With early beginnings in the silent era, Granville G. Withers moved into talkies establishing himself with an impressive list of headlined features as a young and handsome male lead.
He had worked as an oil company salesman and newspaper reporter before breaking into movies near the end of the silent era. His more than 30-year acting career took off in the late 1920s, while in his 20s, when his hairy-chested rugged good looks made him the leading man over such rising talent as James Cagney, who made his film debut in the Withers feature Sinners' Holiday (1930). Taller than John Wayne and just as tough, yet capable of sensitivity, it was his early roles for Warner Bros. Pictures/The Vitaphone Corporation that brought him his highest accolades. Withers' early work had him opposite such major talent as W. C. Fields, Buster Keaton, Mae West and Shirley Temple.
Starring roles in major pictures later dwindled to supporting parts, mainly as villains in B-movies and serials. Notable exceptions included a 12-part Jungle Jim movie serial by Universal Pictures, starring Grant Withers, in 1937 and the recurring role of the brash police Captain Bill Street in Monogram's Mr. Wong series beginning in 1938.
He was under a Republic Term Contract from February, 1944 through April, 1954. Withers' film credits at Republic number about 60 from 1937 - 1957. From 1940 on he was pretty much a character actor as a popular Western tough guy taking numerous supporting roles in television as his demand in film work waned.
