Easy Living

Jean Arthur (Actor) .. Mary Smith

Born: October 17, 1900
Died: June 19, 1991
Birthplace: Plattsburgh, New York, United States

Trivia: The daughter of a commercial artist, Jean Arthur became a model early in life, then went on to work in films. Whatever self-confidence she may have built up was dashed when she was removed from the starring role of Temple of Venus (1923) after a few days of shooting. It was the first of many disappointments for the young actress, but she persevered and, by 1928, was being given co-starring roles at Paramount Pictures. Arthur's curious voice, best described as possessing a lilting crack, ensured her work in talkies, but she was seldom used to full advantage in the early '30s. Dissatisfied with the vapid ingenue, society debutante, and damsel-in-distress parts she was getting (though she was chillingly effective as a murderess in 1930's The Greene Murder Case), Arthur left films for Broadway in 1932 to appear in Foreign Affairs. In 1934, she signed with Columbia Pictures, where, at long last, her gift for combining fast-paced verbal comedy with truly moving pathos was fully utilized. She was lucky enough to work with some of the most accomplished directors in Hollywood: Frank Capra (Mr. Deeds Goes to Town [1936], You Can't Take It With You [1938], Mr. Smith Goes to Washington [1939]); John Ford (The Whole Town's Talking [1935]); and Howard Hawks (Only Angels Have Wings [1937]). Mercurial in her attitudes, terribly nervous both before and after filming a scene -- she often threw up after her scene was finished -- and so painfully shy that it was sometimes difficult for her to show up, she was equally fortunate that her co-workers were patient and understanding with her . Arthur could become hysterical when besieged by fans, and aloof and nonresponsive to reporters. In 1943, she received her only Oscar nomination for The More the Merrier (1943), the second of her two great '40s films directed by George Stevens (Talk of the Town [1942] was the first). After her contract with Columbia ended, she tried and failed to become her own producer. She signed to star in the 1946 Broadway play Born Yesterday -- only to succumb to a debilitating case of stage fright, forcing the producers to replace her at virtually the last moment with Judy Holliday. After the forgettable comedy The Impatient Years in 1944, Arthur made only two more films: Billy Wilder's A Foreign Affair (1948), and George Stevens' classic Shane (1952). She also played the lead in Leonard Bernstein's 1950 musical version of Peter Pan, which co-starred Boris Karloff as Captain Hook. In the early '60s, the extremely reclusive Arthur tentatively returned to show business with a few stage appearances and as an attorney on ill-advised 1966 TV sitcom, The Jean Arthur Show, which was mercifully canceled by mid-season. Surprisingly, the ultra-introverted Arthur later decided to tackle the extroverted profession of teaching drama, first at Vassar College and then the North Carolina School of the Arts; one of her students at North Carolina remembered Arthur as "odd" and her lectures as somewhat whimsical and rambling. Retiring for good in 1972, she retreated to her ocean home in Carmel, CA, steadfastly refusing interviews until her resistance was broken down by the author of a book on her one-time director Frank Capra. She died in 1991.

Edward Arnold (Actor) .. J.B. Ball

Born: February 18, 1890
Died: April 26, 1956

Trivia: Hearty American character actor Edward Arnold was born in New York to German immigrant parents. Orphaned at 11, Arnold supported himself with a series of manual labor jobs. He made his first stage appearance at 12, playing Lorenzo in an amateur production of The Merchant of Venice at the East Side Settlement House. Encouraged to continue acting by playwright/ journalist John D. Barry, Arnold became a professional at 15, joining the prestigious Ben Greet Players shortly afterward. After touring with such notables as Ethel Barrymore and Maxine Elliot, he did bit and extra work at Chicago's Essanay Film Studios and New Jersey's World Studios during the early 'teens. Hoping to become a slender leading man, Arnold found that his fortune lay in character parts, and accordingly beefed up his body: "The bigger I got, the better character roles I received," he'd observe later. Following several seasons on Broadway, Arnold made his talking picture debut as a gangster in 1933's Whistling in the Dark. He continued playing supporting villains until attaining the title role in Diamond Jim (1935), which required him to add 25 pounds to his already substantial frame; he repeated this characterization in the 1940 biopic Lillian Russell. Other starring roles followed in films like Sutter's Gold (1936), Come and Get It (1936) and Toast of New York (1937), but in 1937 Arnold's career momentum halted briefly when he was labelled "box office poison" by a committee of film exhibitors (other "poisonous" performers were Joan Crawford and Katharine Hepburn!) Undaunted, Arnold accepted lesser billing in secondary roles, remaining in demand until his death. A favorite of director Frank Capra (who frequently chided the actor for the "phony laugh" that was his trademark), Arnold appeared in a trio of Capra films, playing Jimmy Stewart's millionaire father in You Can't Take It With You (1938), a corrupt political boss in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), and a would-be fascist in Meet John Doe (1941). Despite the fact that he was not considered a box-office draw, Arnold continued to be cast in starring roles from time to time, notably Daniel Webster in 1941's The Devil and Daniel Webster and blind detective Duncan Maclain in Eyes in the Night (1942) and The Hidden Eye (1945). During the 1940s, Arnold became increasingly active in politics, carrying this interest over into a radio anthology, Mr. President, which ran from 1947 through 1953. He was co-founder of the "I Am an American Foundation," an officer of Hollywood's Permanent Charities Committee, and a president of the Screen Actors Guild. Though a staunch right-wing conservative (he once considered running for Senate on the Republican ticket), Arnold labored long and hard to protect his fellow actors from the persecution of the HUAC "communist witch-hunt." Edward Arnold's last film appearance was in the "torn from today's headlines" potboiler Miami Expose (1956).

Ray Milland (Actor) .. John Ball Jr.

