Edward Everett Horton
Acting
- Born:
- 1886-03-17
- Died:
- 1970-09-29
- Place of birth:
- Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA
Biography
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
Filmography
The Silver Screen: Color Me Lavender
Cold Turkey
Nanny and the Professor
Love, American Style
2000 Years Later
The Name of the Game
The Perils of Pauline
Batman
F Troop
Sex and the Single Girl
The Cara Williams Show
The Emperor's Oblong Pancake
One Got Fat
It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World
Burke's Law
The Merv Griffin Show
Saints and Sinners
Pocketful of Miracles
The Mike Douglas Show
The Wonderful World of Trains
Fractured Fairy Tales
The Bullwinkle Show
The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends
Dennis the Menace
The Story of Mankind
The Lux Show
Three Men on a Horse
The Gerald McBoing-Boing Show
Saturday Spectacular: Manhattan Tower
The Steve Allen Show
Matinee Theater
December Bride
The George Gobel Show
Max Liebman Presents
General Electric Theater
I Love Lucy
The Colgate Comedy Hour
The Philco Television Playhouse
The Ed Sullivan Show
Her Husband's Affairs
Down to Earth
The Ghost Goes Wild
Earl Carroll Sketchbook
Faithful in My Fashion
Cinderella Jones
Lady on a Train
Steppin' in Society
The Town Went Wild
Brazil
San Diego I Love You
Arsenic and Old Lace
Summer Storm
Her Primitive Man
The Gang's All Here
Thank Your Lucky Stars
Forever and a Day
Springtime in the Rockies
I Married an Angel
The Magnificent Dope
Weekend for Three
The Body Disappears
Here Comes Mr. Jordan
Bachelor Daddy
Sunny
Ziegfeld Girl
You're the One
That's Right – You're Wrong
The Gang's All Here
Paris Honeymoon
Little Tough Guys in Society
Holiday
College Swing
Bluebeard's Eighth Wife
Hitting a New High
The Great Garrick
Angel
The Perfect Specimen
Danger – Love at Work
Wild Money
Shall We Dance
Oh, Doctor
The King and the Chorus Girl
Lost Horizon
The Man in the Mirror
Let's Make a Million
Hearts Divided
Nobody's Fool
The Singing Kid
Her Master's Voice
Your Uncle Dudley
Things You Never See on the Screen
His Night Out
Little Big Shot
Top Hat
The Private Secretary
Going Highbrow
In Caliente
$10 Raise
The Devil Is a Woman
All the King's Horses
The Night Is Young
Biography of a Bachelor Girl
The Merry Widow
The Gay Divorcee
Ladies Should Listen
Kiss and Make-Up
It's a Boy
Smarty
Sing and Like It
Uncertain Lady
Success at Any Price
The Poor Rich
Easy to Love
Design for Living
Alice in Wonderland
The Way to Love
A Bedtime Story
Soldiers of the King
Trouble in Paradise
Roar of the Dragon
But the Flesh Is Weak
The Great Junction Hotel
The Age for Love
Smart Woman
Six Cylinder Love
The Front Page
Lonely Wives
Kiss Me Again
Reaching for the Moon
Once a Gentleman
Holiday
Wide Open
Take the Heir
The Aviator
The Sap
The Hottentot
Sonny Boy
Ask Dad
Vacation Waves
The Terror
Horse Shy
Behind the Counter
Dad's Choice
Call Again
Scrambled Weddings
Find the King
No Publicity
Taxi! Taxi!
The Whole Town's Talking
Poker Faces
The Nut-Cracker
La Bohème
The Business of Love
Beggar on Horseback
Helen's Babies
To the Ladies
The Man Who Fights Alone
Try and Get It
Flapper Wives
Ruggles of Red Gap
A Front Page Story
The Ladder Jinx
Too Much Business
The Right Bed