Eugene Pallette

Eugene William Pallette (July 8, 1889 – September 3, 1954) was an American actor who worked in both the silent and sound eras, performing in more than 240 productions between 1913 and 1946. After an early career as a slender leading man, Pallette became a stout character actor. He had a deep, gravelly voice, which some critics have likened to the sound of a croaking frog, and is probably best-remembered for comic character roles such as Alexander Bullock (Carole Lombard's character's father) in My Man Godfrey, Friar Tuck in The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938), and his similar role as Fray Felipe in The Mark of Zorro (1940). He also co-starred in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) and Heaven Can Wait (1943).

Early life Eugene Pallette was born in Winfield, Kansas, the son of William Baird Pallette and Elnora "Ella" Jackson. His parents had both been stage actors in their younger years, but by 1889 (the year of Pallette's birth) his father was working as an insurance salesman. His sister was Beulah L. Pallette.

Pallette attended Culver Military Academy in Culver, Indiana. He also worked as a jockey, and did a stage act which included three horses.

Career Pallette began his acting career on the stage in stock company roles, appearing for six years.

Silent films Pallette began his silent film career as an extra and stunt man in 1910 or 1911. His first credited appearance was in the one-reel short Western/drama The Fugitive (1913), which was directed by Wallace Reid for Flying "A" Studios at Santa Barbara. The up-and-coming actor was also sharing an apartment with actor Wallace Reid.

Quickly advancing to featured status, Pallette was cast in many Westerns. He worked with D. W. Griffith on such films as The Birth of a Nation (1915), where he played two parts, one in blackface, and Intolerance (1916). He also played a Chinese role in Tod Browning's The Highbinders. At this time, Pallette had a slim, athletic figure, a far cry from his portly build later in his career. He starred as the slender, sword-fighting swashbuckler Aramis in Douglas Fairbanks' 1921 version of The Three Musketeers, one of the great smash hits of the silent era. However, his girth had begun to get stockier, ending his ambitions of becoming a leading man. Discouraged, Pallette left Hollywood for the oil fields of Texas, where he both made and lost a sizable fortune of $140,000 in the same year. Eventually, he returned to film work.

After gaining a great deal of weight, he became one of the screen's most recognizable character actors. In 1927, he signed as a regular for Hal Roach Studios and was a reliable comic foil in several early Laurel and Hardy movies. In later years, Pallette's weight may have topped out at more than 300 pounds (136 kg).

Sound films

The advent of the talkies proved to be the second major career boost for Pallette. In 1929, he appeared as "Honey" Wiggin in the 1929 talkie The Virginian. His inimitable, rasping gravel voice (described as "half an octave below anyone else in the cast") made him one of Hollywood's most sought-after character actors in the 1930s and '40s.

The typical Pallette role was gruff, aggravated, and down to earth. He played the comically exasperated head of the family (e.g., My Man Godfrey, The Lady Eve, Heaven Can Wait), the cynical backroom sharpy (Mr. Smith Goes to Washington), and the gruff police sergeant in five Philo Vance films, including The Kennel Murder Case. Pallette thus appeared in more Philo Vance films than any of the 10 actors who played the aristocratic lead role of Vance. Pallette's best-known role may be as Friar Tuck in The Adventures of Robin Hood; he made a similar appearance as Friar Felipe two years later in The Mark of Zorro.

BBC commentator Dana Gioia described Pallette's onscreen appeal: The mature Pallette character is a creature of provocative contradictions—tough-minded but indulgent, earthy but epicurean, relaxed but excitable. His grit and gravel voice sounds simultaneously tough and comic. ... Pallette uses his girth to create a common touch. Stuffed into a tuxedo that seems perpetually near bursting, he seems more down-to-earth than the stylish high society types who surround him.

Pallette was cast as the father of lead actress Jeanne Crain for the film In the Meantime, Darling (1944). Director Otto Preminger clashed with Pallette and claimed he was "an admirer of Hitler and convinced that Germany would win the war". Pallette refused to sit at the same table with black actor Clarence Muse in a scene set in a kitchen. "You're out of your mind, I won't sit next to a nigger," Pallette hissed at Preminger. Preminger furiously informed Fox studio head Darryl F. Zanuck, who fired Pallette. Although Pallette remains in scenes he already had filmed, the remainder of his role not yet shot was eliminated from the script. However, a 1953 issue of the African-American magazine Jet listed Pallette as being among the attendees of a Hollywood banquet honoring the then "oldest Negro actress in the world", Madame Sul-Te-Wan. For his part, Pallette always maintained that a medical problem with his throat ended his career.

In increasingly ill health by his late 50s, Pallette made fewer and for lesser studios. His final movie, Suspense, was released in 1946.

Later life

In 1946, convinced that a "world blow-up" by atomic bombs was coming, the hawkish Pallette received considerable publicity when he set up a "mountain fortress" on a ranch near Imnaha, Oregon, as a hideaway from universal catastrophe. The "fortress" reportedly was stocked with a sizable herd of prized cattle and enormous supplies of food and had its own canning plant and lumber mill.

When the "blow-up" he anticipated failed to materialize after two years, he began disposing of the Oregon ranch and returned to Los Angeles and his movie colony friends. He never appeared in another movie, however.

Eugene Pallette died at age 65 in 1954 from throat cancer at his apartment, 10835 Wilshire Boulevard, in Los Angeles. His wife, Marjorie, and his sister, Beulah Phelps, were at his side. Private funeral services were conducted on Saturday, September 4, 1954, at the Armstrong Family Mortuary.

He has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6702 Hollywood Boulevard for his contribution to motion pictures.