Born: January 03, 1907
Died: March 10, 1986
Birthplace: Neath, Wales

Trivia: Welsh actor Ray Milland spent the 1930s and early 1940s playing light romantic leads in such films as Next Time We Love (1936); Three Smart Girls (1936); Easy Living (1937), in which he is especially charming opposite Jean Arthur in an early Preston Sturges script; Everything Happens at Night (1939); The Doctor Takes a Wife (1940); and the major in Billy Wilder's The Major and the Minor opposite Ginger Rogers. Others worth watching are Reap the Wild Wind (1942); Forever and a Day (1943), and Lady in the Dark (1944). He made The Uninvited in 1944 and won an Oscar for his intense and realistic portrait of an alcoholic in The Lost Weekend (1945). Unfortunately, it was one of his last good films or performances. With the exception of Dial M for Murder (1954), X, The Man With X-Ray Eyes (1953), Love Story (1970), and Escape to Witch Mountain (1975), his later career was made up of mediocre parts in mostly bad films. One of the worst and most laughable was the horror film The Thing with Two Heads (1972), which paired him with football player Rosie Grier as the two-headed monster. Milland was also an uninspired director in A Man Alone (1955), Lisbon (1956), The Safecracker (1958), and Panic in Year Zero (1962).

Luis Alberni (Actor) .. Mr. Louis Louis

Born: January 01, 1887
Died: December 23, 1962

Trivia: Spanish-born character actor Luis Alberni spent most of his Hollywood career playing excitable Italians: waiters, janitors, stagehands, and shop proprietors. A short, elfish man usually decked out in a string tie and frock coat, Alberni worked on stage in Europe before heading for Broadway (and the movies) in 1921. He was busiest in the early-talkie era, appearing twice in large, juicy supporting roles opposite John Barrymore. In Svengali, Alberni is Barrymore's long-suffering assistant, while in Mad Genius, he's a dope-addicted stage manager who murders Barrymore in a baroque climax. During World War II, Alberni kept busy playing Italian mayors and peasants, both fascist and partisan. Luis Alberni's final film appearance was as the great-uncle of a "compromised" French peasant girl in John Ford's remake of What Price Glory? (1952)

Mary Nash (Actor) .. Mrs. Jennir Ball

Born: August 15, 1884

Franklin Pangborn (Actor) .. Van Buren

Born: January 23, 1893
Died: July 20, 1958

Trivia: American actor Franklin Pangborn spent most of his theatrical days playing straight dramatic roles, but Hollywood saw things differently. From his debut film Exit Smiling (1926) to his final appearance in The Story of Mankind (1957), Pangborn was relegated to almost nothing but comedy roles. With his prissy voice and floor-walker demeanor, Pangborn was the perfect desk clerk, hotel manager, dressmaker, society secretary, or all-around busybody in well over 100 films. Except for a few supporting appearances in features and a series of Mack Sennett short subjects in the early 1930s, most of Pangborn's pre-1936 appearances were in bits or minor roles, but a brief turn as a snotty society scavenger-hunt scorekeeper in My Man Godfrey (1936) cemented his reputation as a surefire laugh-getter. The actor was a particular favorite of W.C. Fields, who saw to it that Pangborn was prominently cast in Fields' The Bank Dick (1940) (as hapless bank examiner J. Pinkerton Snoopington) and Never Give a Sucker An Even Break (1941). Occasionally, Pangborn longed for more dramatic roles, so to satisfy himself artistically he'd play non-comic parts for Edward Everett Horton's Los Angeles-based Majestic Theatre; Pangborn's appearance in Preston Sturges' Hail the Conquering Hero (1942) likewise permitted him a few straight, serious moments. When jobs became scarce in films for highly specialized character actors in the 1950s, Pangborn thrived on television, guesting on a number of comedy shows, including an appearance as a giggling serial-killer in a "Red Skelton Show" comedy sketch. One year before his death, Pangborn eased quietly into TV-trivia books by appearing as guest star (and guest announcer) on Jack Paar's very first "Tonight Show."

Barlowe Borland (Actor) .. Mr. Gurney

Born: January 01, 1876
Died: January 01, 1948

William Demarest (Actor) .. Wallace Whistling

Born: February 27, 1892
Died: December 28, 1983

Trivia: Famed for his ratchety voice and cold-fish stare, William Demarest was an "old pro" even when he was a young pro. He began his stage career at age 13, holding down a variety of colorful jobs (including professional boxer) during the off-season. After years in carnivals and as a vaudeville headliner, Demarest starred in such Broadway long-runners as Earl Carroll's Sketch Book. He was signed with Warner Bros. pictures in 1926, where he was briefly paired with Clyde Cook as a "Mutt and Jeff"-style comedy team. Demarest's late-silent and early-talkie roles varied in size, becoming more consistently substantial in the late 1930s. His specialty during this period was a bone-crushing pratfall, a physical feat he was able to perform into his 60s. While at Paramount in the 1940s, Demarest was a special favorite of writer/director Preston Sturges, who cast Demarest in virtually all his films: The Great McGinty (1940); Christmas in July (1940); The Lady Eve (1941); Sullivan's Travels (1942); The Palm Beach Story (1942); Hail the Conquering Hero (1944); Miracle of Morgan's Creek (1944), wherein Demarest was at his bombastic best as Officer Kockenlocker; and The Great Moment (1944). For his role as Al Jolson's fictional mentor Steve Martin in The Jolson Story (1946), Demarest was Oscar-nominated (the actor had, incidentally, appeared with Jolie in 1927's The Jazz Singer). Demarest continued appearing in films until 1975, whenever his increasingly heavy TV schedule would allow. Many Demarest fans assumed that his role as Uncle Charlie in My Three Sons (66-72) was his first regular TV work: in truth, Demarest had previously starred in the short-lived 1960 sitcom Love and Marriage.

