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His acting career was kickstarted when he undressed Buster Keaton in a bathhouse. He also performed in a circus alongside an array of “human oddities,” took a potshot at William Powell, ran a luggage store with Edward G. Robinson, and even helped an elephant learn to fly. He was Ed Brophy<\/a>, a Brooklyn native and a fireplug of a fella who was equally at home playing hoods as well as cops for over 40 years.<\/p>\n Born the oldest of three sons in 1895, Edward Santree Brophy attended the University of Virginia and initially had his eyes set on a legal career. Somewhere along the line he wound up making his film acting debut in a 1920 Norma Talmadge<\/a> drama, Yes or No?<\/em>, for First National’s New York studios. After one more uncredited role the following year he began working behind the camera as a production manager\/assistant director for Talmadge’s husband, producer Joseph M. Schenck. This brought Ed to the newly-formed Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studio, where he had uncredited turns in three 1927 films, and also into the orbit of one of Schenck’s associates, stone-faced funnyman Buster Keaton.<\/p>\n While serving as unit manager for Keaton’s The Cameraman<\/em><\/a> in 1928 he was asked to fill in when an actor failed to report. Forced to share a cramped hanging room with Buster as they try to put on swimwear, Ed’s comically frustrated one-scene turn led Keaton to give him more substantial roles in several of the comedian’s subsequent MGM projects: Free and Easy<\/em><\/a> and Doughboys<\/em><\/a> in 1930; 1931’s Parlor, Bedroom, and Bath<\/em><\/a>; Speak Easily<\/em><\/a> in 1932; and others.<\/p>\n Apart from Keaton, Brophy was becoming a familiar supporting player for M-G-M. In 1930 he was featured alongside Joan Crawford in her final “flapper” melodrama, Our Blushing Brides<\/em><\/a>, and William Haines in the comedy Remote Control<\/em><\/a>. The following year Ed was manager to boxer Wallace Beery in the Oscar-winning tearjerker The Champ<\/em><\/a>, while 1932 saw him play one of the acrobatic Rollo Brothers in director Tod Browning’s controversial circus-set shocker Freaks<\/em><\/a>. That same year Brophy and Beery reteamed in another sports drama, the wrestling-themed Flesh<\/a>. <\/em>The inspiration for 1991’s Barton Fink<\/em>, Flesh<\/em> was directed by an uncredited John Ford and co-written by a similarly uncredited William Faulkner. Ed also had to deal with the antics of Moe, Larry, Curly, and boss Ted Healy in a pair of 1933 shorts, Beer and Pretzels<\/em><\/a> and Hello Pop!<\/em><\/p>\n Ed was a crook who pays a Christmas Eve visit to society sleuths Nick and Nora Charles (William Powell and Myrna Loy) and winds up grazing Nick during a struggle with a gun in 1934’s The Thin Man<\/em><\/a>, and later that year he was opposite the popular screen couple in another whodunit, Evelyn Prentice<\/em><\/a>. 1934 also saw him as a police sergeant trying to discover who’s got it in for the St. Louis Cardinals ballclub in Death on the Diamond<\/em><\/a>, starring Robert Young.<\/p>\n Brophy teamed with Edward G. Robinson for the first time in the 1935 Columbia crime comedy The Whole Town’s Talking,<\/em> playing a hood who mistakes a newspaper writer for his mobster look-alike (Robinson in a dual role). He offered comic relief as a 1700’s frontier ranger in Naughty Marietta<\/em><\/a>, the first Nelson Eddy\/Jeanette MacDonald musical, and was a guillotined killer whose knife-throwing hands are later transplanted onto concert pianist and train crash victim Colin Clive in the twisted horror gem Mad Love<\/a>. <\/em>Later that year Ed joined the passenger list of captain Clark Gable’s ship in the adventure yarn China Seas<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n Some key late ’30s roles for Ed had the actor working alongside Eddie Cantor in Strike Me Pink<\/em><\/a> (1936); James Cagney in Great Guy<\/em><\/a> (also ’36); Robinson again for The Last Gangster<\/em><\/a> (1937) and A Slight Case of Murder<\/em> (1938); William Holden and Barbara Stanwyck in Golden Boy<\/em><\/a> (1939), and even W.C. Fields in You Can’t Cheat an Honest Man<\/em><\/a> (also ’39).<\/p>\n Perhaps Brophy’s biggest screen performance was an uncredited–and unseen–role as the voice of Timothy Q. Mouse, the tough-talking rodent who befriends a young circus elephant with oversized ears, in 1941’s Disney animated classic Dumbo<\/em><\/a>. That same year he appeared opposite Cagney and Bette Davis in The Bride Came C.O.D.<\/em><\/a> and played a police detective outshone by sleuth George Sanders in The Gay Falcon<\/em><\/a>, the first of RKO’s popular “Falcon” whodunits. Ed would return to the series later for two turns as the Falcon’s assistant, “Goldie” Locke. June of 1941 even saw Brophy make his comic book debut…sort of. Writer Bill Finger and artist Irwin Hasen used the actor as the model for the Golden Age Green Lantern’s comic relief sidekick, derby-wearing cabbie Doiby Dickles, introduced in All-American Comics #27.<\/p>\n 1942 found Ed at his best in two offbeat crime comedies. He was a nightclub owner in All Through the Night<\/em><\/a> with Humphrey Bogart, then helped ex-con pal Edward G. Robinson run a luggage shop whose basement adjoins a bank’s vault in Larceny, Inc<\/em><\/a>. He was a USMC sergeant in the WWII actioner Air Force<\/em><\/a> (1943); a racetrack tout in the fantasy\/comedy It Happened Tomorrow<\/em><\/a> (1944); a hood named “Torso” in the Danny Kaye romp Wonder Man<\/em><\/a> (1945); and a Manhattan beat cop in the Christmas-themed seriocomedy It Happened on 5th Avenue<\/em><\/a> (1947). Brophy also returned to M-G-M’s “Thin Man” series in ’44, playing a different character from his 1934 turn in The Thin Man Goes Home<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n Ed’s busy work pace slowed down in the 1950s. He tried his hand at television with guest appearances on Mr. and Mrs. North<\/em>, The Millionaire<\/em>, December Bride<\/em>, Playhouse 90<\/em>, and other shows. Back on the big screen, Brophy played the recurring role of “Professor” Frederick Schicker, erudite pal to San Francisco private eye Dennis O’Brien (Hugh Beaumont), in a trio of low-budget 1951 crime dramas: Danger Zone<\/em><\/a>, Pier 23<\/em>, and Roaring City<\/em>. He was briefly seen as a dance contest judge in 1956’s Debbie Reynolds\/Eddie Fisher romcom Bundle of Joy<\/a>. <\/em>Two years later he shone in his last credited film role, paying a sycophantic “ward heeler” for a shady New England mayor (Spencer Tracy) in John Ford’s political potboiler The Last Hurrah<\/em>.<\/p>\n Ford cast the veteran chracter actor for his 1961 frontier drama Two Rode Together. <\/em>Sadly, during production in May of 1960 Ed died at the age of 65 (an obituary quoted Brophy’s brother as saying he had a heart attack while watching boxing on TV). Just as in his movie debut some four decades earlier, Ed’s final role was uncredited.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" His acting career was kickstarted when he undressed Buster Keaton in a bathhouse. He also performed in a circus alongside an array of “human oddities,” took a potshot at William Powell, ran a luggage store with Edward G. Robinson,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9748,"featured_media":57922,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[529],"tags":[1488,1442,1682,1491,9242,11373,1706,1578],"coauthors":[11329],"class_list":["post-57921","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-scene-stealers","tag-1930s-movies","tag-1940s-movies","tag-buster-keaton","tag-character-actors","tag-dumbo","tag-edward-brophy","tag-gangster-movies","tag-the-thin-man"],"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/MFF-CAMERAMAN-1.png\")
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