Character Actors-The Mortar Between the Bricks

101. Bobs Watson

Actor | What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?

Born in Los Angeles almost a year after the start of Great Depression. Bob (whose nickname 'Bobs' was given to him by his father, and for legal and professional reasons he adopted professionally) is from a family of 9 siblings; 6 boys and 3 girls. He made his first on-screen appearance as a (...

Good crier

102. Dickie Moore

Actor | Gabriel Over the White House

Dickie Moore made his acting and screen debut at the age of 18 months in the 1927 John Barrymore film The Beloved Rogue (1927) as a baby, and by the time he had turned 10 he was a popular child star and had appeared in 52 films. He continued as a child star for many more years, and became the ...

103. Guy Kibbee

Actor | Mr. Smith Goes to Washington

Beginning his show business career at age 13 as an entertainer on Mississippi riverboats, Guy Kibbee graduated to the legitimate stage and spent many years in the theater. In the 1930s he was signed by Warner Brothers, and became part of what was known as "the Warner Brothers Stock Company", a ...

Good at playing old fools, lecherous old fools, and wise old fools

104. Abner Biberman

Actor | His Girl Friday

Abner Biberman was born on April 1, 1909 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA. He was a director and actor, known for His Girl Friday (1940), The Golden Mistress (1954) and Winchester '73 (1950). He was married to Sibil Kamban (editor), Helen Churchill Dalby and Tolbie Snyderman. He died on June 20, 1977 ...

"She's not an albino. She was born right here in this country"

105. Clem Bevans

Actor | Saboteur

Born in 1879, Clem Bevans spent most of his performing career on the stage. First appearing in 1900 in a vaudeville act with Grace Emmett as a boy and girl act, he would move on to burlesque and eventually make the move to Broadway and even opera productions. His first screen appearance did not ...

One of the 'go-to' crotchety old-guy actors

106. Herman Bing

Actor | The Great Waltz

Herman Bing was born on March 30, 1889 in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. He was an actor and assistant director, known for The Great Waltz (1938), Redheads on Parade (1935) and Sweethearts (1938). He was married to Carla Lichtenstein. He died on January 9, 1947 in Los Angeles, California, USA.

Thick German accent for comedic effect

107. Sig Ruman

Actor | To Be or Not to Be

Wonderfully talented German-born actor, capable of tremendous comedic and dramatic performances, usually as some type of pompous bureaucrat or similarly arrogant individual. Ruman was born on October 11, 1884, in Hamburg, Germany, and actually studied electrotechnology in college before making the ...

All kinds of Eastern European doctors, experts and fools

108. Felix Bressart

Actor | The Shop Around the Corner

With his lanky frame, big nose, toothbrush moustache and horn-rimmed glasses he looked like someone had decided to cross Groucho Marx with Albert Einstein. The perennial scene-stealer Felix Bressart had two distinct careers as a comic actor: an earlier one, on stage and screen in his native Germany...

Looked a little like Groucho, very warm-heated comic characters

109. Curt Bois

Actor | Der Himmel über Berlin

Curt had one of the longest careers in film history appearing in films at the age of 8, In 1933 he fled Germany to seek artistic freedom in New York where he quickly captivated audiences in his many stage appearances. After a few years Hollywood beckoned with the mot productive period of his career...

110. Norman Lloyd

Actor | Dead Poets Society

Norman Lloyd was born Norman Perlmutter in Jersey City, New Jersey, to Sadie (Horowitz), a housewife and singer, and Max Perlmutter, a furniture store manager. His family was Jewish (from Hungary and Russia). He began his acting career in the theater, first "treading the boards" at Eva Le Gallienne...

Very versatile, played a memorable bad guy in "Saboteur". Still alive at 101

111. Otto Kruger

Actor | Saboteur

The grandnephew of South African pioneer and former president Paul Krüger, Otto Kruger trained for a musical career from childhood, but after enrolling in Columbia University he switched his career choice to acting. Making his Broadway debut in 1915, at 30, he shortly became a matinée idol of the ...

Good at playing slick bad guys, but gentle good guys as well

112. Una O'Connor

Actress | Bride of Frankenstein

Delightful character actress who held her own against such acting heavyweights as Charles Laughton, Boris Karloff, Tyrone Power, Barbara Stanwyck, and Sydney Greenstreet. Often cast by studio heads as comic relief thanks to her thick Irish accent and rubber-faced expressions, most notably in ...

