Andy Devine
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| Andy Devine | |
 from the film A Star Is Born (1937). |
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| Birth name | Andrew Vabre Devine |
| Born | October 7, 1905 Flagstaff, Arizona, USA |
| Died | February 18, 1977 Orange, California, USA |
Andrew Vabre "Andy" Devine (October 7, 1905 - February 18, 1977) was a rotund, raspy-voiced American character actor and comic cowboy sidekick.
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[edit] Life and work
He was born in Flagstaff, Arizona, and grew up in Kingman, where his family moved when he was a year old.
He was not named Jeremiah Schwartz at birth, as it is often reported. However, he did use this name as a pseudonym during his college football years.
He was a star football player at Ball State University, which led to his first film role in the silent film The Fighting Football Cardinals.
Although it was at first thought that his peculiar voice would prevent him from moving to the talkies, it became his trademark and strongest selling point. Devine's speech was the result of a childhood accident. He had been running with a curtain rod in his mouth and fell, the instrument piercing the roof of his mouth. The accident left him mute for close to a year, and when he was finally able to speak, he had the wheezing, duo-tone voice that would make him famous as an actor.
He appeared in more than 400 films and shared with Walter Brennan, another character actor, the rare ability to move with ease from "B" Westerns to "A" pictures.
His notable roles included ten films as sidekick, "Cookie", to Roy Rogers, a role in Romeo and Juliet (1937), and "Danny" in A Star Is Born (1937). He also made several appearances in films with John Wayne, including Stagecoach (1939), Island in the Sky (1953), and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1959). He also played "The Cheerful Soldier" in The Red Badge of Courage. While most of his characters were reluctant to get involved in the action, he played the hero in Island in the Sky, as an expert pilot who leads his fellow aviators through the arduous search for a missing airplane.
Devine also worked in radio. He is well-remembered for his role as "Jingles", Guy Madison's sidekick in The Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok, which Devine and Madison reprised on television. He often appeared on Jack Benny's radio show, sometimes appearing in Benny's semi-regular western series of sketches "Buck Benny Rides Again".
Devine also worked in television. He played "Hap" on the TV series Flipper and hosted a children's TV show, Andy's Gang. He starred in a Twilight Zone episode as "Frisby", a talkative braggart faced with an alien invasion called "Hocus-Pocus and Frisby". He was also a frequent guest star in many television shows throughout the 1950s and 1960s.
In addition, Devine performed voice parts in animated films, including "Friar Tuck" in Disney's Robin Hood.
His film appearances in his later years included movies such as Over-the-Hill Gang, and 'Coyote Bill' in Myra Breckinridge.
Devine also made many public appearances. He struck up a friendship with George C. Brian, an actor and filmaker who headed the theater department at a Louisiana university. At Brian's request, Devine came to Monroe in 1973 to perform in Edna Ferber's Showboat.
Devine died of leukemia on February 18, 1977, at the age of seventy-one, in Orange, California. The main street of his home town of Kingman was renamed "Andy Devine Boulevard" in his honor. His career is also highlighted in the Kingman museum.
[edit] Trivia
- He is mentioned in a Jimmy Buffett song, "Pencil Thin Mustache" from Buffet's 1974 album, Living & Dying in 3/4 Time. The singer wishes for "an autographed picture of Andy Devine", which along with the mustache and other attributes, will make him cooler.
- He is mentioned in a Frank Zappa song, "Andy," from the album One Size Fits All. The lyric is opaque:
- Andy Devine
- Had a thong rind
- It was sublime
- But the wrong kind
- His amateur radio callsign, WB6RER, is now registered to an amateur radio club in Kingman, Arizona, which holds annual events in his honor.
- Has a star in his honor in the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
[edit] Quotation
- When asked if he had strange nodes on his vocal chords, Devine replied, "I've got the same nodes as Bing Crosby, but his are in tune."
