November 29, 2006
Character Actor Countdown: William Demarest
I begin my countdown of favorite character actors you have seen on DVD this year, performers who cause many of us to exclaim, "Who is that guy/gal?!" every time they appear.
10.
William Demarest.Okay, so he's been dead for 23 years. But the marvelous character actor William Demarest made a return of sorts, in the guise of the just-released (as part of the new, long-awaited Preston Sturges box set) classic comedies: Hail the Conquering Hero (pictured above, Demarest with Eddie Bracken and Ella Raines); The Great McGinty, in which he played a bouncer; and Christmas in July, in which he played a judge in a coffee slogan contest. He may have been at his best in Sturges' Miracle of Morgan's Creek, where he played the irascible patriarch of a clan of daughters, including Betty Hutton's Trudy Kockenlocker, who gets knocked up by a soldier. Demarest's scenes with Eddie Bracken and with his household are absolutely priceless. He also appeared in my favorite Sturges film, Sullivan's Travels. Cantankerous, flustered, often grouchy, Demarest was at his best in screwball comedy, with a particular knack for doing slow burns in reaction to the madness around him. He was well contrasted in particular with the prissy Franklin Pangborn in those Sturges films. His career went way back, too, all the way to 1927's The Jazz Singer and Howard Hawks' 1928 film A Girl in Every Port, and including Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, What Price Glory? and It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.
Also known as: Uncle Charley on the TV series "My Three Sons" (replacing an ailing William Frawley in 1965). -- Craig Phillips
Posted by cphillips at November 29, 2006 12:19 PMWonderful article, many thanks
Posted by: Dvd film at April 28, 2008 2:26 AM
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