Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Trained as an engineer, he drifted almost accidentally into acting in 1916. Following WW I service as an officer, he gained acting experience in vaudeville and on the legitimate stage before returning to the screen in 1921. After playing supporting roles in several major Hollywood productions, he gained prominence as the suave star of Charlie Chaplin's A WOMAN OF PARIS (1923). He was thereafter typecast as a dapper, debonair man-of-the-world in countless other films, mostly sophisticated drawing room comedies, at first as a leading man and later as a character actor. Menjou's trademarks were a waxed black mustache and an impeccable wardrobe. For years he was known as Hollywood's and one of the world's best-dressed men, a reputation he worked hard to achieve as part of his star image. In 1947, Menjou cooperated with the House Un-American Activities Committee's investigative hearings in Hollywood, where he took a smug, hard-line, anticommunist stance and pointed an accusing finger at a number of his Hollywood colleagues. The last two of his three marriages were to screen actresses, Kathryn Carver (1927-33) and Verree Teasdale (from 1934). His autobiography, It Took Nine Tailors, was published in 1947.    Nominated for Actor 1930-31: THE FRONT PAGE 1 nomination