Henry Travers Henry Travers Travers John Heagerty (5 March 1874 – 18 October 1965), known by the stage name Henry Travers, was an English film and stage character actor. His most famous role was the guardian angel Clarence Odbody in the 1946 film classic "It's a Wonderful Life". He also received an Academy Award nomination for his supporting role in "Mrs. Miniver" (1942). Travers specialized in portraying slightly bumbling but friendly and lovable old men. Travers was born in Prudhoe, Northumberland, and was the son of Daniel Heagerty, a doctor originally from Ireland, and Ellen Gillman Hornibrook Belcher. His mother was a
Ben Travers English adaptation of Franz Lehár's 1923 operetta "Der Libellentanz". The music received mild praise, but the libretto did not. The piece ran for just over three months. Travers followed "The Dippers" with another farcical novel, "A Cuckoo in the Nest", published in 1922. Again reviewers praised its humour, and again Travers turned it into a playscript. The actor Lawrence Grossmith spotted the dramatic possibilities of this story, and he acquired the performing rights to the play. Before Grossmith had time to produce the piece, he had an offer from the actor-manager Tom Walls to buy the rights. Walls was in