Salt-of-the-earth English biddies and gossips

113. Una Merkel

Actress | The Parent Trap

Una Merkel began her movie career as stand-in for Lillian Gish in the movie The Wind (1928). After that, she performed on Broadway before she returned to movies for the D.W. Griffith film Abraham Lincoln (1930). In her early years, before gaining a few pounds, she looked like Lillian Gish, but ...

Lovely Southern lilt in her voice, played both common-sense dames and screwballs

114. Allyn Joslyn

Actor | I Wake Up Screaming

Allyn Joslyn, the son of a Pennsylvania mining engineer, made his stage debut at 17. He was soon appearing regularly in Broadway productions, and headed for Hollywood in 1936, making his debut in They Won't Forget (1937). His nervous, at times dyspeptic demeanor and somewhat aristocratic looks fit ...

Stolid, conservative suckers

115. Glenda Farrell

Actress | Girl Missing

Glenda Farrell began as the archetypal wisecracking blonde in 1930s gangland films like Little Caesar (1931) and I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932). Diminutive, grey-eyed and undeniably sassy, she was a seasoned performer long before Warner Brothers snapped her up as a contract player in 1929...

Spoke faster than any other wise-cracking dame in 30s Hollywood

116. Hoagy Carmichael

Soundtrack | To Have and Have Not

Award-winning songwriter ("Stardust", "Ole Buttermilk Sky", "Georgia on My Mind"), composer, pianist, actor and singer, educated at Indiana University (LL.B). He played piano in the college bands, and later gave up a law practice for a career in songwriting. He joined ASCAP in 1931, and his chief ...

Musician, world-class songwriter, and welcome sight as gentle, supporting character

117. Frank Moran

Actor | Sullivan's Travels

Frank Moran was born on March 18, 1887 in Cleveland, Ohio, USA. He was an actor, known for Sullivan's Travels (1941), Battle of Broadway (1938) and No More Women (1934). He died on December 14, 1967 in Hollywood, California, USA.

Beefy, bass-voiced comic relief tough guy. Part of the Preston Sturges stock company

118. Torben Meyer

Actor | Judgment at Nuremberg

Torben Meyer was born on December 1, 1884 in Århus, Denmark. He was an actor, known for Judgment at Nuremberg (1961), Sullivan's Travels (1941) and The Last Warning (1928). He died on May 22, 1975 in Hollywood, California, USA.

Mittel-european comic actor. Part of the Preston Sturges stock company

119. Willie Best

Actor | The Hidden Hand

One of the hard-working, unappreciated African-American actors of Hollywood's "Golden Era" who produced good work with what he was given. He starred alongside some of film's great comedians including the Marx Brothers, Bob Hope, Laurel and Hardy and three films with Shirley Temple. Best is ...

Black character actor, forced to play every black stereotype in 30s and 40s. Manged to maintain some dignity because of his innate talent.

120. Sidney Blackmer

Actor | Rosemary's Baby

Sidney Blackmer, the Tony-award winning actor who played Teddy Roosevelt in seven movies, is best remembered by today's movie audiences for his turn as the warlock/coven-leader Roman Castevet in Roman Polanski's Rosemary's Baby (1968).

Born and raised in Salisbury, North Carolina, where he made his ...

121. Clara Blandick

Actress | The Wizard of Oz

Clara Blandick was an American actress born as Clara Dickey and born aboard an American ship off the coast of Hong Kong on June 4, 1880. Little is known about her early life until she became an actress. She grew up in Boston and first acted on stage in E.H. Sothern's 'Richard Lovelace'. Although ...

Aunty Em

122. Charley Grapewin

Actor | The Wizard of Oz

This old codger film favorite, born in 1869 (some reports say 1875), got into the entertainment field at an early age, first as a circus performer (aerialist and trapeze artist). When acting sparked his interest, he worked in a series of stock companies while writing stage plays that he himself ...

Uncle Henry

123. Margaret Hamilton

Actress | The Wizard of Oz

Margaret Hamilton was born December 9, 1902 in Cleveland, Ohio, to Jennie (Adams) and Walter Hamilton. She later attended Hathaway Brown School in Shaker Heights, Ohio, and practiced acting doing children's theater while a Junior League of Cleveland member. Margaret had already built her resume ...

The Wicked Witch of the West

124. Beulah Bondi

Actress | It's a Wonderful Life

Character actress Beulah Bondi was a favorite of directors and audiences and is one of the reasons so many films from the 1930s and 1940s remain so enjoyable, as she was an integral part of many of the ensemble casts (a hallmark of the studio system) of major and/or great films, including The Trail...

