Grant Withers

From The Pittsburgh Press of Friday, April 3, 1959:

Withers' Life Turbulent Like His Many Films

By Kaspar Monahan

Death of Grant Withers by suicide last week caused little stir in the newspapers. Current Variety, "Bible" of show business, gives the tragedy only two measly paragraphs.

Yet at one time Grant was a handsome, popular leading man playing opposite noted lady stars, Aileen Pringle, Mary Astor, and Loretta young, for instance. He was married briefly to the latter as well as to several other glamour girls.

His life was a turbulent as many of the pieces of screen fiction in which he appeared scores of times, I remember the time I worked for his grandfather, Gus Withers, part owner and business manager of The Pueblo Chieftain, for which I wrote pieces years ago - not so long after the big flood had all but ripped the town apart. Then they called it "Little Pittsburgh" because of its CF&I steel mills.

Grant was quite a town idol when I was reporting for The Chieftain. His ever visit home was a signal for a celebration. As a youth, tragedy left a shadow on his life. During the flood, with looters on the loose and armed National Guardsmen prowling about, Grant and his father were driving the family car. A stray bullet killed the elder Withers sitting beside Grant.

Then to the West Coast and Fame

Not long after Grant came to the West Coast as a salesman for Standard Oil Company and then was hired as a reporter for the Los Angeles Record, his first assignment being the funeral of Wallace Reid, victim of the dope habit. he launched his screen career as an extra for Douglas MacLean, a well known actor-producer in the 20s. Better roles came and finally stardom. Old Gus Withers' grandson was going places. I rejoiced at his good fortune for I liked Grant and he was always nice to me - even after he became a headliner.

So nice that he - although reluctantly - permitted me to invade his honeymoon suite in the Brown Palace Hotel in Denver when he and Loretta Young slipped into town as a climax to their highly publicized elopement. I was the first reporter to talk to them.

Loretta then was only 17 and a very lovely girl. Tall, lean Grant was a veritable Adonis. I still picture these two as the most handsome couple I've ever seen.

That same year (1930) an old clipping reveals, Grant was in Pittsburgh for a personal appearance at the Enright. Then to reporters he indignantly denied that he and Loretta were separating. A few months later they were parted through an annulment arranged by the bride's mother.

And now, in 1959, an aging man alone with his memories, picks up the sleeping pills, writes a forlorn suicide note. hence, two little paragraphs in current Variety. "I'm so sorry," says Loretta.

--