Abel, Walter

(1898-1987)

   Born in St. Paul, Minnesota, Walter Abel spent his long career mostly in character roles in theatre, motion pictures, and television.* His first Broadway role, in Dorothy Donnelly's Forbidden (1919), was followed by a small part in the first American production of George Bernard Shaw's Back to Methuselah (1922). Abel performed supporting roles in As You Like It (1923) and August Strindberg's The Spook Sonata (1923) and the role of the Sheriff in Eugene O'Neill's Desire Under the Elms (1924). As his roles grew in size, Abel won praise as Olson in O'Neill's S. S. Glencairn (1929) and as Orin Mannon in a short-lived 1932 revival of O'Neill's tragic trilogy Mourning Becomes Electra.*