Always appeared old, even before she was. Played many mothers and grandmothers.

125. Aline MacMahon

Actress | Kind Lady

Aline MacMahon was born of Scottish-Irish and Russian-Jewish ancestry on May 3,1899, the daughter of William Marcus MacMahon and Jennie Simon MacMahon. Her father became editor-in-chief of Munsey's Magazine, while her mother pursued a theatrical acting career from middle-age and lived to age107. ...

Versatile Warner Bros. stock player.

126. Alice Brady

Actress | My Man Godfrey

Alice Brady was born in New York City on November 2, 1892. She was interested in the stage from childhood, as her father was famed Broadway producer William A. Brady. After a few stage productions, Alice was discovered by movie producers in New York, since this was the film capital at the time. Her...

127. Dan Tobin

Actor | Woman of the Year

Dan Tobin's career in Hollywood as a small part supporting player spanned three decades, beginning in 1939. Adding to his slightly shifty appearance -- squinty eyes, high cheekbones and generally sporting a thin moustache -- was a fussy, bumptious manner, which made him ideal typecasting as ...

128. J. Farrell MacDonald

Actor | Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans

J. Farrell MacDonald was born on April 14, 1875 in Waterbury, Connecticut, USA. He was an actor and director, known for Sunrise (1927), My Darling Clementine (1946) and The Great Lie (1941). He was married to Edith Bostwick. He died on August 2, 1952 in Hollywood, California, USA.

Played a lot of crusty but warmhearted Irish cops

129. Regis Toomey

Actor | The Big Sleep

Pittsburgh-born and -raised character actor Regis Toomey, of Irish descent, took an early interest in the performing arts and initially studied drama at the university of his home town. One of four children of Francis X. and Mary Ellen Toomey, John Regis Toomey initially pondered a law career, but ...

130. Charles Coleman

Actor | Poor Little Rich Girl

Charles Coleman was born on December 22, 1885 in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. He was an actor, known for Poor Little Rich Girl (1936), It Started with Eve (1941) and Becky Sharp (1935). He was married to Beatrice. He died on March 8, 1951 in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA.

Butlers

131. Roscoe Karns

Actor | His Girl Friday

On stage since age 15, Roscoe Karns parlayed his machine-gun delivery and street-wise demeanor (although many thought of him as a New Yorker, he was actually from San Bernardino, California) into character roles in dozens of films from the 1920s to the 1960s. His peak period, though, was in the ...

132. Ned Sparks

Actor | 42nd Street

Ned Sparks proved himself a top character support whose style would be imitated for decades to come. Although less remembered now, he was an inimitable cinematic player back in 1930s Hollywood. The nasal-toned, deadpan comedian Sparks was born Edward A. Sparkman in Guelph, Canada, and was raised ...

Brilliantly deadpan and monotone

133. Gladys George

Actress | The Roaring Twenties

One of the finest, if relatively short-lived, character actresses of Hollywood, during the 1930s and 1940, Gladys George was born into an acting family who were literally on the road at the time of her birth.

Her parents were actually English and touring with a Shakespearean theater company in ...

134. Barton MacLane

Actor | The Maltese Falcon

Barton MacLane graduated from Wesleyan University, where he displayed a notable aptitude for sports, in particular football and basketball. Not surprisingly, his physical prowess led to an early role in The Quarterback (1926) with Richard Dix. MacLane once commented that, as an actor, he needed to ...

135. Jimmy Conlin

Actor | Sullivan's Travels

Jimmy Conlin was born on October 14, 1884 in Camden, New Jersey, USA. He was an actor, known for Sullivan's Travels (1941), Calling Philo Vance (1940) and The Sin of Harold Diddlebock (1947). He was married to Dorothy Julia Ryan, Myrtle Glass and Lillian Grace Steel (actress). He died on May 7, ...

Part of the Preston Sturges stock company. Before movies, had a successful vaudeville act with his wife.

136. Percy Kilbride

Actor | Ma and Pa Kettle Back on the Farm

He had a long career in theater before making movies, playing hundreds of roles, mostly rustic bumpkins, in stage and stock. His film career included two isolated early films: White Woman (1933) and Soak the Rich (1936). It began in earnest with the part of Orion Peabody in the Spencer Tracy-...

