Nat Pendleton, a wrestler and athlete, had a successful professional movie career that spanned over two decades. He played a variety of roles, including kind-hearted lunkheads, goons, henchmen, and buffoons, often showcasing his athletic build and good looks.
Born on August 9, 1895, on a farm near Davenport, Iowa, Nathaniel Greene Pendleton was the son of Nathaniel G. Pendleton, a lawyer, and Adelaide Elizabeth Johnson. The family moved to Cincinnati, Ohio when Nat was just two months old, where his uncle, Arthur V. Johnson, was a well-known silent film player.
Pendleton's athletic prowess began to shine at Brooklyn's Poly Prep High School, where he was the star of the wrestling team. He later attended Columbia University, becoming a popular athletic presence and never losing a match in college. He served as the captain of the 1915 team and went on to compete in the 1920 Olympics in Antwerp, Belgium, winning the heavyweight silver medal in a controversial decision.
After turning pro, Pendleton was undefeated in his two years of competition, but grew disillusioned when he was unable to arrange money bouts with Jack Dempsey and Ed Lewis due to his lack of a flashy reputation.
Pendleton decided to pursue an acting career in the mid-1920s, making his film debut in The Hoosier Schoolmaster (1924). He went on to appear in several films, mostly in sports-themed roles, and also set his powerful frame on the Broadway stage in plays such as "Naughty Cinderella" (1925),"The Grey Fox" (1928),and "His Girl Friday" (1929).
In the early 1930s, Pendleton's film career took off, with roles in The Spirit of Notre Dame (1931),Horse Feathers (1932),Deception (1932),and Flesh (1932). He also played football stars in both films and appeared alongside Ward Bond in the Wallace Beery starrer.
Pendleton's other notable film roles include gangsters in Sing and Like It (1934) and The Gay Bride (1934),policemen in The Thin Man (1934) and Another Thin Man (1939),strongman Sandow in The Great Ziegfeld (1936),and a barkeep in Northwest Passage (1940).
In the 1940s, Pendleton appeared in several Dr. Kildare medical dramas as hunky ambulance driver/comedy relief Joe Wayman and reprised his role as Top Sergeant Mulligan in Buck Privates Come Home (1947).
After retiring from acting in 1956, Pendleton turned to TV before passing away on October 12, 1967, at the age of 72, due to a heart attack.
