Louis B. Mayer once looked at me and said, 'You will never get the girl at the end'. So I worked on my acting.

Heflin was the grandfather of actor Ben O'Brien and actress Eleanor O'Brien. He played mostly character parts over the course of his film career but during the 1940s had a string of roles as a leading man. in Walters Oklahoma the son of Fanny Bleecker (née Shippey) and Dr.

He won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in Johnny Eager (1942). He played mostly character parts over the course of his film career but during the 1940s had a string of roles as a leading man. Van Heflin (December 13 1910 – July 23 1971) was an American film and theater actor.