and minor roles by the mid-1920s. Pendleton was cast in at least 94 short films and features, most often being typecast in supporting roles, usually as "befuddled good guys" or as slow-witted thugs, gangsters, and policemen. He appeared in the 1932 comedy Horse Feathers starring the Marx Brothers, performing in that film as one of two college football players who kidnap Harpo and Chico. In the 1936 production The Great Ziegfeld, he portrays the circus strongman Eugen Sandow, a role that brought him the best reviews of his career.

Pendleton appeared again as a circus strongman in the Marx Brothers' 1939 feature At the Circus. He can be seen as well in recurring roles in two MGM film series from the 1930s and 1940s. He played Joe Wayman, the ambulance driver, in MGM's Dr. Kildare series and in its spin-off series Dr. Gillespie. He also portrayed New York police lieutenant John Guild in The Thin Man series. His final screen appearances were in the 1947 releases Scared to Death with Bela Lugosi and Buck Privates Come Home starring Abbott and Costello.

Although Pendleton's professional career outside the wrestling ring was predominantly devoted to film work, he also performed in some stage productions, including in the Broadway plays Naughty Cinderella in 1925 and The Gray Fox in 1928.

Pioneer actor and director of the early American silent film era, Arthur V. Johnson, was his uncle. His siblings include: Steve (1908–1984), an American film and television actor,{{cite web |title=Pendleton's unparalleled route: Olympics, pros, Hollywood |url=https://slamwrestling.net/index.php/2006/05/25/pendletons-unparalleled-route-olympics-pros-hollywood/ |website=Slam Wrestling |date=25 May 2006 |access-date=30 June 2023}} and Edmund (1899–1987), a well-known music composer and choir master and organist for the American Church in Paris.

On the 1920 census, he was working as a sports manager, living in Manhattan, with his Puerto Rican wife, Juanita Alfonzo (age 22), and Ramon Alfonso (age 13), his wife's brother.{{cite web |title=Nat Pendleton |url=https://www.classicmoviehub.com/facts-and-trivia/star/nat-pendleton/ |website=Classic Movie Hub |access-date=30 June 2023}}

Pendleton died in a San Diego, California hospital in 1967 after suffering a heart attack.{{cite news |title=NAT PENDLETON, MOVIE ACTOR, 72; Portrayer of Simpletons in Many Films Is Dead |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1967/10/13/archives/nat-pendleton-movie-actor-72-portrayer-of-simpletons-in-many-films.html |access-date=30 June 2023 |work=The New York Times |date=13 October 1967}} He was survived by his second wife, Margaret Evelyn "Barbara" Carse.{{Cite web |last=Oliver |first=Greg |date=May 25, 2006 |title=Pendleton's unparalleled route: Olympics, pros, Hollywood |url=https://slamwrestling.net/index.php/2006/05/25/pendletons-unparalleled-route-olympics-pros-hollywood/ |access-date=2023-07-05 |website=Slam Wrestling |language=en-US}}

Pendleton is a member of several halls of fame: the Glen Brand Wrestling Hall of Fame in Waterloo, Iowa,{{Cite web|url=https://nwhof.org/blog/dg-inductees/nat-pendleton/|title=National Wrestling Hall of Fame}} the Iowa Wrestling Hall of Fame in Cresco, Iowa,{{Cite web|url=http://iowawrestlinghalloffame.com/inductees/nat-pendleton.html|title=Iowa Wrestling Hall of Fame}} and the Columbia University Athletics Hall of Fame.{{Cite web|url=https://gocolumbialions.com/news/2006/8/5/530127.aspx|title=Columbia University Athletics Hall of Fame|date=5 August 2006 }} He is the subject of a biography by Mike Chapman, which was published in 2015.{{Cite web|url=http://www.mike-chapman.com/mike-writes-biography-of-wrestler-actor-nat-pendleton|title=Mike Chapman's website}}{{cite web |title=Wrestling Hosts Harvard on Friday Night |url=https://gocolumbialions.com/news/2016/1/27/210665921.aspx |website=Columbia University Athletics |access-date=30 June 2023 |language=en |date=27 January 2016}}{{cite web |title=Pendleton: Columbia's Wrestling Hero and Hollywood Star by Mike Chapman |url=https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/49831110-pendleton |website=Goodreads |access-date=30 June 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230630151315/https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/49831110-pendleton |archive-date=30 June 2023}}

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{{Commons category}}

• {{IWD|D463A8386A8941C2A2A191578E2FBBD0}}
• {{Olympics.com|nat-pendleton}}
• {{Olympedia}}
• https://catalog.afi.com/Person/116239-Nat-Pendleton
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20180614182039/http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2ba2ae3dd1 ]
• https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/person/149954%7C116239/Nat-Pendleton
• https://nwhof.org/hall_of_fame/bio_by_name/nat-pendleton
• https://www.iowawrestlinghalloffame.com/inductee/nat-pendleton
• {{IBDB name}}
• {{IMDb name | id=0671738| name=Nat Pendleton}}
• {{Find a Grave|3662}}

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Category:1895 births

Category:1967 deaths

Category:20th-century American male actors

Category:American male film actors

Category:American male bodybuilders

Category:Sportspeople from Davenport, Iowa

Category:People associated with physical culture

Category:Wrestlers at the 1920 Summer Olympics

Category:American male sport wrestlers

Category:Medalists at the 1920 Summer Olympics

Category:Male actors from Davenport, Iowa

Category:Olympic silver medalists for the United States in wrestling

Category:Columbia Lions wrestlers

Category:Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer contract players

Category:20th-century American sportsmen