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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
1962
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Edward Everett Horton Jr. (March 18, 1886 – September 29, 1970) was an American character actor. He had a long career in film, theater, radio, television, and voice work for animated cartoons. Horton began his stage career in 1906, singing and dancing and playing small parts in vaudeville and in Broadway productions. In 1919, he moved to Los Angeles, California, where he began acting in Hollywood films. His first starring role was in the comedy Too Much Business (1922), but he portrayed the lead role of an idealistic young classical composer in the drama Beggar on Horseback (1925). In the late 1920s, he starred in two-reel silent comedies for Educational Pictures, and made the transition to talking pictures with Educational in 1929. As a stage-trained performer, he found more film work easily, and appeared in some of Warner Bros.' early talkies, including The Terror (1928) and Sonny Boy (1929).
Horton initially used his given name, Edward Horton, professionally. His father persuaded him to adopt his full name professionally, reasoning that other actors might be named Edward Horton, but only one named Edward Everett Horton. Horton soon cultivated his own special variation of the time-honored double take (an actor's reaction to something, followed by a delayed, more extreme reaction). In Horton's version, he would smile ingratiatingly and nod in agreement with what just happened; then, when realization set in, his facial features collapsed entirely into a sober, troubled mask.
Horton starred in many comedy features in the 1930s, usually playing a mousy fellow who put up with domestic or professional problems to a certain point, and then finally asserted himself for a happy ending. He is best known, however, for his work as a character actor in supporting roles. These include The Front Page (1931), Trouble in Paradise (1932), Alice in Wonderland (1933), The Gay Divorcee (1934, the first of several Astaire/Rogers films in which Horton appeared), Top Hat (1935), Danger - Love at Work (1937), Lost Horizon (1937), Holiday (1938), Here Comes Mr. Jordan (1941), Arsenic and Old Lace (1944), Pocketful of Miracles (1961), It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963), and Sex and the Single Girl (1964). His last role was in the comedy film Cold Turkey (1971), in which his character communicated only through facial expressions.
Gender
Male
Birthday
March 17, 1886
Died
September 29, 1970
Birthplace
Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA
Also Known As
The Terror
1928
Little Big Shot
1935
All the King's Horses
1935
Three Men on a Horse
1957
Pocketful of Miracles
1961
Going Highbrow
1935
The Perils of Pauline
1967
Wild Money
1937
The Town Went Wild
1944
Danger – Love at Work
1937
The Magnificent Dope
1942
Sing and Like It
1934
The Sap
1929
The Nutcracker
1926
Your Uncle Dudley
1935
Take the Heir
1930
Angel
1937
The Ghost Goes Wild
1947
Call Again
1928
You're the One
1941
+ 118 more movies
The Mike Douglas Show
1961
Batman
1966
The Merv Griffin Show
1962
I Love Lucy
1951
Burke's Law
1963
Burke's Law
1963
Matinee Theater
1955
Love, American Style
1969
The Bullwinkle Show
1959
The Philco Television Playhouse
1948
December Bride
1954
The Colgate Comedy Hour
1950
The Ed Sullivan Show
1948
F Troop
1965
The Steve Allen Show
1956
Dennis the Menace
1959
The Name of the Game
1968
Nanny and the Professor
1970
The George Gobel Show
1954
The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends
1959
+ 7 more TV shows