John Halliday

John Halliday (September 14, 1880 – October 17, 1947) was an American actor of stage and screen, who often played suave aristocrats and foreigners. Halliday was born in Brooklyn, New York. In infancy, he moved with his parents to Europe, and he lived abroad until he was 18. He served with the British Army 1901-02 in the Boer War in South Africa. In 1905 Halliday, a civil/mining engineer from before his South Africa adventure, migrated to Nevada and dug up a fortune in gold nuggets and managed to lose the lot.

After losing his money in the stock market in Sacramento, Halliday became an actor with a stock theater company headed by Nat Goodwin. He progressed from that group to touring the world as leading man in a troupe headed by T. Daniel Frawley.Making his Broadway debut in 1912 in Cecil Raleigh and Henry Hamilton's The Whip, he became a familiar presence there, especially in sophisticated comedies such as W. Somerset Maugham's The Circle (1921), Vincent Lawrence's Sour Grapes (1926), Louis Verneuil's Jealousy (1928) and S. N. Behrman's Rain from Heaven (1934).He was also well known for his film roles. He was one of the leading actors in the drama film Millie. His best-known movie appearance was as "Seth Lord", father of Tracy Lord (Katharine Hepburn) in the film adaptation of Philip Barry's The Philadelphia Story (1940). The following year he played his final role in Lydia (1941).