Andrew Tombes (Actor) .. E.F. Hulgar

Born: January 01, 1889
Died: January 01, 1976

Trivia: Excelling in baseball while at Phillips-Exeter academy, American comic actor Andrew Tombes determined he'd make a better living as an actor than as a ballplayer. By the time he became a headliner in the Ziegfeld Follies, Tombes had performed in everything from Shakespeare to musical comedy. He received star billing in five editions of the Follies in the '20s, during which time he befriended fellow Ziegfeldite Will Rogers. It was Rogers who invited Tombes to Hollywood for the 1935 Fox production Doubting Thomas. An endearingly nutty farceur in his stage roles, Tombes' screen persona was that of an eternally befuddled, easily aggravated business executive. The baldheaded, popeyed actor remained at Fox for several years after Doubting Thomas, playing an overabundance of police commissioners, movie executives, college deans, and Broadway "angels." Tombes' problem was that he arrived in talkies too late in the game: most of the larger roles in which he specialized usually went to such long-established character men as Walter Catlett and Berton Churchill, obliging Tombes to settle for parts of diminishing importance in the '40s. Most of his later screen appearances were unbilled, even such sizeable assignments as the would-be musical backer in Olsen and Johnson's Hellzapoppin' (1941) and the royal undertaker's assistant in Hope and Crosby's Road to Morocco (1942). Still, Tombes was given ample opportunity to shine, especially as the secretive, suicidal bartender in the 1944 "film noir" Phantom Lady. Andrew Tombes last picture was How to Be Very Very Popular (1955), which starred a colleague from his busier days at 20th Century-Fox, Betty Grable.

Esther Dale (Actor) .. Lillian

Born: November 10, 1885
Died: July 23, 1961

Trivia: American actress Esther Dale concentrated her cinematic efforts on portraying warm-hearted aunts, mothers, nurses, neighbors and shopkeepers--though there were a few domineering dowagers along the way. She began her career on a semi-professional basis with a New England stock troupe operated by her husband, Arthur Beckhard. Esther was the resident character actress in stage productions of the late '20s and early '30s featuring such stars-to-be as Henry Fonda and Margaret Sullavan. She first appeared before the cameras in 1934's Crime Without Passion, filmed in Long Island. Esther then moved to Hollywood, where she popped up with increasing frequency in such films as The Awful Truth (1937) (as Ralph Bellamy's mother), Back Street (1941), Margie (1946) and The Egg and I (1947). Her participation in the last-named film led to a semi-regular stint in Universal's Ma and Pa Kettle series as the Kettles' neighbor Birdie Hicks. Esther Dale's last film, made one year before her death, was the John Wayne vehicle North to Alaska (1960), in which she had one scene as "Woman at Picnic."

Harlan Briggs (Actor) .. Office Manager

Born: January 01, 1880
Died: January 26, 1952

Trivia: Diminutive American character actor Harlan Briggs was a vaudeville and stage performer since the turn of the century. After spending three years on Broadway appearing with Walter Huston in the stage adaptation of Sinclair Lewis' Dodsworth, Briggs was brought to Hollywood in 1935 to re-create his role. Because of post-production delays, movie audiences first saw Briggs not in Dodsworth but in Selznick's The Garden of Allah (1936). In films until 1952's Carrie, Harlan Briggs most often portrayed small-town big-wigs, usually with an oversized pipe clamped between his teeth; his most memorable role was as the eminently bribeable Doctor Stall in W.C. Fields' The Bank Dick (1940).

William B. Davidson (Actor) .. Mr. Hyde

Born: June 16, 1888
Died: September 28, 1947

Trivia: Blunt, burly American actor William B. Davidson was equally at home playing gangster bosses, business executives, butlers and military officials. In films since 1914, Davidson seemed to be in every other Warner Bros. picture made between 1930 and 1935, often as a Goliath authority figure against such pint-sized Davids as James Cagney and Edward G. Robinson. In the early '40s, Davidson was a fixture of Universal's Abbott and Costello comedies, appearing in In the Navy (1941), Keep 'Em Flying (1941) and In Society (1944). In Abbott & Costello's Hold That Ghost (1941), Davidson shows up as Moose Matson, the dying gangster who sets the whole plot in motion. An avid golfer, William B. Davidson frequently appeared in the all-star instructional shorts of the '30s starring legendary golf pro Bobby Jones.

Nora Cecil (Actor) .. Miss Swerf

Born: September 26, 1878
Died: May 01, 1954

Trivia: Nora Cecil's earliest known screen credit was 1918's Prunella. Chances are Cecil played then what she'd play in most of her talkie efforts: the tight-lipped, sternly reproving old biddy. She made a good living essaying dozens of battle-ax mothers-in-law, welfare workers, landladies, schoolmistresses and maiden aunts. One of her largest parts was boarding-house keeper Mrs. Wendelschaffer in W.C. Fields' The Old Fashioned Way (1934). Nora Cecil also served as an excellent foil for screen comedians as varied as Laurel and Hardy (1932's Pack Up Your Troubles) and Will Rogers (1933's Dr. Bull).

