BIOGRAPHY OF STARS

Chronicle (Levin), 10 January 1948, Page 6

BIOGRAPHY OF STARS

gave up medicine CAREER FOR THEATRE Cornel Wilde had played so many heavy dramatic roles that folks around Hollywoodi began calling him "the moody Hungarian." Everybody seemed to have forgotten that his first film was a rollicking comedy called "The Perfect Snob," in which he was extremely funny. Everybody, that is, except producer director Hartman at Columbia. Hartman.east Wilde opposite Ginger Rogers in Columbia's romantic farce-comedy, "It Had To Be You," and a number of people shook their heads dubiously. The doubters, however, were utterly confounded when Hartman's film began to unreel on the screen, showing Wilde as an authentic master of farce — a talent • which most of Hollywood had never suspected. Born in New York on October 13, 1915, Cornel had some harrowing experiences before he entered on a career of medicine and obtained a scholarship to the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia University, but gave this up for the theatre. In 1937 he married the beautiful actress Patricia Knighn and they now have a beautiful young daughter, Wendy. Before appearing in "A Song To Remember," he appeared in many small productions, but it was at Columbia that he gained recognition. From then on he was a star. After playing three successive leads for Columbia, he returned to Twentieth for "Leave Her To Heaven," and "Forever Amber," ,theri back to "Columbia for "It Had To Be You."