“Scene Stealers” Archive
Jay Steinberg | Scene Stealers
Cue the aging film geek blog confession, annnd action…this goes back to some Saturday at the dawn of the ‘70s, when Philly’s then-prevalent local TV horror host was airing Universal’s monster-rally opus House of Dracula (1945). Myself, I’d been a sucker for Dracula, Frankenstein and the Wolf Man since my first Aurora model comic book ad; but, watching the film with my big sister, we were both finding the maximum entertainment value to come from one small but way eccentric performance amid the supporting cast. Being a Universal horror movie, having a frightened gaggle of European villagers was a given; and, of course, that mob’s going to have the one fear-monger whose brother/aunt/piano tutor was victimized by the monster. Here, though, the actor in question was a compellingly ugly, popeyed little guy, pockmarked skin drawn tight over his cheekbones, offering the character’s proclamations of doom with a reedy, singsong delivery and an over-the top ethereal air.
At that tender age, I wasn’t in the routine habit of mentally cataloguing character actors…but that effort made an impression. So much so that years down the road—as the hours spent watching before-my-time cinema mounted up—I’d remember the House of Dracula guy on every fortuitous encounter with one of his screen performances, and would thereafter be able to place an equally-distinctive name to the face. On that note, we’ll segue from Pop-pop’s war stories and proceed with this tip of the FanFare fedora to the life and works of one Skelton Knaggs.
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Gary Cahall | Scene Stealers
Here at the Scene Stealers corner of Movie FanFare, we try to pay tribute to that large group of often-unsung supporting actors and actresses who rarely received star status or got their name above the title, but still achieved popularity and garnered fans through their performances. In many cases (Edna May Oliver, for example, or S.Z. Sakall), their first couple of minutes on the screen would be enough to trigger an appreciative reaction from the audience. In the case of today's subject, silver-tongued master of comic sarcasm Frank Nelson, all it took was a turn of the head and a single word..."Yeeeesssss?"
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Gary Cahall | Scene Stealers
First and foremost, they were people who wanted to act and entertain, part of the countless men and women who came to Hollywood in the first half of the 20th century dreaming of work and a chance at movie stardom. But for African-American performers, the racial divides of the time meant that, more often than not, they would be relegated to minor and often demeaning roles: maids, janitors, railway porters, and the like. Some artists could occasionally break away from these stigmatized portrayals (Paul Robeson, Lena Horne) or endure them long enough to garner popularity and critical acclaim (Eddie "Rochester" Anderson, Oscar-winner Hattie McDaniel), but within the studio system there was little hope for anything more meaningful. One such actor who made a living walking the line between stereotypical Hollywood roles and working in independent, all-black "race films," and whose talents were rediscovered years after his passing, was fast-talking funnyman Mantan Moreland.
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Jay Steinberg | Scene Stealers
One of the most imposing character players of Hollywood's golden age, this ursine, accomplished thespian played his share of cold-hearted businessmen, crooked politcos and legendary historical figures in the course of a quarter-century on the screen. Born to the slums of New York's Lower East Side in 1890, Gunther Edward Arnold Schneider was orphaned at the age of 11 and had to turn to manual labor to survive. He had his first theatrical experience in an amateur production of "The Merchant Of Venice," and his career path was set by the time he was 15, shortening his name to Edward Arnold.
Arnold's travels found him in touring companies with notables like Ethel Barrymore, and he sojourned to Chicago in 1916, where he appeared in over three dozen silent shorts for Essanay Studios. He returned to the stage and Broadway full-time in 1920 and made his pilgrimage to California in 1932.
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Gary Cahall | Scene Stealers
"Oh yes, I'm grateful in a way for this face, now that I've gotten used to it. I know it's brought me this success. I know it's given me the chance to make and save enough money so I won't spend the end of my days in an old ladies' home somewhere. But all the same I'm a woman, and what woman doesn't long to be beautiful?" Well, her visage may not have been the kind that made the covers of movie fan magazines, but filmgoers in the 1930s looked forward to the on-screen appearances of Edna May Oliver, the dour-faced performer whose grand dame attitude served her equally well in dozens of comedic and dramatic turns, usually as a spinster or sarcastic busybody.