Robert Greig (Actor) .. Graves, Ball Butler

Born: December 27, 1880
Died: June 22, 1958

Trivia: Endowed with a voice like a bellows and a face like a bullfrog, Australian actor Robert Greig specialized in pompous-servant roles. In Greig's first talking picture, the Marx Brothers' vehicle Animal Crackers (1930), he portrays Hives, Margaret Dumont's imperious butler; Hives dominates the film's opening scene by singing his instructions to the rest of the staff, and later participates in Groucho Marx' signature tune "Hooray for Captain Spaulding". Evidently the Marx Brothers liked his work, for in 1932 Greig was cast as an unflappable chemistry professor in Horse Feathers (1932). In most of his films, Greig played variations of Hives, notably in the wacked-out 1932 comedy short Jitters the Butler, in which he willingly offers his ample derriere to be kicked at the slightest provocation. In 1940, Greig became a member of the informal stock company of writer/producer Preston Sturges. Sturges brought out untapped comic possibilities in all of his favorite character actors; accordingly, Greig's performances in The Lady Eve (1941), Sullivan's Travels (1942) and The Palm Beach Story (1942) are among his best. Fans of Robert Greig's work with Sturges and the Marx Brothers are advised to catch his non-butler roles as the Duke of Weskit in Wheeler and Woolseys Cockeyed Cavaliers (1934) and as the wealthy, gross "protector" of Hedy Lamarr in Algiers (1938).

Vernon Dent (Actor) .. Partner

Born: February 16, 1895
Died: November 05, 1963

Trivia: Actor Vernon Dent launched his career in stock companies and as one-third of a singing cabaret trio. Silent comedian Hank Mann, impressed by Dent's girth (250 pounds) and comic know-how, helped Vernon enter films in 1919. Dent starred in a 2-reel series at the Pacific Film Company, then settled in at Mack Sennett studios as a supporting player, generally cast as a heavy. During his Sennett years, Dent was most often teamed with pasty-faced comedian Harry Langdon, who became his lifelong friend and co-worker. Remaining with Sennett until the producer closed down his studio in 1933, Dent moved to Educational Pictures, where he was afforded equal billing with Harry Langdon; and when Langdon moved to Columbia Pictures in 1934, Dent followed, remaining a mainstay of the Columbia 2-reel stock company until 1953. Here he was featured with such comic luminaries as Andy Clyde, Buster Keaton, Hugh Herbert, Vera Vague, and especially the Three Stooges. Among Dent's dozens of talkie feature-film credits were W.C. Fields' Million Dollar Legs (1932) and You're Telling Me (1934); in one of his rare feature starring roles, Dent played a boisterous, wife-beating sailor in the 1932 "B" Dragnet Patrol. Well-connected politically in the Los Angeles area, Dent supplemented his acting income by running the concession stand at Westlake Park. Vernon Dent retired in the mid-1950s, due to total blindness brought about by diabetes; the ever-upbeat actor was so well-adjusted to his handicap that many of Dent's close friends were unaware that he was blind.

Edwin Stanley (Actor) .. Partner

Born: January 01, 1880
Died: December 24, 1944

Trivia: Following his film debut in the 1916 adaptation of King Lear, actor Edwin Stanley returned to his first love, the stage. Stanley's next appearance was a featured role in the 1932 Columbia "special" Virtue. He spent the next 14 years playing military officers, theatrical producers, and other dignified take-charge characters. A familiar figure on the serial scene, Edwin Stanley played such chapter-play roles as Odette in Dick Tracy (1937), General Rankin in Flash Gordon's Trip to Mars (1938), Dr. Mallory in The Phantom Creeps (1939), and Colonel Bevans in The Mysterious Dr. Satan (1940).

Richard Barbee (Actor) .. Partner

Born: March 30, 1885

Marsha Hunt (Actor) .. Bit

Born: October 17, 1917
Birthplace: Chicago, Illinois

Trivia: American actress Marsha Hunt, born Marcia Hunt, attended the Theodore Irving School of Dramatics while still a teenager. Simultaneously, she worked as a Powers model until she debuted onscreen in The Virginia Judge (1935) at age 18. Hunt went on to become a very busy screen actress through the early '50s. In the '30s she appeared in supporting roles such as bridesmaids and coeds, while in the '40s she played leads in second features and second leads and supporting roles in major productions. In the early '50s, during the heyday of the McCarthy Era "witch hunts," she was blacklisted by the studios for her liberal political beliefs, and after 1952 she appeared in only a handful of films, as well as the TV series Peck's Bad Girl. Through the '80s, however, she still turned up occasionally in character roles on TV. From 1938-43 she was married to editor (now director) Jerry Hopper. After 1946 she was married to movie/TV scriptwriter Robert Presnell Jr., who died in 1986. She remains active in social issues, lending her help to organizations involved with such issues as peace, poverty, population, and pollution; she is a frequent speaker on the issues that concern her, and she serves on nearly a dozen Boards of Directors. She was last onscreen in Johnny Got His Gun (1971).

Lee Bowman (Actor) .. Bit

Born: December 28, 1914
Died: December 25, 1979

Trivia: Bowman attended the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and began a career as a stage actor and radio singer in the '30s. Beginning with his debut in Internes Can't Take Money (1937), he spent seven years playing second leads, often as a playboy thanks to his suave, elegant style and dapper, handsome looks. Bowman hit his stride in the mid '40s, notably in Smash-Up (1947) opposite Susan Hayward. Never a major star, he began concentrating more on his stage work in the late '40s. He briefly starred in the TV series The Adventures of Ellery Queen (1950-51). After the mid '50s Bowman retired from the screen (except for a role in Youngblood Hawke in 1964), after which he went on to become the radio and TV consultant for the Republican Senatorial and Congressional Committee in Washington and later for Bethlehem Steel, coaching politicians and businessmen in speaking and on-camera techniques.

Elisa Connor (Actor) .. Bit

Ethel Clayton (Actor) .. Bit

Born: November 08, 1882
Died: June 11, 1966

Trivia: One of the silent screen's great portrayers of suffering womanhood, blonde Ethel Clayton was publicized as being incapable of giving a bad performance. Unfortunately, most of her vehicles were beneath her and she was playing minor supporting roles by the late '20s. A member of the Frawley Stock Company, Clayton had toured with Edwin Stephens prior to making her screen debut with the Philadelphia-based Lubin Mfg. Company in 1911. She later appeared in six melodramas either co-starring or directed by her husband Joseph Kaufman, including The House Next Door (1914), a Romeo & Juliet-inspired melodrama set among Catholics and Jews in New York. After Kaufman's death in 1918, Clayton married prolific silent screen star Ian Keith, with whom she appeared many years later in The Buccaneer (1938). She continued playing small roles on screen until at least 1948.