Pa Kettle

137. Pert Kelton

Actress | The Music Man

Vaudevillain, Broadway player and, for one decade from 1929, screen actress often in comedic roles. She also appeared in character parts in a handful of 60s films. She is memorable as the original - and the most believable - Alice Kramden, wife of Ralph Kramden (immortalized by Jackie Gleason), in ...

Delightful wise-cracking dame. Also Widda Paroo

138. John Fiedler

Actor | 12 Angry Men

Typical of busy character actors, Fiedler made his face (and voice) recognizable to millions. Many know the bald-pated Fiedler as therapy patient "Mr. Peterson" on The Bob Newhart Show (1972); others might first recognize him for the 1968 movie, The Odd Couple (1968), and spin-off TV show, The Odd ...

Voice of Piglet

139. Elisha Cook Jr.

Actor | House on Haunted Hill

Although this pint-sized actor started out in films often in innocuous college-student roles in mid-30s rah-rahs, playing alongside the likes of a pretty Gloria Stuart or a young, pre-"Oz" Judy Garland, casting directors would soon enough discover his flair for portraying intense neurotics or ...

Long career playing hard-luck crooks

140. Whit Bissell

Actor | The Magnificent Seven

Whit Bissell came to Hollywood in the 1940s, and by the time he retired he had appeared in more than 200 movies and scores of TV series. He is best known for playing the evil scientist who turned Michael Landon into a half beast in the 1957 cult classic film I Was a Teenage Werewolf (1957). Bissell...

141. Mike Mazurki

Actor | Some Like It Hot

With an intimidating face like craggy granite and a towering 6'5" solid frame, Mike Mazurki (born Mikhail Mazuruski or Mikhail Mazurkiewicz) was one of cinema's first serial thugs and specialized in playing strongarm men, gangsters and bullies for over 50 years on screen. Nearly always portrayed as...

142. Rags Ragland

Actor | Girl Crazy

Rags Ragland was a boxer, then a burlesque comedian and then a Broadway performer before ending up in Hollywood to repeat his stage role as the boisterous sailor in Panama Hattie (1942), in which Ann Sothern played on film the part that had been played on Broadway by Ethel Merman. Ragland, typecast...

143. Jerome Cowan

Actor | Miracle on 34th Street

Jerome Cowan was one of Hollywood's most prolific and instantly recognizable character actors. His trademark pencil-thin mustache and slicked back hair, immaculate suits and sophisticated manner were his stock-in-trade for impersonating an assortment of rejected husbands, shifty politicians, ...

144. Thomas Gomez

Actor | Key Largo

After graduating from high school in 1923, Thomas Sabino Gomez answered a help wanted ad, which resulted in his joining the Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne theater group. Prior to that time he had not considered acting as a career. He continued working as an actor with the Lunts, traveling across ...

145. E.E. Clive

Actor | Bride of Frankenstein

Edward E. Clive was a Welsh-born actor/manager, initially, it seemed, slated for a medical career. After four years, he suddenly elected to abandon his studies at the University of Wales. For the next ten years, he trod the boards in diverse theatrical productions across Britain, becoming adept at ...

146. Henry Kolker

Actor | Holiday

Stalwart character actor Henry Kolker appeared on the Broadway stage from 1904, comedy being his forte early on. Later, as a leading man in romantic dramas, he partnered famous stars like Alla Nazimova. Moving on to films in 1914 as actor/director, he became noted in particular for directing ...

Stuffy businessmen and stuffier fathers

147. Franklin Pangborn

Actor | Hail the Conquering Hero

Franklin Pangborn - a name more befitting a fictionalized bank president rather than a great comedic actor - was a singular character actor but little is known of his early years. He spent some time in developing acting talent prior to appearing on Broadway by March of 1911, and would do six plays ...

Fussbudget

148. Nat Pendleton

Actor | The Thin Man

Brawn won out over brain as well when it came to wrestler athlete Nat Pendleton's professional movie career. For two decades, this massively-built, dark-haired, good-looking lug played a number of kind-hearted lunkheads, goons, henchmen and Joe Palooka-like buffoons.

Nathaniel Greene Pendleton was ...

Beefy lunkhead, even when playing cops

149. Frank Faylen

Actor | It's a Wonderful Life

American character actor who specialized in average-guy parts and who could be equally effective in sympathetic or unlikeable roles. His parents, the vaudeville team of Ruf and Cusik, took him onstage with them when he was a baby, and Faylen grew up in the theatre. He attended St. Joseph's ...

