Trivia

Bohnen was blacklisted in 1949 during the "Red Scare"; some claim this contributed to his fatal heart attack that year.

Was just 7 years older than Dana Andrews, who played his son in Los mejores años de nuestras vidas (1946).

He was one of the original members of the Group Theatre (1931-40), the acting ensemble that brought the Konstantin Stanislavski system to the Broadway theater, changing the style of American acting. A few of its members became Hollywood stars--Franchot Tone and John Garfield--but, on the dissolution of the company, many of its members found work as well-paid character actors in Hollywood films. Bohnen was also one of the founders of the Actors Lab in Los Angeles, the place where Marilyn Monroe first studied acting seriously.

In Hollywood, particularly during the 1940s, character actor Bohnen often played men much older than his true age, due to his prematurely wizened features. He was a key stock actor for director Lewis Milestone, who cast him in four films: La fuerza bruta (1939), Rebelión (1943), El extraño caso de Martha Ivers (1946), and Arco del triunfo (1948).

Father: Carl Bohnen; Mother: Lottie Johnston.

He was greatly admired by Orson Welles, who said he was one of the best actors in America.

Bohnen's death at 47 left his 12 year-old daughter an orphan.

Buried in an unmarked grave at Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City, CA (Section D, Lot 180). He rests there with his wife Hildur, who died in 1941.