Walter Pidgeon of his better known roles was in "The Dark Command", where he portrayed the villain (loosely based on American Civil War guerrilla William C. Quantrill) opposite John Wayne, Claire Trevor, and a young Roy Rogers. It was not until he starred in the Academy Award-winning Best Picture "How Green Was My Valley" (1941) that his popularity returned. He then starred opposite Greer Garson in "Blossoms in the Dust" (1941), "Mrs. Miniver" (1942) (for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor) and its sequel, "The Miniver Story" in 1950. He was also nominated in 1944 for "Madame
SS Empire Miniver with scrap iron, sailed from Hampton Roads, Virginia, on 28 June for Halifax. After arriving there on 2 July, "West Cobalt" sailed the next day in Convoy HX-55 for Liverpool. On the night of 15/16 July, "West Cobalt" dropped astern of the convoy and was last sighted at 01:00 by British merchant ship "Loch Don". "West Cobalt" continued on, however, and reached Liverpool independently on 18 July. Soon transferred to the Ministry of War Transport, the newly renamed ship, now named "Empire Miniver", was assigned to Andrew Weir & Co. of London for operation. She sailed from Liverpool in her