Leon Errol

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Leon Errol (July 3, 1881 - October 12, 1951), was an Australian-born American comedian and actor, popular in the first half of the 20th century.

Born Leonce Errol Sims in Sydney, he managed a traveling vaudeville troupe and gave a young comedian named Roscoe Arbuckle his first professional opportunity. In America, Errol became a well-known vaudevillian who appeared in the Ziegfeld Follies on Broadway, and played skits with such notables as Bert Williams and W. C. Fields. Errol's sister, Leda Errol (née Sims), appeared with him in the Follies.

Errol made a successful transition to films in a variety of comedy roles (over 150 films from 1923). His comic trademark was a wobbly, unsteady walk, moving as though his legs were made of rubber; this bit served him well in drunk routines.

Leon Errol is well remembered for his energetic performances in the Mexican Spitfire movies opposite Lupe Vélez (1939-43), in which Errol had the recurring dual role of affable Uncle Matt and foggy British nobleman Lord Epping. Monogram Pictures signed Errol to appear as fight manager Knobby Walsh in the "Joe Palooka" sports comedies (1946-50). Leon Errol's most famous non-series appearance is in the nonsensical comedy feature Never Give a Sucker an Even Break (1941), starring fellow vaudeville and Ziegfeld alumnus W. C. Fields.

Errol concurrently starred in a long string of two-reel comedy shorts, which began at Columbia Pictures in 1933. Moving to RKO Radio Pictures in 1934, he continued to make six shorts per year until his death in 1951. Most of these were marital farces in which Leon would get mixed up with a pretty girl or an involved business proposition, and face the wrath of his wife (usually Dorothy Granger). Errol's last film, Lord Epping Returns, reprised his famous characterization (and some of the gags) from Mexican Spitfire.

Footage from the Leon Errol short subjects was incorporated into RKO's compilation features Variety Time, Make Mine Laughs, Footlight Varieties, and Merry Mirthquakes. RKO kept Leon Errol in the public eye by reissuing his older comedies through the mid-1950s. His RKO shorts soon became a staple of syndicated television.

Errol married Stella Chatelaine (born 1886) in Denver, Colorado in 1906. She died on November 7, 1946 in Los Angeles. Errol died there, five years later, on October 12, 1951, aged 70. They had no children.

External links

• Leon Errol at the Internet Movie Database