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Walter Catlett

 
American Theater Guide: Walter Catlett
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Catlett, Walter (1889–1960), character actor. The bespectacled, cigar‐chomping comedian who usually played rambunctious “wise guys,” was born in San Francisco and spent his earliest theatrical years with West Coast troupes. In the 1910s and 1920s he was notable in many Broadway musicals, especially Sally (1920) and Lady, Be Good! (1924), in which he introduced the title song. He later performed in many films.

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Actor: Walter Catlett
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  • Born: Feb 04, 1889 in San Francisco, California
  • Died: Nov 14, 1960 in Woodland Hills, California
  • Occupation: Actor, Writer
  • Active: '30s-'40s
  • Major Genres: Comedy, Musical
  • Career Highlights: Pinocchio, Rain, The Front Page
  • First Major Screen Credit: Second Youth (1924)

Biography

Walter Catlett began his acting career in stock companies in his hometown of San Francisco. After attending St. Ignacious College, he reached New York in 1911 in the musical The Prince of Pilsen. Catlett's dithering comic gestures and air of perpetual confusion won him a legion of fans and admirers when he starred in several editions of The Ziegfeld Follies, and in the Ziegfeld-produced musical comedy Sally, in which he appeared for three years. Catlett made a handful of silent film appearances, but didn't catch on until the advent of talking pictures allowed moviegoers to see and hear his full comic repertoire. Usually sporting horn-rimmed spectacles or a slightly askew pince-nez, Catlett played dozens of bumbling petty crooks, pompous politicians and sleep-benumbed justices of the peace. Hired for a few days' work in Howard Hawks' Bringing Up Baby (1938), Catlett proved so hilarious in his portrayal of an easily befuddled small-town sheriff that his role was expanded, and he was retained off-screen to offer advice about comic timing to the film's star, Katharine Hepburn. In addition to his supporting appearances, Catlett starred in several 2-reel comedies, and was co-starred with his lifelong friend Raymond Walburn in the low-budget "Henry" series at Monogram. Busy until a few short years before his death, Walter Catlett appeared in such 1950s features as Davy Crockett and the River Pirates (1956), Friendly Persuasion (1956) and Beau James (1957) (as New York governor Al Smith). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Wikipedia: Walter Catlett
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Walter Catlett
Born February 4, 1889(1889-02-04)
San Francisco, California, U.S.
Died November 14, 1960 (aged 71)
Woodland Hills, California, U.S.
Occupation Actor
Years active 1924 – 1957
Spouse(s) Ruth Verney (? - ?)
Zanetta Watrous (? - ?)

Walter Catlett (February 4, 1889 – November 14, 1960) was an American actor.

Contents

Early Career

Catlett was born in San Francisco, California. He made a career by playing excitable, officious blowhards. As a San Francisco citizen, he started out in vaudeville with a detour for a while in opera before breaking into films in the mid-1920s.

Disney's Pinocchio

Catlett also provided the voice of Foulfellow the Fox in the 1940 Disney animated film Pinocchio.

The "Talkies"

Catlett made a handful of silent film appearances but his film career did not catch on until the advent of talking pictures allowed movie-goers see his full comic repertoire. Three of his most remembered roles were as the stage manager given to distraction by James Cagney in Yankee Doodle Dandy, the local constable who throws the entire cast in jail and winds up there himself in the Howard Hawks classic screwball comedy Bringing Up Baby, and as Morrow, the drunken poet in the restaurant who "knows when [he's] been a skunk" and takes Longfellow Deeds on a "bender" in Mr. Deeds Goes to Town.

Other Roles

Catlett also appeared as hotel resort tycoon 'Timber Applegate' in the musical film Lady, Let's Dance which starred ice skating sensation 'Belita' and James Ellison. Audiences seemed to enjoy seeing unpleasant things happen to Catlett onscreen. In the drama Manpower, Catlett supplies comedy relief as a hospital patient who has spent months in traction with both arms and both legs broken. On the day of his release, he slips on the hospital steps, and is once again put in traction, with both arms and both legs broken. In the 1950s, he appeared in films like Davy Crockett and the River Pirates, Friendly Persuasion and Beau James.

Death

Walter Catlett died of a stroke in 1960 in Woodland Hills, California. His interment was at Holy Cross Cemetery.

External links

Walter Catlett at the Internet Movie Database



This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

 
 

 

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American Theater Guide. The Oxford Companion to American Theatre. Copyright © 2004 by Oxford University Press, Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more
Actor. Copyright © 2009 All Media Guide, LLC. All rights reserved.  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Walter Catlett".  Read more