- Bohnen was blacklisted in 1949 during the "Red Scare"; some claim this contributed to his fatal heart attack that year.
- Was just 7 years older than Dana Andrews, who played his son in The Best Years of Our Lives (1946).
- He was one of the original members of the Group Theatre (1931-40), the acting ensemble that brought the Konstantin Stanislavski system to the Broadway theater, changing the style of American acting. A few of its members became Hollywood stars--Franchot Tone and John Garfield--but, on the dissolution of the company, many of its members found work as well-paid character actors in Hollywood films. Bohnen was also one of the founders of the Actors Lab in Los Angeles, the place where Marilyn Monroe first studied acting seriously.
- In Hollywood, particularly during the 1940s, character actor Bohnen often played men much older than his true age, due to his prematurely wizened features. He was a key stock actor for director Lewis Milestone, who cast him in four films: Of Mice and Men (1939), Edge of Darkness (1943), The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (1946), and Arch of Triumph (1948).
- Father: Carl Bohnen; Mother: Lottie Johnston.
- He was greatly admired by Orson Welles, who said he was one of the best actors in America.
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