Played many taxi drivers

150. Robert Warwick

Actor | In a Lonely Place

A prominent matinée stage and silent-film star with handsome features offset only slightly by a prominent proboscis, Robert Warwick was born and raised in Sacramento, California, as Robert Taylor Bien. The gift of music was instilled at an early age (he sang in his church choir) and he initially ...

151. Cecil Kellaway

Actor | Guess Who's Coming to Dinner

Though a native of South Africa, Cecil Kellaway spent many years as an actor, author and director in Australian live theatre until he tried his luck in Hollywood in the 1930s. Finding he could get only gangster bit parts, he got discouraged and returned to Australia. Then William Wyler called and ...

Dr. Chumley and other warm older gentlemen

152. Harold Huber

Actor | The Thin Man

Harold Huber was born on December 5, 1909 in New York City, New York, USA. He was an actor and producer, known for The Thin Man (1934), Charlie Chan on Broadway (1937) and The Lady and the Mob (1939). He was married to Ethel Silverberg. He died on September 29, 1959 in New York City, New York, USA.

Warmer Bros. comic and not-so-comic hoods

153. Warren Hymer

Actor | Bluebeard's Eighth Wife

Warren Hymer was born on February 25, 1906 in New York City, New York, USA. He was an actor, known for Bluebeard's Eighth Wife (1938), The Lady and the Mob (1939) and Up the River (1930). He was married to Beau Williams and Virginia Meyer. He died on March 25, 1948 in Los Angeles, California, USA.

Played many comic, dopey bodyguards and thugs

154. Hobart Cavanaugh

Actor | A Letter to Three Wives

Worried-looking, balding, moustachioed and usually bespectacled small part character actor, prolific during the 1930s and 40s. Hobart Cavanaugh played downtrodden or henpecked little men -- the perennial victim, forever nervous or bewildered -- to absolute perfection. He was most at home as clerks,...

155. Paul Guilfoyle

Actor | The Grapes of Wrath

American character actor. Upon his entry into films in 1930, he was typecast as a weakling or criminal type. He received great acclaim for his role as Garth Esdras, the haunted and hunted accessory to murder in Winterset (1936). Memorable as the weaselly convict who tries to kill James Cagney at ...

Good at both sleazy and innocent

156. Joseph Cawthorn

Actor | White Zombie

Cawthorn made his stage debut in 1872 at the age of four. At nine, he went to England and played in music halls for four years. In 1898, Cawthorn made his debut on Broadway and carried on a successful career for some twenty-five years. Moving to Hollywood in 1927, he began a career as a character ...

157. Russell Hicks

Actor | The Little Foxes

Tall, distinguished-looking Russell Hicks appeared in almost 300 films in his more than 40-year career (although his first known screen appearance was in 1915, he has screenwriting credits as early as 1913, so it's possible his screen debut was earlier than credited). His cultured bearing, ...

158. George Sidney

Actor | In Hollywood with Potash and Perlmutter

George Sidney was born on March 15, 1877 in Nagynichal, Hungary. He was an actor, known for In Hollywood with Potash and Perlmutter (1924), Around the Corner (1930) and Sweet Daddies (1926). He was married to Carey Weber. He died on April 29, 1945 in Los Angeles, California, USA.

Broad Jewish characters

159. Percy Helton

Actor | The Set-Up

One of the most familiar faces and voices in Hollywood films of the 1950s. Percy Helton acted almost from infancy, appearing in his father's vaudeville act. The famed Broadway producer David Belasco cast Helton in a succession of child roles over several years, giving the boy an invaluable ...

Became the go-to 'weasel' character in film-noirs

160. Tully Marshall

Actor | Scarface

Tully Marshall intended to pursue a legal career, until he tried a dramatic course at Santa Clara University. He started stage work in San Francisco in 1883 and moved to New York in 1887, where he played in various roles on Broadway and on the road. After a few small parts in films he was given the...

161. Bert Roach

Actor | So Long Letty

Chubby silent film comic Bert Roach began on the New York stage at the age of 17. In 1911, he headlined in the two-act musical farce Louisiana Lou and then spent several years in stock as a lead tenor. Two years later, he made his screen debut at Keystone in Mack Sennett's Fatty's Magic Pants (1914)...

Silent and talkies.

162. Elizabeth Patterson

Actress | Dinner at Eight

A dainty but nevertheless feisty character actress, southern-bred (Mary) Elizabeth Patterson was born in Savannah, Tennessee, on November 22, 1874, and started her career over her strict parent's objections. She became a member of Chicago's Ben Greet Players, performing Shakespeare at the turn of ...

