Career Highlights: His Girl Friday, Caught in the Draft, The Amazing Mr. Williams
First Major Screen Credit: The Law West of Tombstone (1938)
Biography
American actor Clarence Kolb came to prominence in the very early 1900s, as one half of the stage comedy team of Kolb and Dill. Kolb and his partner Max Dill were Dutch-dialect comics, their act patterned after the more famous Weber and Fields. The team supplemented their stage appearances with a brief series of short film comedies, released between 1916 and 1917. It wasn't until Kolb struck out on his own that he developed his familiar screen persona of the bullying, excitable business tycoon with the requisite heart of gold. Playing virtually the same part in virtually the same clothes in film after film, Kolb continued his patented characterization in the role of Mr. Honeywell on the popular '50s TV sitcom My Little Margie. Clarence Kolb's final screen appearance was in Man of 1000 Faces (1957), the screen biography of Lon Chaney Sr. For this guest appearance, Kolb decked himself out in his old Dutch vaudeville costume and false beard and played "himself," while character actor Danny Beck portrayed Kolb's stage cohort Max Dill(who'd died in 1949). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Clarence Kolb (July 31, 1874—November 25, 1964) was an Americanvaudeville performer and actor.
Clarence Kolb was born in Cleveland, Ohio, the only child of second generation Austrian parents who owned a local meat company. He started out as one half of a vaudeville comedy act with Max Dill, and they styled themselves on the famous Weber and Fields. In addition to their stage work, they appeared in a series of short films and a feature film in 1917. Afterwards he made a return to vaudeville, and only returned to the film scene in the late 1930s.
He became famous for portraying the same type of character in many films, namely a politician or businessman. He is best remembered for the role of the father in the comedy Merrily We Live in 1938, the corrupt mayor in the comedy film His Girl Friday (1940), and as Mr. Honeywell in the television sitcom My Little Margie (1952). He played himself in his last film appearance, Man of a Thousand Faces (1957), alongside Danny Beck who played the late Max Dill.