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Gary Cahall | Scene Stealers
Suppose for a moment you were an actor. What would you do if, in the opening credits of what's arguably the biggest film you'll ever be in, the studio misspelled your name? Would you get flustered and sputter to yourself in a moment of comical bluster? If so, then you've matched the typical on-screen reaction to such anxieties by the person that incident actually happened to. I'm speaking of Hungarian-born character actor and Casablanca waiter S.Z. Sakall, whose teddy bear physique, jowly face and "Mittle European" accent made him an audience favorite and earned him the nickname "Cuddles"...a name that he wasn't thrilled with, but tolerated with his trademark exasperation.
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Gary Cahall | Scene Stealers
Last week on this site an article examined the career of SCTV regular-turned-movie dad Eugene Levy, so now let's turn to a look at his distaff counterpart, a gifted comic actress from the Great White North who's also gone on to big-screen notoriety for a parental role, albeit one who was a little more forgetful than Levy's American Pie pop. A passing mention of a woman suddenly sitting up in her airplane seat and yelling out "KEVIN!" should be enough for filmgoers to know that I'm talking about Home Alone mother Catherine O'Hara.
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Gary Cahall | Scene Stealers
The world of cinema has given audiences a goodly number of touching father-son moments over the years, from Mickey Rooney as typical teenager Andy Hardy and Lewis Stone's as his wise pop, Judge Hardy, in the 1930s- '40s MGM series, to the devotion shown by Godzilla to his less-than-gargantuan offspring Minya in Son of Godzilla, to the familial games of catch that ended the '80s baseball dramas The Natural and Field of Dreams. For the last decade or so, however, the most popular paterfamilias among moviegoers has probably been "Jim's Dad" in the American Pie films, a role that introduced a new generation of fans to one of the stars of the brilliant SCTV comedy series, Eugene Levy.
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Gary Cahall | Scene Stealers
It’s an impressive body of work that most actors would love to have on their resumé: Gerald O’Hara, Vivien Leigh's troubled father, in Gone with the Wind; Clopin, 15h-century Paris' “King of the Beggars,” in The Hunchback of Notre Dame; Mr. Smith Goes to Washington's cynical press secretary Diz Moore; Cary Grant’s aviation mentor, Kid Dabb, in Only Angels Have Wings; and alcoholic medico Doc Boone in Stagecoach. That he played all of these roles, not just in his career, but in the same year is a testament to the versatility that made Thomas Mitchell an audience favorite for decades.
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Gary Cahall | Scene Stealers
She was Maid Marian's devoted lady-in-waiting. She survived encounters with the Invisible Man and the Frankenstein Monster. And she worked for the likes of Alfred Hitchcock, John Ford and Billy Wilder. She was rubber-faced character actress Una O'Connor, once dubbed the movies' "quintessential town biddy."
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Gary Cahall | Scene Stealers
One of the most thankless recurring roles in movies must have been as one of Charlie Chan's would-be detective offspring. After all, how many ways can an actor say "Gee whiz, pop!"? For the venerable Keye Luke, however, playing "number-one son" Lee Chan was an early stepping stone in a film and TV career that last nearly 60 years.
Born in Guangzhou, China in July, 1904. Luke came to the U.S. at age three when his family settled in Seattle. He moved to Hollywood as a young man and worked, not as an actor, but as a commerical artist and technical advisor on Asian-themed films. Luke's artwork was featured in RKO's pressbook for the original King Kong, and he painted murals and the auditorium ceiling for Graumann's Chinese Theatre.
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Gary Cahall | Scene Stealers
It is, to borrow a phrase from one of his better-known movie roles, "inconceivable" that filmgoers of all ages aren't familiar with at least the voice, if not the leprechaun-like face, of comedic mainstay Wallace Shawn. Fans of art films know him as a favorite cast member for the likes of Woody Allen and Alan Rudolph, Gen-Xers remember him as the scheming Vizzini in The Princess Bride or as debate teacher Mr. Hall in Clueless, and kids will recognize his voice as that of Rex, the not-so-terrifying Tyrannosaurus from the Toy Story films. Acting, however, is just one part of Shawn's mutli-faceted career.
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