Spinster aunts

163. Tom Kennedy

Actor | The Adventurous Blonde

Once a boxer, brawny character actor Tom Kennedy began his film career early in the silent era. He frequently played big, dumb, likable, working-class types, such as in The Case of the Stuttering Bishop (1937). He also worked with W.C. Fields, The Marx Brothers, and Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy in ...

Usually some kind of a big galoot

164. Edgar Kennedy

Actor | Duck Soup

Edgar Kennedy, who was born on April 26, 1890, near Monterey, California, hit the road as a young man and traveled across the country, working in a succession of jobs. He became a professional boxer, claiming to have gone 14 rounds against The Manassas Mauler, Jack Dempsey.

In addition to his ...

Perfected the 'slow-burn'

165. Leon Errol

Actor | Mexican Spitfire

Leon Errol was born on July 3, 1881 in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. He was an actor, known for Mexican Spitfire (1939), The Girl from Mexico (1939) and Mexican Spitfire's Elephant (1942). He was married to Stella Bertha Nelson (aka Stella Chatelaine, dancer). He died on October 12, 1951 in ...

Broad characters, broad comedy

166. Harry Carey

Actor | Mr. Smith Goes to Washington

Born in New York City to a Judge of Special Sessions who was also president of a sewing machine company. Grew up on City Island, New York. Attended Hamilton Military Academy and turned down an appointment to West Point to attend New York Law School, where his law school classmates included future ...

Was a Western star when Westerns were still something new

167. Jack La Rue

Actor | Road to Utopia

Discovered on Broadway by director Howard Hawks, La Rue was originally brought to Hollywood to play a gangster in Scarface (1932). He lost that role to George Raft, and similarly was replaced by Humphrey Bogart in the film version of The Petrified Forest (1936). Eventually, he became well-known to ...

Good at playing sleazy

168. Lyle Talbot

Actor | The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet

Lyle Talbot, who appeared in over 150 movies from leads in Warner Bros.' "pre-Code" pictures to countless supporting roles, and later enjoyed a steady TV career as a character actor, was born Lysle Henderson on February 8, 1902, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He grew up in a small town in Nebraska, ...

A Warner Bros. stalwart

169. Joyce Compton

Actress | The Awful Truth

Joyce Compton was born on January 27, 1907 in Lexington, Kentucky, USA. She was an actress, known for The Awful Truth (1937), Christmas in Connecticut (1945) and Bedtime Story (1941). She was married to William Francis Kaliher. She died on October 13, 1997 in Los Angeles, California, USA.

Specialized in adorable and Southern

170. Ted Healy

Actor | Mad Love

Ted Healy was was born Ernest Lea Nash and grew up as a very good friend of Moses "Moe" and Samuel "Shemp" Horwitz (later Moe and Shemp Howard). In the '20s he changed his name to Ted Healy and got Moe, Shemp, and a violinist named Larry Feinberg (later Larry Fine) to do vaudeville acts with him as...

Formed the Stooges. Comic relief even in serious films.

171. Gene Lockhart

Actor | His Girl Friday

Gene Lockhart was born on July 18, 1891, in London, Ontario, Canada, the son of John Coates Lockhart and Ellen Mary (Delany) Lockhart. His father had studied singing and young Gene displayed an early interest in drama and music. Shortly after the 7-year-old danced a Highland fling in a concert ...

172. George Meeker

Actor | High Sierra

This durable co-star-turned-character man had the steely eyes and overall slickness of somebody never to trust...and for good reason. For over two decades George Meeker fit the bill as the guy you loved to hate in movies. Frequently the spineless third wheel of a romantic triangle, he always lost ...

173. Millard Mitchell

Actor | Singin' in the Rain

Millard Mitchell was born to American parents in Havana, Cuba. He was a popular stage and radio actor in the 1930's in New York, where he also filmed his first cinema appearances (industrial short features). His first Hollywood role was in Mr. and Mrs. North (1942). After World War II, Mitchell ...

174. Frank Morgan

Actor | The Wizard of Oz

Jovial, somewhat flamboyant Frank Morgan (born Francis Wuppermann) will forever be remembered as the title character in The Wizard of Oz (1939), but he was a veteran and respected actor long before he played that part, and turned in outstanding performances both before and after that film. One of ...

The Wizard.

175. Louise Closser Hale

Actress | Shanghai Express

An endearing veteran of the U.S. and London stages before entering films at the advent of sound, matronly Louise Closser Hale would also earn recognition as a novelist. Born Louise Closser in Chicago, Illinois on October 13, 1872, she was the daughter of a well-to-do grain dealer. She began her ...