Gloria Williams (Actor) .. Bit

Nick Lukats (Actor) .. Bit

Born: May 01, 1911

Bennie Bartlett (Actor) .. Newsboy

Born: August 16, 1927

Jack Raymond (Actor) .. Bum

Born: January 01, 1886
Died: January 01, 1953

Adia Kuznetzoff (Actor) .. Bum

Born: January 01, 1890
Died: August 10, 1954

Trivia: According to his publicity, Russian opera singer-turned-Hollywood bit-part player Adia Kuznetzoff could sing full throttle in "all languages." He did so both often and well in films ranging from the Jeanette MacDonald-Nelson Eddy operetta Maytime (1937) to the 1943 Universal horror flick Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man. Kuznetzoff was in especially fine fettle in the latter, leading the villagers in a rousing rendition of "Faro-La, Faro-Li," a ditty composed for the occasion by Curt Siodmak and Hans J. Salter and containing the chilly refrain: "For life is short, but death is long, Faro-La, Faro-Li!" In the Paramount musical Rainbow Island (1944), Kuznetzoff, as an executioner, equally memorably joined comedian Gil Lamb in a chorus or two of "Boogie-Woogie-Boogie Man."

Florence Dudley (Actor) .. Cashier

Born: January 28, 1902

Bob Murphy (Actor) .. Automat Detective

Born: January 01, 1901
Died: January 01, 1948

Bernard Suss (Actor) .. Man in Automat

Rex Moore (Actor) .. Elevator Boy

Born: January 01, 1899
Died: January 01, 1975

Dora Clement (Actor) .. Saleslady

Born: May 30, 1891

Trivia: Dora Clement (sometimes credited as Dora Clemant) spent most of her professional acting career in the far west of the United States, where she was born, in Spokane, WA, in 1891. The tall, elegant actress -- who made one think of Frieda Inescourt -- was in almost 700 plays before making her Broadway debut in November 1944 in the original cast of Harvey as Betty Chumley (the role played by Nana Bryant in the 1950 movie). By that time, she was no longer doing movies, having been in some 73 of them (usually in uncredited roles) between 1934 and 1942. Most of her movie work involved small roles with no more than a day -- or, at most, a few days' -- shooting at a time, and Clement was able to squeeze them in around acting in the theater and also lecturing and teaching about theater. She usually played smaller roles that required dignity and distinctly middle-aged beauty -- mothers, society matrons, middle-level female executives, and secretaries -- in bigger movies, such as a saleslady in Mitchell Leisen's Easy Living (1937) or the woman under the sunlamp in George Cukor's The Women (1939). She was called by all of the major studios at one time or another, including Fox, MGM, Paramount, and Columbia, but she seemed to get some of her best roles at Universal, most notably in Buck Privates (1941), Abbott & Costello's debut starring vehicle. She actually had three major scenes in that picture (one of them excellent) as Miss Durling, the woman in charge of the camp hostesses (which include co-stars Jane Frazee and the Andrews Sisters). And Clement's most important movie role in terms of plot -- also at Univeral -- was in one of the lowest budgeted vehicles in which she ever appeared, as Ann Zorka, the beloved wife of Bela Lugosi's mad scientist Alex Zorka, in the serial The Phantom Creeps (1939). Her character's death, caused accidentally by her husband in the second chapter -- when he disables a plane carrying the government agents pursuing him (on which his wife, unbeknownst to him, also happens to be traveling) -- pushes Zorka over the edge, to seek revenge on the entire world for the next 10 chapters. In the early '50s, she made a few appearances in various early television dramas and on anthology shows such as Philco Television Playhouse and Goodyear Television Playhouse, but she had retired from that medium, as well, by the middle of the decade. She reportedly passed away a quarter century later in Washington, D.C.

Hayden Stevenson (Actor) .. Chauffeur

Born: July 02, 1877

Arthur Hoyt (Actor) .. Jeweler

Born: May 19, 1873
Died: January 04, 1953

Trivia: Stage actor/director Arthur Hoyt first stepped before the movie cameras in 1916. During the silent era, Hoyt played sizeable roles in such major productions as Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1921) and The Lost World (1925). In sound films, he tended to be typecast as a henpecked husband or downtrodden office worker. One of his mostly fondly remembered talkie performances was as befuddled motel-court manager Zeke in It Happened One Night (1934). Despite advancing age, he was busy in the late 1930s, appearing in as many as 12 pictures per year. In his last active decade, Arthur Hoyt was a member of writer/director Preston Sturges' unofficial stock company, beginning with The Great McGinty (1940) and ending with The Sin of Harold Diddlebock (1947).

Hal K. Dawson (Actor) .. Jeweler

Born: January 01, 1896
Died: February 17, 1987

Trivia: Sad-eyed, mustachioed actor Hal K. Dawson appeared in several Broadway productions of the 1920s. During the run of Machinal, Dawson was the roommate of fellow actor Clark Gable; throughout his later Hollywood career, Gable saw to it that Dawson was given parts in such films as Libeled Lady (1936) and To Please a Lady (1951). Even without Gable's help, Dawson enjoyed a long and productive movie and TV career, usually playing long-suffering personal secretaries and officious desk clerks. Hal K. Dawson was a lifelong member of the Masquers Club, and, in the twilight of his life, was made an honorary member of the Pioneers of Radio Club.

