AllMovie

American stage and film actor Phillip Coolidge made his first film, Boomerang, in 1948. Since much of the film was shot in Bridgeport, Connecticut, the New York-based actor didn't have to relocate to Hollywood for his brief assignment. Later film roles for Coolidge were on a par with his self-protective small-town mayor in Inherit the Wind (1960)--neither heroic nor villainous, but all too human. Seldom a leading character, Coolidge was always a reassuring presence in the supporting cast, be it as William Windom's brother on the 1960s TV series The Farmer's Daughter or in the teeny-tiny role of closet alcoholic Simon Stimson in the original 1938 Broadway production of Our Town. Phillip Coolidge's best and most recognizable film role was Ollie Higgins, the scheming silent-movie-theatre manager who literally scares his wife to death (and gets a suitable comeuppance) in William Castle's gimmicky thriller The Tingler (1959).