Charles Halton (16 March, 1876 - 16 April, 1959) was a stern-faced American character actor who appeared in over 180 films.
Some of his most memorable portrayals were:
Carter, the Bank Examiner in It's a Wonderful Life (1946). Halton's character comes to examine the books on Christmas Eve, which leads to George Bailey's crisis, as there is a shortage of funds. Halton plays a man who has no real life except his job.
In Enemy of Women (1944), the story of Joseph Goebbels, Halton plays against type as a kindly radio performer of children's stories who is arrested by the Nazis.
A respected stage actor -- he trained at the New York Academy of Dramatic Arts -- since the 1920s, birdlike Charles Halton's thinning hair, rimless glasses and officious manner were familiar to generations of moviegoers. Whether playing the neighborhood busybody, a stern government bureaucrat or weaselly attorney, you could count on Halton to try to drive the "immoral influences" out of the neighborhood, foreclose on the orphanage, evict the poor widow and her children from their apartment, or any other number of dastardly deeds, all justified by "I'm sorry but that's my job." His 40-year film career ended with Friendly Persuasion (1956), after which he retired.
