Paul Stewart made cynical butlers and criminals convincing through a gruff voice and an air of settled authority. We value the economy, though repeated casting as sinister men can make his arrival rather too easy to read.
Fi1m perspective
As Raymond, the cynical butler in Citizen Kane (1941), Paul Stewart gives service little suggestion of affection. The gruff voice and determined bearing make him seem difficult to impress, regardless of the importance of his employer. That recognisable scepticism gives us something plain to respond to in Orson Welles's film, whose elaborate structure sometimes keeps us at a distance. Stewart makes a supporting character immediately readable, and we rate that economy even when the man himself offers little warmth. That matters in a film concerned with understanding a powerful man, where an actor's attitude towards him can be as revealing as a spoken account.
Citizen Kane was his film debut, but Welles already knew him through the Mercury Theatre and radio. That background helps explain an actor who can make a voice carry so much of a character. His subsequent association with noir and crime dramas made good use of those qualities, often in supporting parts. In The Bad and the Beautiful (1952), he appeared as Syd Murphy in a Hollywood drama. The venal Carl Evello in Kiss Me Deadly (1955) gave his capacity for menace a more direct purpose.
We felt uneasy watching Evello; Stewart's firm bearing and gruff delivery make this venal criminal seem comfortable with himself. Robert Aldrich's Kiss Me Deadly is harsh and inventive, with Ralph Meeker's Mike Hammer already an unnerving guide through its underworld. Stewart fits that company without needing to compete with the leading performance. He does not need to make the man seem exceptional; the suggestion that such people belong quite comfortably in this company is unpleasant enough. The tangled plotting can make the film harder to follow than it needs to be, but his blunt presence gives us something clear to respond to.
The limitation is the casting: repeated appearances as sinister men can settle our expectations before Stewart has done much. His film work continued through the 1970s, with Jensen in In Cold Blood (1967) among the later parts. We need not pretend every appearance offers a surprise to appreciate the care within those familiar jobs. Start with Citizen Kane, then try Kiss Me Deadly if a harsher evening appeals.
Biography
Paul Stewart (born Paul Sternberg) was an American character actor, director and producer. Born in New York City on 13 March 1908, he graduated from Columbia University and made his Broadway debut in the play Two Seconds in 1931. He joined Orson Welles's Mercury Theatre and participated in the 1938 radio broadcast of The War of the Worlds.
Stewart made his film debut as Raymond, Kane's butler, in Citizen Kane (1941). He appeared in numerous films including Kiss Me Deadly (1955), The Bad and the Beautiful (1952) and In Cold Blood (1967), and worked extensively in television, directing episodes such as "Little Girl Lost" for The Twilight Zone (1959). He was married to singer and actress Peg La Centra from 1939 until his death from a heart attack in Los Angeles on 17 February 1986.
