
British-born Henry Travers was a veteran of the English stage before emigrating to the U.S. in 1917. He gained more stage experience there on Broadway working with the Theatre Guild, and began his long film career with Reunion in Vienna (1933). Travers' kindly, grandfatherly demeanor became familiar to filmgoers over the next 25 years, especially in films like High Sierra (1941), where he played Joan Leslie's kindly but slyly observant uncle, and the generous Mr. Bogardus in The Bells of St. Mary's (1945), but it's as the somewhat befuddled angel Clarence Oddbody assigned to James Stewart in the classic It's a Wonderful Life (1946) that Travers will forever be known. After a long and successful career, he retired from the screen in 1949, and died in Hollywood in 1965.

It's a Wonderful Life
1946 · as Clarence

The Invisible Man
1933 · as Dr. Cranley

Shadow of a Doubt
1943 · as Joseph Newton

Mrs. Miniver
1942 · as Mr. Ballard

The Yearling
1946 · as Mr. Boyles

Ball of Fire
1941 · as Prof. Jerome

Madame Curie
1943 · as Eugene Curie

High Sierra
1941 · as Pa

Dodge City
1939 · as Dr. Irving

The Flame
1947 · as Dr. Mitchell

Captain Hurricane
1935 · as Capt. Ben

Dragon Seed
1944 · as Third Cousin

Random Harvest
1942 · as Dr. Sims

Dark Victory
1939 · as Dr. Parsons

The Bells of St. Mary's
1945 · as Horace P. Bogardus

The Accused
1949 · as Blakely - Romley's Assistant (uncredited)

Edison, the Man
1940 · as Ben Els

James Stewart: A Wonderful Life
1987 · as Self (archive footage)