Donald Crisp - Later Years and Legacy

Later Years and Legacy

Crisp eventually became one of the more wealthy members of the film industry. His "banker's sobriety", extensive contacts and clarity of thought allowed him to make good investments, particularly in the real estate market. He continued to appear in films throughout the 1950s and into the early 1960s. During more than half a century as an actor in both the early silent and later the sound era, he appeared in as many as 400 two-reel and feature-length productions. His final screen role was as Grandpa Spencer alongside Henry Fonda and Maureen O'Hara in the 1963 film Spencer's Mountain. This film, adapted from the novel by Earl Hamner Jr., was the basis for the 1970s television series The Waltons, and its theme of a proud but struggling rural family was reminiscent of How Green Was My Valley.

Crisp was in his eighties by the time he quit acting entirely, continuing to work long after financially necessary simply because he enjoyed it. He was married twice. He was divorced from his first wife in 1919. He later married film screenwriter Jane Murfin, whom he divorced in 1944. Crisp died in 1974, a few months short of his 92nd birthday, due to complications from a series of strokes.

Crisp can rightly be called a film pioneer. In addition to being one of the premier character actors of his era, he left behind an extensive list of contributions to the film industry he worked to promote for more than fifty years. He was buried in Glendale's Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery.