Pat Brady

Robert Ellsworth Patrick Aloysius Brady (December 31, 1914 – February 27, 1972) was an American actor and musician best known as the "comical sidekick" of the popular cowboy film and television star Roy Rogers on his eponymous radio and television series.

Biography

Brady was born on December 31, 1914, in Toledo, Ohio. He was the son of John Edward Brady and the former Lucille Brewer. Both parents were in show business. He first appeared on stage at the age of four, in a road-show production of Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch. From that initial stage appearance until his death, his life was dedicated to the world of entertainment as a musician and actor, almost exclusively in comedic roles. In 1935, while working as a bassist in California, Pat struck up a friendship with a young country-and-western singer named Leonard Slye, a member of the popular Sons of the Pioneers. When The Roy Rogers Show moved to television Brady played himself from 1951–1957. While most of the others on the show rode horses, Brady at first rode a mule until Rogers decided to have him drive a 1946 CJ-2A Willys Jeep named "Nellybelle." The jeep's bad brakes gave the show one of its catch-phrases; when trying to stop it, Brady would yell "Whoa, Nellybelle!" or "Whoa, Nelly!" Nellybelle was later sold by Christie's for $116,500.

In 1962 Brady provided humor on the musical variety series The Roy Rogers and Dale Evans Show.

Death Pat Brady died at the age of 57 of a heart attack in Green Mountain Falls, Colorado. At his funeral on March 1, 1972, Hugh Farr and Lloyd Perryman, both members of the Sons of the Pioneers, sang "Tumbling Tumbleweeds" and "At the Rainbows End".

Selected filmography Rio Grande (1938) West of Cheyenne (1938) The Durango Kid (1940) Texas Stagecoach (1940) Man from Cheyenne (1942) Melody Time (1948) as himself The Golden Stallion (1949) Heldorado (1946) (uncredited) Loving You (1957), band member