Quotes
 "I was like a kept woman during my twenty-one years at MGM." [On Hollywood] "It was like an expensive, beautifully-run fan club. You didn`t need to carry money. Your face was your credit card - all over the world."
Trivia
According to Salt of the Earth (1954) producer Paul Jarrico, who had been blacklisted during the Red Scare of the 1950s, Pidgeon tried to stop the production of the film (which was being made by blacklistees) in his capacity as president of the Screen Actors Guild, which had signed off on the blacklist. In a 1997 interview, Jarrico said, "There was a concerted effort to stop the making of the film after it became known that we were making the film. We had started the film in quite a normal fashion with contracts with Pate Lab to develop our film and rental of the equipment from Hollywood, people who supplied such things. A whistle was blown by Walter Pidgeon, the then president of the Actors Guild, and the FBI swung into action and movie industries swung into action and we found ourselves barred from laboratories, barred from sound studios, barred from any of the normal facilities available to film makers, and we found ourselves hounded by all kinds of denunciations on the floor of Congress and by columnists. The public was told that we were making a new weapon for Russia, that since we were shooting in New Mexico, where you find atom bombs, you find Communists, and every kind of scurrilous attack - vigilante attacks - on us while we were still shooting developed."
During his early performances on stage, he played a Mountie in the play Rose Marie. After playing this character on stage, Pidgeon became so enthused that he actually applied to join the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Unfortunately he was medically rejected due to his injuries in the army.
Enlisted with the 65th Battery of the Royal Canadian Artillery during the First World War, but was injured during training. As a result spent 17 months recovering at a hospital in Toronto, having never been sent to France.
Had a notoriously poor memory for names, referring to anyone whose name he could not remember as "Joe." This became such a habit that, for his birthday one year, the cast and crew of the picture he was working on bought him a present: A director`s chair enscribed "Joe Pidgeon."
President of Screen Actors Guild (SAG). [1952-1957]
Was nominated for Broadway`s 1960 Tony Award as Best Actor (Musical) for "Take Me Along" -- a award that was won by his co-star Jackie Gleason .
Became U.S.Citizen
Featured baritone in the Broadway production "The Puzzles of 1925."
First wife died in childbirth.
His body donated to UCLA Medical School, Los Angeles, California, USA.
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