Film Snail

Edward Everett Horton

Born · March 17, 1886

Died · September 29, 1970 (84 years old)

Known For: Acting

Place of Birth: Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA

Bio

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Edward Everett Horton Jr. (March 18, 1886 – September 29, 1970) was an American character actor. He had a long career in film, theater, radio, television, and voice work for animated cartoons. Horton began his stage career in 1906, singing and dancing and playing small parts in vaudeville and in Broadway productions. In 1919, he moved to Los Angeles, California, where he began acting in Hollywood films. His first starring role was in the comedy Too Much Business (1922), but he portrayed the lead role of an idealistic young classical composer in the drama Beggar on Horseback (1925). In the late 1920s, he starred in two-reel silent comedies for Educational Pictures, and made the transition to talking pictures with Educational in 1929. As a stage-trained performer, he found more film work easily, and appeared in some of Warner Bros.' early talkies, including The Terror (1928) and Sonny Boy (1929). Horton initially used his given name, Edward Horton, professionally. His father persuaded him to adopt his full name professionally, reasoning that other actors might be named Edward Horton, but only one named Edward Everett Horton. Horton soon cultivated his own special variation of the time-honored double take (an actor's reaction to something, followed by a delayed, more extreme reaction). In Horton's version, he would smile ingratiatingly and nod in agreement with what just happened; then, when realization set in, his facial features collapsed entirely into a sober, troubled mask. Horton starred in many comedy features in the 1930s, usually playing a mousy fellow who put up with domestic or professional problems to a certain point, and then finally asserted himself for a happy ending. He is best known, however, for his work as a character actor in supporting roles. These include The Front Page (1931), Trouble in Paradise (1932), Alice in Wonderland (1933), The Gay Divorcee (1934, the first of several Astaire/Rogers films in which Horton appeared), Top Hat (1935), Danger - Love at Work (1937), Lost Horizon (1937), Holiday (1938), Here Comes Mr. Jordan (1941), Arsenic and Old Lace (1944), Pocketful of Miracles (1961), It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963), and Sex and the Single Girl (1964). His last role was in the comedy film Cold Turkey (1971), in which his character communicated only through facial expressions.

Known for

The Silver Screen: Color Me Lavender

Self (archive footage)

5.2

1997

Cold Turkey

Hiram C. Grayson

6.2

1971

Her Husband's Affairs

J.B. Cruikshank

5.4

1947

Earl Carroll Sketchbook

Dr. Milo Edwards

6.0

1946

Faithful in My Fashion

Hiram Dilworthy

6.3

1946

Cinderella Jones

Keating

3.3

1946

Steppin' in Society

Judge Avery Webster

0.0

1945

Her Primitive Man

Orrin

6.0

1944

Thank Your Lucky Stars

Farnsworth

6.1

1943

I Married an Angel

Peter

5.0

1942

The Magnificent Dope

Horace Hunter

7.2

1942

The Body Disappears

Professor Shotesbury

5.2

1941

Bachelor Daddy

Joseph Smith

0.0

1941

Ziegfeld Girl

Noble Sage

6.5

1941

You're the One

1.0

1941

That's Right – You're Wrong

Tom Village

5.7

1939

The Gang's All Here

Treadwell

5.0

1939

Little Tough Guys in Society

Oliver

6.0

1938

Wild Money

P.E. Dodd

0.0

1937

Oh, Doctor

Edward J. Billop

0.0

1937

The Man in the Mirror

Jeremy Dilke

7.0

1936

Nobody's Fool

Will Wright

0.0

1936

Her Master's Voice

Ned Farrar

6.0

1936

Your Uncle Dudley

Dudley Dixon

1.0

1935

Things You Never See on the Screen

Self

5.0

1935

The Private Secretary

Rev. Robert Spalding

5.5

1935

The Way to Love

Professor Gaston Bibi

0.0

1933

Soldiers of the King

Sebastian Marvello

0.0

1933

The Aviator

Robert Street

0.0

1929

The Sap

The Sap, Bill Small

0.0

1929

The Hottentot

Sam Harrington

0.0

1929

The Terror

Ferdinand Fane

6.0

1928

Behind the Counter

Eddie Baxter

7.0

1928

Dad's Choice

Eddie

7.0

1928

Poker Faces

Jimmy Whitmore

6.0

1926

La Bohème

Benoit - Janitor

6.6

1926

Beggar on Horseback

Neil McRae

6.0

1925

The Man Who Fights Alone

Bob Alten

0.0

1924

Flapper Wives

Vincent Platt

0.0

1924

The Right Bed

Bobby Kent

0.0

Try and Get It

Glenn Collins

0.0

Nanny and the Professor

(1 episode)

6.0

1970

Love, American Style

Elmo · (1 episode)

6.0

1969

2000 Years Later

Evermore

6.0

1969

The Name of the Game

Philip Armistead · (1 episode)

6.8

1968

The Perils of Pauline

Caspar Coleman

4.3

1967

Batman

Chief Screaming Chicken · (2 episodes)

7.3

1966

F Troop

(3 episodes)

6.1

1965

Sex and the Single Girl

The Chief

6.5

1964

The Cara Williams Show

(1 episode)

