After the war, Irving Bacon (1893 - 1965) kept on working. He made two westerns with Gene Autry (1907 - 1998), Saddle Pals (1947) and Sons of New Mexico (1949), long after his two with Roy Rogers (1911 - 1998), Rhythm on the Range (1936) and King of the Cowboys (1943). Quite a few of his movies were B-westerns, but the again, he made quite a few movies.
In 1947 he also worked with Gary Grant (1904 - 1986) and Shirley Temple (b. 1928) in The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer. And here's an interesting tidbit. Bacon was in Rocky! In 1948, Roddy McDowall (1928 - 1998) made a movie called Rocky that has no details at all on IMDb.
Another Frank Capra film, State of the Union, followed in 1948 with Tracy and Hepburn. In 1950 Bacon starts work in television, but many more great movies looked to him for his talent. The same year he worked with Bing Crosby again in Mr. Music and the next year in Here Comes the Groom. That was a span of almost 20 years of working with Bing, starting with The Big Broadcast in 1932.
In 1954 he played Glenn Miller's father in The Glenn Miller Story starring James Stewart. I remember the look on his face when he realized how much Miller was making. That year he was also in Ma and Pa Kettle at Home and A Star is Born. He was in both Stars, in 1937 with Janet Gaynor (1906 - 1984) and then this one with Judy Garland (1922 - 1969).
He was never a regular on any TV series, but he guest starred on all of the best, from "I Love Lucy" to "Whirlybirds." His last movie appearance was Fort Massacre in 1958 with Joel McCrea (1905 - 1990) and Forrest Tucker (1919 - 1986). He played Charlie the trader in that one, and he made five movies with McCrea.
Irving Bacon was a perfect choice for my blog and a great Bit Actor.
Showing posts with label Irving Bacon. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Irving Bacon. Show all posts
Saturday, October 30, 2010
Friday, October 29, 2010
Irving Bacon - The Early Years
In my post about Blondie, I mentioned a bit player named Irving Bacon (1893 - 1965). With 515 titles listed on IMDb, I thought he was worth a closer look.
Bacon started working in silent films, and made almost 70 films at the Mack Sennett Studios. While many silent movie stars had difficulty moving into sound films due to heavy accents or poor voices, Irving Bacon flourished. By that time, though, he had found his niche playing "regular Joe" parts as milkmen, mailmen, carnival workers, etc., which he continued for most of his career.
In 1933 Bacon worked with Bing Crosby (1903 - 1977) and Franklin Pangborn (1889 - 1958) in one of the last Mack Sennett (1880 - 1960) films, a 19 minute short called Sing, Bing, Sing. He made ten more films with Bing, including Holiday Inn (1942)
Irving worked with many of the early greats. He made 9 movies with W.C. Fields (1880 - 1946). He is in 12 Frank Capra (1897 - 1991) films, including some early silent shorts. Look for Bacon in It Happened One Night (1934) with Clark Gable (1901 - 1960) and Claudette Colbert (1903 - 1996), and also in the 1930s he was in Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936) and You Can't Take it With You (1938).
I can't seem to get out of the 1930s!! Just two more...A Star is Born and Topper, both in 1937...oh, and Blondie (1938) of course. (Actually, several Blondies in the 1930s.) Whew! And I can't forget Gone With the Wind (1939).
1940 starts with His Girl Friday and The Grapes of Wrath, plus 25 other movies that year. This is going to be a long post! Let's cover the war years and come back tomorrow.
Just to quickly touch on some highlights:
The Return of Frank James (1940) with Henry Fonda (1905 - 1982)
Barnacle Bill (1941) with Wallace Beery (1885 - 1949)
Great Guns (1941) with Laurel and Hardy
King of the Cowboys (1943) with Roy Rogers (1911 - 1998)
Action in the North Atlantic (1943) with Humphrey Bogart (1899 - 1957)
This is the Army (1943) with Lt. Ronald Regan (1911 - 2004) which was really a George Murphy (1902 - 1992) film, but Regan is on the cover.
Spellbound (1945) by Alfred Hitchcock.
Pick ANYTHING above that is in bold, and watch it! You will not be disappointed.
Bacon started working in silent films, and made almost 70 films at the Mack Sennett Studios. While many silent movie stars had difficulty moving into sound films due to heavy accents or poor voices, Irving Bacon flourished. By that time, though, he had found his niche playing "regular Joe" parts as milkmen, mailmen, carnival workers, etc., which he continued for most of his career.
In 1933 Bacon worked with Bing Crosby (1903 - 1977) and Franklin Pangborn (1889 - 1958) in one of the last Mack Sennett (1880 - 1960) films, a 19 minute short called Sing, Bing, Sing. He made ten more films with Bing, including Holiday Inn (1942)
Irving worked with many of the early greats. He made 9 movies with W.C. Fields (1880 - 1946). He is in 12 Frank Capra (1897 - 1991) films, including some early silent shorts. Look for Bacon in It Happened One Night (1934) with Clark Gable (1901 - 1960) and Claudette Colbert (1903 - 1996), and also in the 1930s he was in Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936) and You Can't Take it With You (1938).