176. Alan Hale

Actor | The Adventures of Robin Hood

Alan Hale decided on a film career after his attempt at becoming an opera singer didn't pan out. He quickly became much in demand as a supporting actor, starred in several films for Cecil B. DeMille and directed others for him. With the advent of sound, Hale played leads in a few films but soon ...

177. Pedro Armendáriz

Actor | From Russia with Love

Born in Mexican revolution times, Pedro Armendáriz was the first child of Mexican Pedro Armendáriz García-Conde and American Adele Hastings. He was raised in Churubusco, then a suburb of Mexico City, before the family traveled to Laredo, Texas. They lived there until 1921, the year Armendáriz' ...

178. Chris-Pin Martin

Actor | King of the Bandits

Chris-Pin Martin was born on November 19, 1893 in Tucson, Arizona, USA. He was an actor, known for King of the Bandits (1947), Four Frightened People (1934) and Under Strange Flags (1937). He died on June 27, 1953 in Montebello, California, USA.

Played a lot of foolish Mexicans. Such was Hollywood in the 30s and 40s.

179. Lupe Velez

Actress | The Girl from Mexico

Lupe Velez was born on July 18, 1908, in San Luis Potosi, Mexico, as Maria Guadalupe Villalobos Velez. She was sent to Texas at the age of 13 to live in a convent. She later admitted that she wasn't much of a student because she was so rambunctious. She had planned to become a champion roller ...

Played a lot of foolish Mexican dames. Such was Hollywood in the 30s and 40s.

180. Jessie Ralph

Actress | Captain Blood

Jessie Ralph was a sailor's daughter, who first came to the stage at the age of 16, performing with a stock company in either Boston, Massachusetts, or Providence, Rhode Island (accounts differ). The year was 1880, and it took Jessie another 26 years to make her debut on the Great White Way in "The...

Played cranky old dames. Sometimes with a heart of gold. Sometimes without.

181. Sam Levene

Actor | After the Thin Man

Sam Levene was the actor who originated "craps-shooter extraordinaire" Nathan Detroit in the seminal American musical "Guys and Dolls" on the Great White Way in the original 1950 production. Levene was not a good singer and had trouble staying in key, so his solo number "Sue Me" had to be written ...

Tough guy comic cop. Created the role of Nathan Detroit on Broadway.

182. Eve Arden

Actress | Our Miss Brooks

Eve Arden was born Eunice Mary Quedens in Mill Valley, California (near San Francisco), and was interested in show business from an early age. At 16, she made her stage debut after quitting school to join a stock company. After appearing in minor roles in two films under her real name, Eunice ...

The apex of wise-cracking sidekicks.

183. Jack Carson

Actor | Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

When Jack Carson arrived in Hollywood in 1937, he found work at RKO as an extra. His first major acting role came alongside Humphrey Bogart in the romantic comedy Stand-In (1937). After a few years, he developed into a popular character actor who would be seen in a large number of comedies, ...

Mr. Versatility

184. Douglass Dumbrille

Actor | The Ten Commandments

Distinguished character villain Douglass (R.) Dumbrille, whose distinctive stern features, beady eyes, tidy mustache, prominent hook nose and suave, cultivated presence graced scores of talking films, was born on October 13, 1889, in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. He was first employed as a bank clerk ...

185. Etienne Girardot

Actor | The Kennel Murder Case

Etienne Girardot was born on February 22, 1856 in London, England, UK. He was an actor, known for The Kennel Murder Case (1933), The Garden Murder Case (1936) and The Dragon Murder Case (1934). He was married to Dr. Violetta Shelton. He died on November 10, 1939 in Hollywood, California, USA.

186. Lionel Stander

Actor | The Transformers: The Movie

Lionel Stander, the movie character actor with the great gravelly voice, was born on January 11th, 1908 in The Bronx borough of New York City. Stander's acting career was derailed when he was blacklisted during the 1950s after being exposed as a Communist Party member during the House Un-American ...

Great comic gravelly voice and gravelly personality

187. Rhys Williams

Actor | How Green Was My Valley

Moviegoers can be forgiven if they thought that stocky, jaunty Rhys Williams was a jovial Irishman, as he often played that type of character, but his role as a Welsh miner in John Ford's classic How Green Was My Valley (1941) (his film debut) was much closer to home for him, as he was born and ...

