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
John Hodiak "box office poison" by exhibitors at the end of 1948. Hodiak was down the cast list for "The Bribe" (1949). He was second billed in MGM's war film "Battleground" (1949) a huge success. Also popular was "Malaya" (1949) where Hodiak supported James Stewart and Spencer Tracy. Hodiak was a love rival for Robert Taylor in "Ambush" (1950), a popular Western. MGM gave him another lead role, co-starring with Hedy Lamarr in "A Lady Without Passport" (1950), but it lost money. He was third billed in "The Miniver Story" (1950), the flop sequel to "Mrs. Miniver", and fourth lead in "Night