1940 starts with His Girl Friday and The Grapes of Wrath, plus 25 other movies that year. This is going to be a long post! Let's cover the war years and come back tomorrow.
Just to quickly touch on some highlights:
The Return of Frank James (1940) with Henry Fonda (1905 - 1982)
Barnacle Bill (1941) with Wallace Beery (1885 - 1949)
Great Guns (1941) with Laurel and Hardy
King of the Cowboys (1943) with Roy Rogers (1911 - 1998)
Action in the North Atlantic (1943) with Humphrey Bogart (1899 - 1957)
This is the Army (1943) with Lt. Ronald Regan (1911 - 2004) which was really a George Murphy (1902 - 1992) film, but Regan is on the cover.
Spellbound (1945) by Alfred Hitchcock.
Pick ANYTHING above that is in bold, and watch it! You will not be disappointed.
Thursday, September 23, 2010
Blondie (1938)
Let's go back to the beginning. The first real Blondie movie was made in 1938. Blondie appears in various forms from Blondie of the Follies in 1932 to Bye Bye Blondie in 2010, neither of which had anything to do with our Blondie.
She started as a comic strip drawn by Chic Young in 1930. Her name was Blondie Boopadoop until 1933 when she married Dagwood Bumstead. This feels really silly to write, but it is all true.
Enter Penny Singleton (1908 - 2003). She is the quintessential Blondie, and Arthur Lake (1905 - 1987) was perfect as Dagwood. Penny wasn't really a blond, but she remained that way after she got the role. She was still blond when I met her in the 1980s. They made 28 Blondie films from 1938 to 1950. But we don't cover stars here. Let's look at the rest.
Husband and wife actors Kathleen and Gene Lockhart are both in Blondie. They worked together some 21 times. As I mentioned before, they are the parents of June Lockhart, famous for "Lassie" on TV. The three of them worked together on one film, A Christmas Carol in 1938.
Child actor Larry Simms (b. 1934) played Baby Dumpling in the Blondie series. He was also in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), It's a Wonderful Life (1946), and a few other films. I can't find much online about him. 28 of his 36 films were in the Blondie series.
Jonathan Hale (1891 - 1966) played Mr. Dithers, Dagwood's boss. He has 244 roles listed on IMDb starting in 1934 and into TV, with his last listed role on "Kraft Suspense Theater" in 1965. He was in Charlie Chan's Secret in 1936 with Rosina Lawrence. While he was making the Blondie series he also had a recurring role in The Saint series. He was a hard worker, making over 80 films in the decade of the 1940s.
The fun part about this blog is looking at a name you know nothing about and checking out their filmography. Mr. Beazley, the mailman was played by Irving Bacon (1893 - 1965). He is another gold mine to be explored.
Bacon started making films in 1923 with the Keystone Studio and Mack Sennett. He made the switch to talkies and eventually to television. IMDb lists 515 roles to his credit. Yes, 515! He was in a dozen or so Blondie films, but look for him also in nine Frank Capra feature films. I recognize his face, but I doubt I ever heard his name.
Movies of this era are rich with the best in Bit Actors!
She started as a comic strip drawn by Chic Young in 1930. Her name was Blondie Boopadoop until 1933 when she married Dagwood Bumstead. This feels really silly to write, but it is all true.
Enter Penny Singleton (1908 - 2003). She is the quintessential Blondie, and Arthur Lake (1905 - 1987) was perfect as Dagwood. Penny wasn't really a blond, but she remained that way after she got the role. She was still blond when I met her in the 1980s. They made 28 Blondie films from 1938 to 1950. But we don't cover stars here. Let's look at the rest.
Husband and wife actors Kathleen and Gene Lockhart are both in Blondie. They worked together some 21 times. As I mentioned before, they are the parents of June Lockhart, famous for "Lassie" on TV. The three of them worked together on one film, A Christmas Carol in 1938.
Child actor Larry Simms (b. 1934) played Baby Dumpling in the Blondie series. He was also in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), It's a Wonderful Life (1946), and a few other films. I can't find much online about him. 28 of his 36 films were in the Blondie series.
Jonathan Hale (1891 - 1966) played Mr. Dithers, Dagwood's boss. He has 244 roles listed on IMDb starting in 1934 and into TV, with his last listed role on "Kraft Suspense Theater" in 1965. He was in Charlie Chan's Secret in 1936 with Rosina Lawrence. While he was making the Blondie series he also had a recurring role in The Saint series. He was a hard worker, making over 80 films in the decade of the 1940s.
Bacon started making films in 1923 with the Keystone Studio and Mack Sennett. He made the switch to talkies and eventually to television. IMDb lists 515 roles to his credit. Yes, 515! He was in a dozen or so Blondie films, but look for him also in nine Frank Capra feature films. I recognize his face, but I doubt I ever heard his name.
Movies of this era are rich with the best in Bit Actors!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)