Self · (4 episodes)

5.6

1962

Saints and Sinners

Mr. Hollister · (1 episode)

6.0

1962

Pocketful of Miracles

Hudgins

7.3

1961

The Mike Douglas Show

Self · (2 episodes)

5.1

1961

The Wonderful World of Trains

Professor Hotbox

0.0

1960

Fractured Fairy Tales

Narrator (voice) · (1 episode)

7.0

1959

The Bullwinkle Show

Fractured Fairy Tales Narrator (voice) · (815 episodes)

6.9

1959

Dennis the Menace

Uncle Ned Matthews · (3 episodes)

6.5

1959

The Story of Mankind

Sir Walter Raleigh

4.6

1957

The Lux Show

Self · (1 episode)

6.0

1957

The Gerald McBoing-Boing Show

Storyteller (voice) · (13 episodes)

10.0

1956

Saturday Spectacular: Manhattan Tower

Noah

0.0

1956

The Steve Allen Show

Self - Guest · (1 episode)

5.0

1956

Matinee Theater

(3 episodes)

4.6

1955

December Bride

(1 episode)

5.5

1954

The George Gobel Show

Self · (2 episodes)

7.0

1954

Max Liebman Presents

(1 episode)

0.0

1954

General Electric Theater

Mr. Parkinson · (1 episode)

6.0

1953

I Love Lucy

Mr. Ritter · (1 episode)

7.9

1951

The Colgate Comedy Hour

Self · (1 episode)

7.0

1950

The Philco Television Playhouse

(1 episode)

6.0

1948

The Ed Sullivan Show

Self · (1 episode)

6.6

1948

Down to Earth

Messenger 7013

6.0

1947

The Ghost Goes Wild

Eric

5.0

1947

Lady on a Train

Mr. Haskell

6.5

1945

The Town Went Wild

Everett Conway

5.0

1944

Brazil

Everett St. John Everett

5.2

1944

San Diego I Love You

Philip McCooley

6.3

1944

Arsenic and Old Lace

Mr. Witherspoon

7.6

1944

Summer Storm

Count "Piggy" Volsky

5.1

1944

The Gang's All Here

Peyton Potter

5.8

1943

Forever and a Day

Anthony Trimble-Pomfret

7.4

1943

Springtime in the Rockies

McTavish

6.7

1942

Weekend for Three

Fred Stonebraker

5.7

1941

Here Comes Mr. Jordan

Messenger 7013

6.9

1941

Sunny

Henry Bates

4.9

1941

Paris Honeymoon

Ernest Figg

3.0

1939

Holiday

Nick Potter

7.3

1938

College Swing

Hubert Dash

6.8

1938

Bluebeard's Eighth Wife

Marquis De Loiselle

7.0

1938

Hitting a New High

Lucius B. Blynn

5.1

1937

The Great Garrick

Tubby

5.9

1937

Angel

Graham

6.8

1937

The Perfect Specimen

Mr. Grattan

5.7

1937

Danger – Love at Work

Howard Rogers

7.3

1937

Shall We Dance

Jeffrey Baird

7.2

1937

The King and the Chorus Girl

Count Humbert Evel Bruger

5.5

1937

Lost Horizon

Alexander P. " Lovey " Lovett

7.0

1937

Let's Make a Million

Harrison Gentry

0.0

1936

Hearts Divided

John

5.0

1936

The Singing Kid

Davenport Rogers

4.0

1936

His Night Out

Homer B. Bitts

0.0

1935

Little Big Shot

5.2

1934

It's a Boy

Dudley Leake

0.0

1934

Smarty

Vernon

4.0

1934

Sing and Like It

Adam Frink - Producer

4.3

1934

Success at Any Price

Harry Fisher

3.9

1934

The Poor Rich

Albert Stuyvesant Spottiswood

0.0

1934

Easy to Love

Eric

5.1

1934

Design for Living

Max Plunkett

7.2

1933

Alice in Wonderland

Mad Hatter

6.1

1933

A Bedtime Story

Victor Dubois

8.0

1933

Trouble in Paradise

François Filiba

7.4

1932

Roar of the Dragon

Busby

6.2

1932

But the Flesh Is Weak

Sir George Kelvin

6.0

1932

The Great Junction Hotel

The Groom

0.0

1931

The Age for Love

Horace Keats

0.0

1931

Smart Woman

Billy Ross

5.9

1931

Six Cylinder Love

Monty Winston

0.0

1931

The Front Page

Bensinger

6.6

1931

Lonely Wives

Richard 'Dickie' Smith / Felix, the Great Zero

4.7

1931

Kiss Me Again

Rene

6.0

1931

Reaching for the Moon

Roger, the Valet

5.8

1930

Once a Gentleman

Oliver

0.0

1930

Holiday

Nick Potter

6.2

1930

Wide Open

1927

The Whole Town's Talking

Chester Binney

0.0

1926

The Nutcracker

Horatio Slipaway

0.0

1926

Helen's Babies

Uncle Harry

5.6

1924

To the Ladies

Leonard Beebe

0.0

1924

Ruggles of Red Gap

Ruggles

0.0

1923