Billy Gilbert
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| Billy Gilbert | |
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| Born | William Gilbert Barron September 12, 1894 Louisville, Kentucky |
| Died | September 23, 1971 (aged 77) Los Angeles, California |
| Years active | 1929-1962 |
| Spouse(s) | Ella McKenzie |
Billy Gilbert (September 12, 1894 - September 23, 1971) was an American comedian and actor most known for his comic sneeze routines.
Born William Gilbert Barron in Louisville, Kentucky, the child of singers with the Metropolitan Opera, he began working in vaudeville at the age of 12, and was 35 years old when he appeared in his first film for the Fox Film Corporation in 1929.
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[edit] Career
Gilbert broke into comedy short subjects with the Vitaphone studio in 1930 (he appears without billing in the Joe Frisco comedy The Happy Hottentots, recently restored and released on DVD). Gilbert's burly frame and gruff voice made him a good comic villain, and within the year he was working for producer Hal Roach. He appeared in support of Roach's comedy stars Laurel and Hardy, Charley Chase, Thelma Todd, and Our Gang. One of his Laurel and Hardy appearances was the 1932 Academy Award-winning featurette The Music Box. Gilbert generally played blustery tough guys in the Roach comedies, but could play other comic characters, from fey couturiers to pompous radio announcers to roaring drunks. Gilbert's skill at dialects prompted Roach to give him his own series: big Billy Gilbert teamed with little Billy Bletcher as the Dutch-comic "Schmaltz Brothers.'" in offbeat musical shorts like Rhapsody in Brew. Gilbert also directed these.
Like many other Roach contractees, Gilbert found similar work at other studios. He appears in the early comedies of the Three Stooges at Columbia Pictures, as well as in RKO short subjects. These led to featured roles in full-length films, and from 1934 Billy Gilbert became one of the screen's most familiar faces.
One of his standard routines had Gilbert progressively getting excited or nervous about something, and his speech would break down into facial spasms, culminating in a big, loud sneeze. He used this bit so frequently that Walt Disney thought of him immediately when casting the voice of Sneezy in 1937's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
Billy Gilbert is prominent in most of the movies he appeared in. He appeared as "Herring", the minister of war in Charlie Chaplin's The Great Dictator; he danced with Alice Faye and Betty Grable in Tin Pan Alley; he stole scenes as a mild-mannered bystander in the fast-paced comedy His Girl Friday; he played a rare dramatic scene opposite singer Gloria Jean in A Little Bit of Heaven. All choice Gilbert roles, and all filmed the same year (1940), which indicates how prolific and talented Billy Gilbert was.
Gilbert seldom starred in movies but did have occasional opportunities to play leads. In 1943 he headlined a brief series of two-reel comedies for Columbia Pictures. That same year Monogram Pictures teamed him with the urbane stage comedian Frank Fay for a comedy series; Fay left the series after the first entry, and was replaced by a more appropriate foil, fellow vaudeville veteran Shemp Howard.
[edit] Later years
Gilbert also worked in 1950s television, including a memorable pantomime sketch with Buster Keaton. He appeared regularly on the children's program Andy's Gang with Andy Devine. He retired from the screen in 1962, following his appearance in the feature Five Weeks in a Balloon.
He was married to the former Ella McKenzie, an ingenue in short-subject comedies.
[edit] Death
Billy Gilbert died of a stroke on September 23, 1971 in Hollywood. He was interred in the Odd Fellows Cemetery in Los Angeles.
For his contributions to the motion picture industry, Billy Gilbert has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6263 Hollywood Blvd.
