Charles Ellsworth Grapewin was born on December 20, 1869, in Xenia, Ohio. He ran away from home to join a circus as a young man and worked as an aerialist and trapeze artist in a traveling circus before turning to acting. Grapewin traveled the world with the famous P. T. Barnum circus and later appeared in the original 1903 Broadway production of The Wizard of Oz.
Grapewin's early career in the theater was marked by appearances in various stock companies and the writing of stage plays as a vehicle for himself. His sole Broadway credit was the short-lived play It's Up to You John Henry in 1905.
Grapewin married actress Anna Chance in 1896, and they remained devoted to each other for 47 years until her death in 1943. Two years later, he married Loretta McGowan Becker on January 10, 1945.
Grapewin began his career in silent films at the turn of the twentieth century. His first films were two "moving image shorts" made by Frederick S. Armitage and released in November 1900. During his long career, Grapewin appeared in more than one hundred films, including The Good Earth, The Grapes of Wrath, Tobacco Road, and his most famous role as Uncle Henry in The Wizard of Oz.
Grapewin also had a recurring role as Inspector Queen in the Ellery Queen film series of the early 1940s. He died of natural causes on February 2, 1956, at the age of 86, and his ashes were interred with his wife's in Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California, at the Great Mausoleum's Columbarium of Inspiration.
Throughout his life, Grapewin was known for his ability to portray elderly folksy-type characters in a rustic setting. He was the oldest cast member of The Wizard of Oz and appeared in over 100 films during his career.