Hector V. Sarno (Actor) .. Armenian Rug Salesman

Born: January 01, 1879
Died: January 01, 1953

Gertrude Astor (Actor) .. Saleswoman

Born: November 09, 1887
Died: November 09, 1977

Trivia: Gertrude Astor did so much work in Hollywood in so many different acting capacities that it's not simple or easy to characterize her career. Born in Lakewood, OH, she joined a stock company at age 13, in the year 1900, and worked on showboats during that era. She played in vaudeville as well, and made her movie debut in 1914 as a contract player at Universal. She was an accomplished rider, which got her a lot of work as a stuntwoman, sometimes in conjunction with a young Maine-born actor named John Ford in pictures directed by the latter's brother, Francis Ford. But Astor soon moved into serious acting roles; a tall, statuesque, angular woman, she frequently towered over the leading men of the era, and was, thus, ideal as a foil in comedies of the 1910s and '20s, playing aristocrats, gold diggers, and the heroine's best friend (had the character of Brenda Starr existed that far back, she'd have been perfect playing Hank O'Hair, her crusty female editor). Astor was the vamp who plants stolen money on Harry Langdon in The Strong Man (1926), Laura La Plante's wisecracking traveling companion in The Cat and the Canary (1927), and the gold digger who got her hooks into Otis Harlan (as well as attracting the attention of fellow sailor Eddie Gribbon) in Dames Ahoy. When talkies came in, Astor's deep, throaty voice assured her steady work in character parts, still mostly in comedy. Her roles weren't huge, but she worked prolifically at Hal Roach studios with such headliners as Laurel and Hardy, in the Our Gang shorts, and especially with Charley Chase, and also worked at Columbia Pictures' short subjects unit. Astor's specialty at this time was outraged dignity; she was forever declaring, "I've never been so embarrassed in all my life!" and stalking out of a slapstick situation, usually with a comedy prop (a balloon, a folding chairs, a cream puff) affixed to her posterior. Astor worked regularly into the early '60s; she was briefly glimpsed as the first murder victim in the Sherlock Holmes adventure The Scarlet Claw (1944) and was among the ranks of dress extras in Around the World in 80 Days (1956). Her longtime friend John Ford also gave her roles in his feature films right into the early '60s, culminating with her appearance in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. Gertrude Astor remained alert and quick-witted into her eighties, cheerfully sharing her memories of the glory days of comedy short subjects with fans and film historians. And in a town that can scarcely remember last year's studio presidents, in 1975, when she was 87 years old, Astor was given a party at Universal, where she was honored by a gathering of old friends, including the directors George Cukor, Allan Dwan, and Henry Hathaway. She passed away suddenly and peacefully on the day of her 90th birthday in 1977.

Lee Phelps (Actor) .. Hotel Detective

Born: January 01, 1894
Died: March 19, 1953

Trivia: Lee Phelps was a longtime resident of Culver City, California, the home of several film studios, including MGM and Hal Roach. Whenever the call went out for street extras, Phelps was always available; his Irish face and shiny pate can be easily spotted in such silent 2-reelers as Laurel and Hardy's Putting Pants on Phillip. Phelps was active in films from 1921 through 1953, often in anonymous bit or atmosphere parts, usually playing a cop or a delivery man. Lee Phelps has found his way into several TV movie-compilation specials thanks to his participation in two famous films of the early '30s: Phelps played the cowering speakeasy owner slapped around by Jimmy Cagney in The Public Enemy (1931), and also portrayed the waterfront waiter to whom Greta Garbo delivers her first talking-picture line ("Gif me a viskey, baby...etc.") in Anna Christie (1930).

Hal Greene (Actor) .. Bellhop

Jesse Graves (Actor) .. Porter

Born: January 01, 1879
Died: January 01, 1949

Frances Morris (Actor) .. Assistant Secretary

Born: August 03, 1908

Trivia: American actress Frances Morris was seen in small utility roles from 1934 to 1961. At first, Morris was cast as gun molls, stewardesses, secretaries, receptionists, and maids. She was exceptionally busy in the 1940s, essaying a variety of WAVES and WACs. The following decade, she was seen in maternal roles (some of them actually given character names) in both films and TV. One of Frances Morris' better assignments was the sympathetic prison warden in the 1952 Loretta Young starrer Because of You.

Sidney Bracey (Actor) .. Chauffeur

Born: January 01, 1877
Died: August 05, 1942

Trivia: You'd never know it from his desiccated, crackly voiced film appearances of the 1930s, but Australian actor Sidney Bracey was once a romantic leading man. The son of actress Clara T. Bracey and lyric tenor Henry Bracey, Sidney began his own stage career at the turn of the century. By 1910, he was starring in American film productions at the old Kalem Studios. Eventually, his short, thin stature worked against his credibility as a virile lover, and Bracey became a character player in such silent features as Ruggles of Red Gap (1922), The Merry-Go-Round (1923), and Courtship of Miles Standish (1923). He was a particular favorite of director King Vidor and comedian Buster Keaton; the latter was among the first to recognize Bracey's potential in low-key "gentleman's gentleman" roles. Sidney Bracey continued playing butlers, valets, and stewards into the early '40s; he was also prominently featured in such short subjects as Our Gang's Second Childhood (1936) and Three Smart Boys (1937).

Lois Clinton (Actor) .. Brunette

Laura Treadwell (Actor) .. Wife

Born: January 01, 1878
Died: January 01, 1960

Virginia Dabney (Actor) .. Blonde

John Dilson (Actor) .. Nervous Man

Born: January 01, 1892
Died: June 01, 1944

Trivia: With his silvery hair and dignified bearing, American actor John Dilson was a natural for "executive" roles. In films from 1935, Dilson was usually seen playing doctors, lawyers and newspaper editors. Occasionally, however, he played against type as sarcastic working stiffs, as witness his bit as an unemployment-office clerk in The Monster and the Girl (1941). John Dilson's larger screen roles can be found in Republic serials like Robinson Crusoe on Clipper Island (1936), and Dick Tracy (1937) and in such two-reel efforts as MGM's "Crime Does Not Pay" series.