Filmography Year Film Role Director Notes 1913 The Fugitive The Fugitive Short Lost film When the Light Fades John Robertson 1915 The Birth of a Nation Union Soldier D. W. Griffith Uncredited The Highbinders Hop Woo Tod Browning Short Lost film The Story of a Story The Author The Spell of the Poppy Manfredi 1916 Sunshine Dad Alfred Evergreen Edward Dillon The Children in the House Arthur Vincent Going Straight Jimmy Briggs S.A. Franklin Hell-to-Pay Austin Harry Tracey Paul Powell Lost film Gretchen the Greenhorn Rodgers Sidney A. Franklin Intolerance Prosper Latour D. W. Griffith 1917 Each to His Kind Dick Larimer Edward LeSaint Lost film The Winning of Sally Temple Sir John Gorham George Melford The Bond Between Raoul Vaux Donald Crisp Lost film The Lonesome Chap George Rothwell Edward LeSaint The Marcellini Millions Mr. Murray Donald Crisp The World Apart Clyde Holt William Desmond Taylor Lost film The Heir of the Ages Larry Payne Edward LeSaint The Ghost House Spud Foster William C. deMille Lost film 1918 Madam Who? Lieutenant Conroy Reginald Barker Incomplete film His Robe of Honor Clifford Nordhoff Rex Ingram Lost film Tarzan of the Apes Scott Sidney A Man's Man Capt. Benevido Oscar Apfel Lost film The Turn of a Card Eddie Barrett Breakers Ahead Jim Hawley Charles Brabin Viviette Dick Ware Walter Edwards No Man's Land Sidney Dundas Will S. Davis 1919 Words and Music by - Gene Harris The Amateur Adventuress George Goodie Henry Otto Lost film Be a Little Sport Dick Nevins Scott Dunlap Fair and Warmer Billy Bartlett Henry Otto 1920 Alias Jimmy Valentine 'Red' Jocelyn Arthur D. Ripley Terror Island Guy Mourdant James Cruze Incomplete film Parlor, Bedroom and Bath Reggie Irving Edward Dillon Lost film Twin Beds Lloyd Ingraham 1921 Fine Feathers Bob Reynolds Fred Sittenham The Three Musketeers Aramis Fred Niblo 1922 Two Kinds of Women Old Carson Colin Campbell Lost film Without Compromise Tommy Ainsworth Emmett J. Flynn 1923 A Man's Man Captain Benevido To the Last Man Simm Bruce Victor Fleming Hell's Hole Pablo Emmett J. Flynn Lost film North of Hudson Bay Peter Dane John Ford The Ten Commandments Israelite Slave Cecil B. DeMille Uncredited 1924 The Wolf Man Pierre Edmund Mortimer Lost film The Galloping Fish Anti-Volstead Esquire Del Andrews uncredited Wandering Husbands Percy William Beaudine The Cyclone Rider Eddie Tom Buckingham Stupid, But Brave Banana King Roscoe Arbuckle Short 1925 The Light of Western Stars Stub William K. Howard Lost film Ranger of the Big Pines W.S. Van Dyke Wild Horse Mesa Melberne Townsman George B. Seitz Uncredited Without Mercy Simon Linke George Melford 1926 The Fighting Edge Simpson Henry Lehrman Lost film Rocking Moon Side Money George Melford The Volga Boatman Revolutionary Cecil B. DeMille Uncredited Whispering Canyon Harvey Hawes Mantrap E. Wesson Woodbury Victor Fleming You Never Know Women Party Guest William Wellman Uncredited Desert Valley Deputy Scott R. Dunlap 1927 Should Men Walk Home? Detective, Intelligence Bureau Leo McCarey Short Enemies of Society Barney Mulholland Ralph Ince Fluttering Hearts Motorcycle Cop James Parrott Short Sugar Daddies Hardy Look-alike Leo McCarey The Second Hundred Years Dinner Host Fred Guiol Short; uncredited Chicago Rodney Casley Frank Urson The Battle of the Century Insurance agent Clyde Bruckman Short; uncredited 1928 Lights of New York Gene Bryan Foy The Good-Bye Kiss The Captain Mack Sennett Lost film Out of the Ruins Volange John Francis Dillon The Red Mark Sergeo James Cruze His Private Life Henri Bérgere Frank Tuttle Lost film The Swell Head Bryan Foy Short 1929 The Canary Murder Case Sgt. Ernest Heath Malcolm St. Clair The Dummy Madison Robert Milton The Studio Murder Mystery Detective Lieutenant Dirk Frank Tuttle The Greene Murder Case Sgt. Ernest Heath The Virginian 'Honey' Wiggin Victor Fleming The Love Parade War Minister Ernst Lubitsch Pointed Heels Joe Carrington A. Edward Sutherland 1930 The Kibitzer Klaus Edward Sloman Slightly Scarlet Sylvester Corbett Edwin H. Knopf Men Are Like That Traffic Cop Frank Tuttle The Benson Murder Case Sgt. Ernest Heath Paramount on Parade Sergeant Heath Edmund Goulding and 10 other directors Murder Will Out The Border Legion Bunco Davis Otto Brower Let's Go Native Deputy Sheriff 'Careful' Cuthbert Leo McCarey The Sea God Square Deal McCarthy George Abbott Follow Thru J.C. Effingham