Joseph Cawthorn
Joseph Cawthorn (March 29, 1868, New York City, New York – January 21, 1949, Beverly Hills, California[1]) was an American stage and film comic actor.
Biography
Cawthorn started out in show business as a child, debuting at Robinson's Music Hall in his hometown of New York in 1872.[2] He appeared in minstrel shows and vaudeville as a "Dutch" comic, employing a thick German dialect.[3] He later worked in British music halls and American touring companies.
Cawthorn made his Broadway debut in 1895,[4] 1897[3] or 1898,[1] and embarked on a long career lasting over two decades. His first success was playing Boris in Victor Herbert's 1898 operetta The Fortune Teller. Other notable Broadway roles included the title character in Mother Goose (1903) and inventor Dr. Pill in the fantasy musical Little Nemo (1908). In the latter, he was called upon to ad lib to buy time during one performance. As "the scene called for him to describe imaginary animals he had hunted",[2] he invented the "whiffenpoof" on the spot.[3] Yale students in the audience appropriated it for the name of their glee club.[3]
When his Broadway stardom waned, Cawthorn moved to Hollywood in 1927 and started a second prolific career, appearing in over 50 films, the last in 1942. He played Gremio in the first sound adaptation of The Taming of the Shrew in 1929, starring Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks; Schultz in Gold Diggers of 1935; and Florenz Ziegfeld's father in The Great Ziegfeld (1936).
Cawthorn died peacefully on January 21, 1949. He was survived by his wife, actress Queenie Vassar.
Complete filmography
- The Secret Studio (1927)
- Two Girls Wanted (1927)
- Very Confidential (1927)
- Silk Legs (1927)
- Hold 'Em Yale (1928)
- Dance Hall (1929)
- Speakeasy (1929)
- Street Girl (1929)
- The Taming of the Shrew (1929)
- Jazz Heaven (1929)
- Dance Hall (1929)
- Dixiana (1930)
- The Princess and the Plumber (1930)
- Kiki (1931)
- A Tailor Made Man (1931)
- The Runaround (1931)
- Peach O'Reno (1931)
- White Zombie (1932)
- Love Me Tonight (1932)
- They Call It Sin (1932)
- Men Are Such Fools (1932)
- Whistling in the Dark (1933)
- Grand Slam (1933) (uncredited)
- Blondie Johnson (1933)
- Made on Broadway (1933)
- Best of Enemies (1933)
- Broken Dreams (1933)
- Cold Turkey (1933 short)
- The Cat and the Fiddle (1934)
- Lazy River (1934)
- Glamour (1934)
- Twenty Million Sweethearts (1934)
- The Last Gentleman (1934)
- Housewife (1934)
- The Human Side (1934)
- Young and Beautiful (1934)
- Sweet Adeline (1934)
- Music in the Air (1934)
- Sweet Music (1935)
- Naughty Marietta (1935)
- Gold Diggers of 1935 (1935)
- Smart Girl (1935)
- Bright Lights (1935)
- Page Miss Glory (1935)
- Harmony Lane (1935)
- Freshman Love (1936)
- The Great Ziegfeld (1936)
- Brides Are Like That (1936)
- One Rainy Afternoon (1936)
- Hot Money (1936)
- Crime Over London (1936)
- Lillian Russell (1940)
- Scatterbrain (1940)
- So Ends Our Night (1941)
- The Postman Didn't Ring (1942)
References
- 1 2 Joseph Cawthorn at the Internet Broadway Database
- 1 2 "Oxford Companion to American Theatre: Joseph Cawthorn". answers.com. Retrieved June 15, 2011.
- 1 2 3 4 Hischak, Thomas S. (2008). The Oxford Companion to the American Musical: Theatre, Film, and Television. Oxford University Press. p. 138. ISBN 0-19-533533-3. Retrieved June 15, 2011.
- ↑ "Joseph Cawthorn Biography". starpulse.com. Retrieved June 15, 2011.
External links
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