Biography
Neal Dodd (1879–1966) was an American actor and ordained Episcopal priest who frequently appeared in uncredited roles as ministers, priests or chaplains in Hollywood films from the 1920s to the early 1950s.
Born in Fort Madison, Iowa, he graduated from Nashotah House seminary in 1907 and was ordained in the Diocese of Milwaukee. He moved into film work in the silent era, serving as a technical director on early productions including The Furnace (1920) and as a religious advisor on D.W. Griffith’s Intolerance (1916). Dodd became known as “the padre of Hollywood” and was the first clergyman to join the Screen Actors Guild.
He appeared in dozens of films, often performing on-screen weddings, including It Happened One Night (1934), Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), Scarlet Street (1945), The Killers (1946), The Stranger (1946) and Born to Kill (1947). He also performed more than 700 marriages in real life and was a founding secretary of the Motion Picture Relief Fund.
