Victor Kilian appeared in more than 150 films and his crowning achievement was his superb portrayal of Abraham Lincoln in Virginia City (1940).
Born in Jersey City, New Jersey, he was working as a wagon driver for his father's laundry business when he caught the acting bug and joined a vaudeville company.
This led to spells with touring companies and he was spotted by actor Walter Huston, who secured him a role in Desire Under the Elms on the Broadway stage.
He appeared in several minor films shot on Long Island before going to Hollywood in 1935. There he worked in movies such as St Louis Blues with Dorothy Lamour (1939) and Banjo on My Knee (1936). The latter featured three-times Academy Awardwinning support actor Walter Brennan as a one-man band.
Blacklisted in the Fifties, he returned to the stage but reached his greatest fame at the age of 85 as a grandfather prone to a little flashing in the 1976 TV series Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman.
Victor Kilian was beaten to death by burglars in his Hollywood apartment in 1979. He was 88.
Gordon Dean
Lancing
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