Eddie Collins

Edward Bernard Collins (January 30, 1883 – September 2, 1940) was an American actor. He is best remembered for voicing Dopey in Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and for portraying Tylo in the Shirley Temple film The Blue Bird (1940).

Early years Collins was born in Jersey City, New Jersey. An animator for Walt Disney Productions saw him in a burlesque show and suggested that Disney hire him as a live-action reference model for Dopey in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937). In the film, Dopey is clumsy and mute, with Happy explaining that he has simply "never tried" to speak. In the movie's trailer, Walt Disney describes Dopey as "nice, but sort of silly". In addition to providing Dopey's vocalizations, Collins also recorded sneezing sounds for the film's chipmunk and squirrel characters. After completing his work for the film, Disney wrote a letter to the casting director of 20th Century-Fox and Collins was put under contract to the studio. in September 1940, age 57, just weeks after the premiere of his last film The Return of Frank James.

Filmography

Diamond Jim (1935) as Bicycle Act (film debut) (uncredited) Married Before Breakfast (1937) as Tramp at Fire (uncredited) Ali Baba Goes to Town (1937) as Arab (uncredited) Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) as Dopey (vocal effects and live-action reference only, uncredited) The Return of Frank James (1940) as Station agent at Eldora (final film role)