William Demarest
1892 - 1983
BIO.
One of Hollywood's most durable character players, the crusty but lovable Demarest, like many of his contemporaries, came from a varied show-business background that included carnival, vaudeville, stock, and Broadway work; he was even a professional boxer.
He was signed with Warner Bros. pictures in 1926, where he was briefly paired with Clyde Cook as a "Mutt and Jeff"-style comedy team. Demarest's late-silent and early-talkie roles varied in size, becoming more consistently substantial in the late 1930s. His specialty during this period was a bone-crushing pratfall, a physical feat he was able to perform into his 60s.
In movies from 1927 he played cops, pugs, reporters, promoters, and other Brooklynese types. Writer-director Preston Sturges exploited Demarest's baleful qualities-and his ability to do breathtaking pratfalls-in a string of hilarious characterizations, including the crooked politician in The Great McGinty (1940), the suspicious valet in The Lady Eve (1941), the hardboiled Marine sergeant in Hail the Conquering Hero (1944), and Betty Hutton's dyspeptic dad in The Miracle of Morgan's Creek (1944).
For his role as Al Jolson's fictional mentor Steve Martin in The Jolson Story (1946), Demarest was Oscar-nominated (the actor had, incidentally, appeared with Jolie in 1927's The Jazz Singer).
He joined the cast of the TV series "My Three Sons" in 1965 as Uncle Charley after William Frawley died, and stayed until 1972. An avid golfer, he was still playing in his 80s, and appearing in celebrity tournaments.
OTHER FILMS INCLUDE: 1929: The Broadway Melody 1935: Diamond Jim, The Good Fairy 1937: Easy Living 1938: Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm 1939: Mr. Smith Goes to Washington 1942: Pardon My Sarong 1946: The Jolson Story (earning an Oscar nomination); 1947: The Perils of Pauline 1948: The Night Has a Thousand Eyes 1949: Jolson Sings Again, Sorrowful Jones 1952: What Price Glory? 1963: It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World 1965: That Darn Cat
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