Lloyd Corrigan The Santa Fe Trail Doc Brady Edwin H. Knopf Playboy of Paris Pierre Bourdin Ludwig Berger Sea Legs Hyacinth Nitouche Victor Heerman 1931 Fighting Caravans Seth Otto Brower and David Burton It Pays to Advertise Cyrus Martin Frank Tuttle The Stolen Jools Reporter #1 William C. McGann Short Gun Smoke Stub Wallack Edward Sloman Dude Ranch Judd/Black Jed Frank Tuttle Huckleberry Finn Duke of Bridgewater Norman Taurog Girls About Town Benjamin Thomas George Cukor 1932 Shanghai Express Sam Salt Josef von Sternberg Dancers in the Dark Gus David Burton Strangers of the Evening Detective Brubacher H. Bruce Humberstone Thunder Below Bill Horner Richard Wallace Tom Brown of Culver Deaf Diner William Wyler uncredited The Night Mayor Hymie Shane Benjamin Stoloff Wild Girl Yuba Bill Raoul Walsh The Half-Naked Truth Achilles Gregory La Cava Off His Base Jerry of the Journal James Gleason Short Always Kickin' A Hockey Hick 1933 Hell Below Chief Torpedo Man Jack Conway Made on Broadway Mike Terwilliger Harry Beaumont Storm at Daybreak Janos Richard Boleslawski Shanghai Madness Lobo Lonergan John G. Blystone The Kennel Murder Case Detective Heath Michael Curtiz From Headquarters Sgt. Boggs William Dieterle Mr. Skitch Cliff Merriweather James Cruze 1934 Cross Country Cruise Willy Bronson Edward Buzzell Caravan Gypsy Chief Erik Charell I've Got Your Number Joe Flood Ray Enright Strictly Dynamite Sourwood (unbilled) Friends of Mr. Sweeney Wynn Rixey Edward Ludwig The Dragon Murder Case Sgt. Heath H. Bruce Humberstone One Exciting Adventure Kleinsilber Ernst L. Frank Something Simple Conventionaire Short; uncredited 1935 Bordertown Charlie Roark Archie Mayo All the King's Horses Conrad Q. Conley Frank Tuttle Baby Face Harrington Uncle Henry Raoul Walsh Black Sheep Col. Upton Calhoun Belcher Allan Dwan Steamboat Round the Bend Sheriff Rufe Jeffers John Ford The Ghost Goes West Mr. Joe Martin René Clair 1936 The Golden Arrow Mr. Meyers Alfred E. Green My Man Godfrey Alexander Bullock Gregory La Cava Dishonour Bright Busby Tom Walls The Luckiest Girl in the World Campbell Duncan Edward Buzzell Easy to Take Dr. Reginald Kraft aka Doc Glenn Tryon Stowaway The Colonel William A. Seiter 1937 Clarence Mr. Wheeler George Archainbaud The Crime Nobody Saw 'Babe' Lawton Charles Barton She Had to Eat Raymond Q. Nash Malcolm St. Clair Topper Casey Norman Z. McLeod One Hundred Men and a Girl John R. Frost Henry Koster 1938 The Adventures of Robin Hood Friar Tuck Michael Curtiz and William Keighley There Goes My Heart Editor Norman Z. McLeod 1939 Wife, Husband and Friend Mike Craig Gregory Ratoff Mr. Smith Goes to Washington Chick McGann Frank Capra 1940 First Love James Clinton Henry Koster Young Tom Edison Mr. Nelson Norman Taurog It's a Date Gov. Allen William A. Seiter Sandy Is a Lady P.J. Barnett Charles Lamont He Stayed for Breakfast Maurice Duval Alexander Hall A Little Bit of Heaven Herrington Andrew Marton The Mark of Zorro Fray Felipe Rouben Mamoulian 1941 Ride, Kelly, Ride Duke Martin Norman Foster The Lady Eve Mr. Pike Preston Sturges The Bride Came C.O.D. Lucius K. Winfield William Keighley World Premiere Gregory Martin Ted Tetzlaff Unfinished Business Elmer Gregory La Cava Swamp Water Sheriff Jeb McKane Jean Renoir Appointment for Love George Hastings William A. Seiter 1942 The Male Animal Ed Keller Elliott Nugent Almost Married Doctor Dobson Charles Lamont Are Husbands Necessary? Bunker Norman Taurog Lady in a Jam Mr. John Billingsley Gregory La Cava Tales of Manhattan Luther Julien Duvivier The Big Street Nicely Nicely Johnson Irving Reis The Forest Rangers Howard Huston George Marshall Silver Queen Steve Adams Lloyd Bacon 1943 It Ain't Hay Gregory Warner Erle C. Kenton Slightly Dangerous Durstin Buster Keaton Heaven Can Wait E.F. Strabel Ernst Lubitsch The Kansan Tom Waggoner George Archainbaud The Gang's All Here Andrew Mason Sr. Busby Berkeley 1944 Pin Up Girl Barney Briggs H. Bruce Humberstone Sensations of 1945 Gus Crane Andrew Stone Step Lively Simon Jenkins Tim Whelan In the Meantime, Darling Henry B. Preston Otto Preminger Heavenly Days Senator Bigbee Howard Estabrook Lake Placid Serenade Carl Cermak Steve Sekely 1945 The Cheaters James C. Pidgeon Joseph Kane 1946 Deadline at Dawn Man In Crowd Harold Clurman uncredited In Old Sacramento Sheriff Jim Wales Joseph Kane Suspense Harry Wheeler Frank Tuttle