Forbes Murray (Actor) .. Husband

Born: November 04, 1884

Trivia: In films from 1937, silver-haired American actor Forbes Murray could be described as a less-costly Claude Rains. Murray lent his middle-aged dignity to such serials as The Spider's Web (1938), Mandrake the Magician (1940), Lone Ranger (1938), Perils of Nyoka (1942), Manhunt of Mystery Island (1945), and Radar Patrol vs. Spy King (1950). He also showed up in quite a few comedies, notably as the bank president who finances the college education of Laurel and Hardy ("Diamonds in the rough," as he describes them) in A Chump at Oxford (1940). Forbes Murray was active at least until 1955.

John Picorri (Actor) .. Oinest

Born: August 04, 1895
Died: July 01, 1976

Trivia: A bit player from England in scores of Hollywood productions from 1935-1943, diminutive, weasel-like John Picorri became a regular supporting villain in Republic serials: the High Priest in Robinson Crusoe of Clipper Island (1936), Rackerby the mad scientist in SOS Coast Guard (1937), Dr. Moloch in Dick Tracy (1937), and Professor Krantz in Drums of Fu Manchu (1940).

Kathleen Hope Lewis (Actor) .. Stenographer

Helen Huntington (Actor) .. Stenographer

Harold Entwistle (Actor) .. Elevator Man

Born: September 15, 1865
Died: April 01, 1944

Trivia: A dignified-looking character actor from England, Harold Entwistle directed an early version of the popular Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch (1914) starring Beatriz Michelena. A character actor thereafter, Entwistle often played kind characters -- ministers, doctors, butlers, and the like. Today, however, he is perhaps best remembered as the real-life uncle of ill-fated starlet Peg Entwistle who, while residing with him in Hollywood's Beachwood Canyon, jumped to her death from the letter "H" in the nearby "Hollywoodland" sign.

Dennis O'Keefe (Actor) .. Office Manager

Born: March 29, 1908
Died: August 31, 1968

Trivia: Born Edward Flanagan, O'Keefe was a lithe, brash, charming, tall, rugged lead actor. The son of vaudevillians, he began appearing onstage in his parents' act while still a toddler. By age 16 he was writing scripts for "Our Gang" comedy shorts. He attended some college and did more work on vaudeville before entering films in the early '30s, appearing in bit roles in more than 50 films under the name Bud Flanagan. His work in a small role in the film Saratoga (1937) impressed Clark Gable, who recommended that he be cast in leads. MGM agreed, so he changed his name to Dennis O'Keefe and went on to play leads in numerous films, beginning with Bad Man of Brimstone (1938). Besides many light action-oriented films, he also appeared in numerous '40s comedies, and later specialized in tough-guy parts. Later in his career he directed a film or two and also wrote mystery stories. In the late '50s O'Keefe starred in the short-lived TV series "The Dennis O'Keefe Show." He was in only two films in the '60s. He died at 60 of lung cancer. His widow is actress Steffi Duna.

Robert E. Homans (Actor) .. Private Guard

Born: January 01, 1875
Died: July 28, 1947

Trivia: Actor Robert Emmett Homans seemingly had the map of Ireland stamped on his craggy face. As a result, Homans spent the better part of his film career playing law enforcement officers of all varieties, from humble patrolmen to detective chiefs. After a lengthy stage career, Homans entered films in 1923. A break from his usual microscopic film assignments occured in Public Enemy (1931), where Homans is given an opportunity to deliver reams of exposition (with a pronounced brogue) during a funeral sequence. And in the 1942 Universal horror programmer Night Monster, Robert Emmett Homans is alotted a sizeable role as the ulcerated detective investigating the supernatural goings-on at the home of seemingly helpless invalid Ralph Morgan.

Stanley Andrews (Actor) .. Captain

Born: August 28, 1891
Died: June 23, 1969

Trivia: Actor Stanley Andrews moved from the stage to the movies in the mid 1930s, where at first he was typed in steadfast, authoritative roles. The tall, mustachioed Adrews became familiar to regular moviegoers in a string of performances as ship's captains, doctors, executives, military officials and construction supervisors. By the early 1950s, Andrews had broadened his range to include grizzled old western prospectors and ageing sheriffs. This led to his most lasting contribution to the entertainment world: the role of the Old Ranger on the long-running syndicated TV series Death Valley Days. Beginning in 1952, Andrews introduced each DVD episode, doing double duty as commercial pitchman for 20 Mule Team Borax; he also became a goodwill ambassador for the program and its sponsor, showing up at county fairs, supermarket openings and charity telethons. Stanley Andrews continued to portray the Old Ranger until 1963, when the US Borax company decided to alter its corporate image with a younger spokesperson -- a 51-year-old "sprout" named Ronald Reagan.

Leonid Snegoff (Actor) .. Chef

Born: January 01, 1883
Died: January 01, 1974

Wilson Benge (Actor) .. Butler

Born: January 01, 1875
Died: July 01, 1955

Trivia: British stage actor and producer Wilson Benge inaugurated his Hollywood career in 1922. From 1925's Lady Windemere's Fan onward, the slight, balding Benge was typecast in butler and valet roles. He played Ronald Colman's faithful retainer Denny in 1929's Bulldog Drummond, performed virtually the same function for Colman as Barraclough the valet in Raffles (1930), and portrayed Brassett in the 1931 version of Charley's Aunt, among many others. His "domestic" career extended to such two-reelers as Laurel and Hardy's Scram (1932). One of Benge's few non-servant roles was supposed murder victim Guy Davies in the 1945 Sherlock Holmes entry The House of Fear. He remained active in films until 1951, essaying still another manservant role in Royal Wedding (1951). Wilson Benge was married to actress Sarah L. Benge, who preceded him in death by one year.