188. Melville Cooper

Actor | The Adventures of Robin Hood

Born George Melville Cooper on October 15, 1896, in Birmingham England, he was the son of non-professionals W.C.J. and Frances (Brennan) Cooper, and attended various English public schools, including King Edward's School in Birmingham. Attracted to the stage as a teenager, he made his debut at ...

189. Sheldon Leonard

Producer | Make Room for Daddy

Sheldon Leonard was born in New York City's lower Manhattan, the son of Jewish parents. He studied acting at Syracuse University and, after graduating, landed a job on Wall Street. Following the Wall Street crash of 1929, he found himself unemployed and resolved to become a professional actor on ...

190. Marvin Kaplan

Actor | It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World

Marvin Kaplan was born on January 24, 1927 in Brooklyn, New York, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World (1963), Wild at Heart (1990) and The Great Race (1965). He was married to Rosa Felsenburg. He died on August 25, 2016 in Tarzana, California, USA.

191. Agnes Moorehead

Actress | The Magnificent Ambersons

Agnes was born of Anglo-Irish ancestry near Boston, the daughter of a Presbyterian minister (her mother was a mezzo-soprano) who encouraged her to perform in church pageants. Aged three, she sang 'The Lord is my Shepherd' on a public stage and seven years later joined the St. Louis Municipal Opera ...

Covered the entire range as a star, co-star, supporting actor and character actor. One of the best.

192. Ruth Hussey

Actress | The Philadelphia Story

A graduate of the University of Michigan School of Drama, Ruth Hussey's first show-business job was as a fashion commentator on a local radio station. She journeyed to New York City, where she was signed as a model by the world-famous Powers agency. She obtained some stage roles with touring ...

193. Carl 'Alfalfa' Switzer

Actor | Second Childhood

Carl Switzer was an American child actor, singer, dog breeder, and hunting guide from Paris, Illinois. He became famous for portraying Alfalfa in the film series "Our Gang" during the 1930s. His character was one of the most memorable characters ever portrayed in the series. Later in his career, ...

194. Paul Stanton

Actor | Bachelor Mother

Paul Stanton was born on December 21, 1884 in Sterling, Illinois, USA. He was an actor, known for Bachelor Mother (1939), Across the Pacific (1942) and It Could Happen to You (1937). He died on October 9, 1955 in Los Angeles, California, USA.

195. Harlan Briggs

Actor | Dodsworth

Harlan Briggs was born on August 17, 1879 in Blissfield, Michigan, USA. He was an actor, known for Dodsworth (1936), My Pal Trigger (1946) and Live, Love and Learn (1937). He was married to Merle Ione Weeks, Viola Marguerite Scott and Mary E. Brockway. He died on January 26, 1952 in Woodland Hills,...

196. Arthur Hoyt

Actor | It Happened One Night

Extremely prolific actor/director of the silent screen, on Broadway from 1905. Hoyt joined the acting fraternity through the recommendations of an uncle, who worked as dramatic editor for a Cleveland tabloid. Signed by theatrical producer George C. Tyler (1868-1946), he began on stage (earning $10 ...

197. George Lloyd

Actor | Idol of the Crowds

George H. Lloyd was a steady, faithful character actor, mostly appearing in Westerns during his years in Hollywood (1933 - 1955). He retired from film acting in 1955, settling down with his wife in a house in Los Angeles city proper. In 1962, he and his wife divorced; as a consequence of the ...

198. Arthur Hohl

Actor | Island of Lost Souls

Arthur Hohl was born on May 21, 1889 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. He was an actor, known for Island of Lost Souls (1932), Show Boat (1936) and Jimmy the Gent (1934). He died on March 10, 1964 in Los Angeles County, California, USA.

199. George E. Stone

Actor | Some Like It Hot

A minor prototype of the "Runyon-esque" character for more than three decades, Polish-born actor George E. Stone (né Gerschon Lichtenstein, on May 18, 1903) was, in actuality, a close friend of writer Damon Runyan and would play scores of colorful "dees, dem and dos" cronies throughout the 1920s, '...

Little guy, played a lot brothers and sidekicks.

200. Arthur Byron

Actor | The Mummy

Arthur Byron was born on April 3, 1872 in Brooklyn, New York, USA. He was an actor, known for The Mummy (1932), 20,000 Years in Sing Sing (1932) and Marie Galante (1934). He was married to Kathryn Byron and Lillian Hall (actress). He died on July 17, 1943 in Hollywood, California, USA.