Swanee River
The Story of Stephen C. Foster - The Great American Troubadour
Swanee River is a 1940 American biopic about Stephen Foster, a songwriter from Pittsburgh who falls in love with the South, marries a Southern girl, then is accused of sympathizing when the Civil War breaks out. Typical of 20th Century Fox biopics of the time, the film is more fictional than factual biography.
Director Sidney Lanfield
Cast
Esther Dale
Temperance Woman
Eleanor Hansen
Bit Role
Arthur Rankin
Clerk
Harry Tyler
Pianist
Don Ameche
Stephen Foster
Russell Hicks
Andrew McDowell
Nella Walker
Mrs. McDowell
George Meeker
Henry Foster
Georgia Caine
Ann Rowan
William Newell
Bill, Stagehand
Herbert Rawlinson
Army Officer
Charles Trowbridge
Mr. Foster
Clara Blandick
Mrs. Griffin
George H. Reed
Old Joe, McDowell's Coachman
Les Clark
Specialty
Robert Emmett Keane
Drunken Agitator
Charles Tannen
Morrison Foster
James Blaine
Bartender
Bert Moorhouse
Attendant
Al Jolson
Edwin P. Christy
George P. Breakston
Ambrose
Robert Homans
Sheriff
Selmer Jackson
Army Medical Examiner
James C. Morton
Bartender
Harry Depp
Dresser
Jesse Graves
Butler
George Magrill
Agitator
David Newell
Guest
Mae Marsh
Mrs. Jonathan Fry (uncredited)
Harry Strang
Boat Captain
Lloyd Whitlock
Critic
George O'Hanlon
Ticket Taker
Gladden James
Hotel Clerk
Tom Seidel
Bellboy
Andrea Leeds
Jane McDowell Foster
Ruth Clifford
Bit Role
Hal K. Dawson
Drunken Man on Riverboat
Claire Du Brey
Woman in Cafe
Dora Clement
Nurse
Billy Wayne
Agitator
Chick Chandler
Bones
Richard Clarke
Tom Harper
Edward LeSaint
Jonathan Fry, Justice of the Peace
Forbes Murray
Critic
Harry Tenbrook
Jim, Saloon Waiter
Leona Roberts
Mrs. Foster
Edward Earle
Master of Ceremonies
Charles Halton
Pond
John Hamilton
Doctor
Larry Steers
Man on Riverboat
Matthew Beard
Negro Boy
Felix Bressart
Henry Kleber
Harry Hayden
Erwin