Harry Worth (Actor) .. Hindu

Born: February 06, 1903
Died: November 03, 1975

Trivia: From 1935 until his retirement in 1943, mustachioed Harry Worth (not to be confused with the British silent era actor of the same name) played the quintessential "Boss Villain" in scores of B-Westerns, a thorn in the sides of everyone from Red Ryder to Hopalong Cassidy. In between these assignments, Worth could be found further down the cast lists in Grade-A productions, as a Hindu in Easy Living or a Caballero in The Mark of Zorro (1940). But he was apparently happiest at modest Republic Pictures, where he played Frank James to Don "Red" Barry's Jesse in Days of Jesse James (1939). (For some reason, the studio billed him Michael Worth in that one.) Oilier even than Harry Woods and more refined than Roy Barcroft, Harry Worth was at his hissable best as John Wilkes Booth in Tennessee Johnson (1942) and as a desperate gunman in the Three Mesqueteers series entry Riders of the Rio Grande (1943), his final credited film performance. Worth spent the remainder of his career in unbilled bits.

George Cowl (Actor) .. Bank President

Born: February 24, 1878
Died: April 04, 1942

Trivia: British-born character actor primarily of the silent era whose best-known films are those from the latter portion of his career, George Cowl is said by some sources to have occasionally appeared credited as "George Cowle."

Kate Price (Actor) .. Laundress

Born: February 13, 1872
Died: January 04, 1943

Trivia: Ruddy-cheeked Irish character-actress Kate Price inaugurated her film career in 1914. During the pre-WWI era, Price starred in a number of two-reel comedies for the Lubin company, with such up-and-coming performers as Oliver Hardy in support. She went on to play Mrs. Kelly in several of Universal's Cohens and Kellys series entries, and also showed up as landladies, cooks, maids, and duennas for other studios. Kate Price remained active until 1937, looking pretty much the same as she did when she made her first screen appearance nearly 25 years earlier.

Lu Miller (Actor) .. Housemaid

Amelia Falleur (Actor) .. Housemaid

Don Brodie (Actor) .. Auto Salesman

Born: May 29, 1899
Died: January 08, 2001

Trivia: This callow, mustachioed American actor showed up in utility roles in films beginning in the early 1930s. Usually playing bits in features, Brodie was given a wider range in short subjects, notably as gentleman thief "Baffles" in the 1941 El Brendel 2-reeler Yumpin' Yiminy. Some of his more notable credits include his voiceover work in the Disney cartoon feature Dumbo and his subtly sleazy portrayal of the used car salesman in the noir classic Detour (1946). He also worked off and on as a dialogue director.

Florence Wix (Actor) .. Woman in Hat Shop

Born: January 01, 1882
Died: January 01, 1956

Olaf Hytten (Actor) .. Houseman

Born: January 01, 1888
Died: March 21, 1955

Trivia: Piping-voice, hamster-faced Scottish character actor Olaf Hytten left the British stage for films in 1921. By the time the talkie era rolled around, Hytten was firmly established in Hollywood, playing an abundance of butlers and high-society gentlemen. The actor was primarily confined to one or two-line bits in such films as Platinum Blonde (1931), The Sphinx (1933), Bonnie Scotland (1935), Beloved Rebel (1936), The Howards of Virginia (1940) and The Bride Came COD (1941). He was a semi-regular of the Universal B-unit in the '40s, appearing in substantial roles as military men and police official in the Rathbone/Bruce Sherlock Holmes series and as burgomeisters and innkeepers in the studio's many horror films (Ghost of Frankenstein, House of Frankenstein, etc.) Olaf Hytten was active until at least 1956; one of his more memorable assignments of the '50s was as the larcenous butler who participates in a scheme to drive Daily Planet editor Perry White crazy in the "Great Caesar's Ghost" episode of the TV series Adventures of Superman.

Francis Sayles (Actor) .. Houseman

Born: January 01, 1890
Died: January 01, 1944

William Wagner (Actor) .. Valet

Born: January 01, 1885
Died: January 01, 1964

Trivia: Gaunt character actor William Wagner appeared in nearly 50 feature films -- some of them major productions -- between 1932 and 1948, usually in small roles and bit parts as butlers, anonymous clerks, persnickety store managers, and other such roles. He was only credited in one of them, for his work as the Reverend Turner in the 1938 Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm starring Shirley Temple, and is scarcely remembered in any of them. Millions of people, however, will remember Wagner for his work in three Our Gang/Little Rascals short subjects, as the greedy store owner who tries to steal Pete the dog from the kids in For Pete's Sake (1934); the angry property owner who makes the mistake of sneezing around Stymie's mule Algebra in Honkey Donkey (1934); and the equally unpleasant businessman who tries to drive kindly lemonade seller Gus Leonard out-of-business in The Lucky Corner (1936).

Jack Rice (Actor) .. Clerk

Born: May 14, 1893
Died: December 14, 1968

Trivia: It is quite probable that, in real life, Jack Rice was an all-around good friend and stout fellow. In films, however, the shifty-eyed, weak-chinned Rice was forever typecast as malingerers, wastrels, back-stabbers, and modern-day Uriah Heeps. He was particularly well cast as Edgar Kennedy's shiftless brother-in-law in a series of RKO two-reel comedies produced between 1934 and 1948. Rice also appeared as the snivelly Ollie in 11 entries of Columbia's Blondie series. Jack Rice remained active until 1963, five years before his death.

John Marshall (Actor) .. Osric

Born: September 24, 1755

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