When Twentieth Century-Fox was planning “Miracle on 34th Street” (1947). It had offered the role of Kris Kringle to Edward Gwenn’s cousin, the well-known character actor Cecil Kellaway, but he had turned it down with the observation that “Americans don’t like whimsy”. Fox then offered it to Gwenn, who pounced on it. His performance was to earn him an Academy Award as Best Supporting Actor and, because it is rerun every Christmas season, he would become for many their all-time favorite screen Santa. Accepting the award, Gwenn said, “Now I know there is a Santa Claus.”
As soon as he got the part, Gwenn went to work turning himself into Santa Claus. Though rotund, Gwenn didn’t feel he was rotund enough to look like the jolly old elf most people expected after having read Clement Moore’s “The Night before Christmas”, in which Santa “had a broad face and a little round belly / That shook when he laughed like a bowlful of jelly.” He could of course wear padding, but he resisted that as too artificial. So he put on almost 30 pounds for the role, a fair amount for a man of his short stature, and added nearly five inches to his waistline. The problem was that after the film was finished, Gwenn found it hard to lose the extra weight. “I’ve been stocky all my adult life,” he said, “but now I must accept the fact that I’m fat.” As was his nature, he didn’t get upset, and instead was able to laugh about it. Six years later, when playing an elderly professor in “The Student Prince” (1954), he had a scene in which he entered the Prince’s chamber, struggling with the buttons of a ceremonial uniform. The line he was given was, “I’m too old to wear a uniform,” but Gwenn suggested a change which stayed in the finished film, “I’m too old and fat to wear a uniform.”
According to Natalie Wood’s biographer, during the shoot for “Miracle on 34th Street,” she was convinced that Gwenn was actually Santa Claus (by all accounts, he was a very good natured man on the set). It wasn’t until she saw him out of costume at the wrap party that she realized he wasn’t Santa.
The cast and crew were unanimous in their opinion of Gwenn: they loved him. Alvin Greenman who played Alfred called him “a dear, dear man”, and Robert Hyatt, who played Tommy Mara, Jr., said in a 2001 interview, “He was a really nice guy, always happy, always smiling. He had this little twinkle in his eye.” Added Maureen O’Hara, “By the time we were halfway through the shoot, we all believed Edmund really was Santa Claus. I’ve never seen an actor more naturally suited for a role.” (IMDb)
Happy Birthday, Edmund Gwenn!