Fuzzy Knight

Fuzzy Knight
Knight in Adventures of Gallant Bess (1948)
Born	John Forrest Knight (1901-05-09)May 9, 1901 Fairmont, West Virginia
Died	February 23, 1976(1976-02-23) (aged 74) Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California
Alma mater	West Virginia University
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1929-1967

John Forrest "Fuzzy" Knight (May 9, 1901 – February 23, 1976) was an American film and television actor. He was also a singer, especially in his early career. He appeared in more than 180 films between 1928 and 1967, usually as a cowboy hero's comic sidekick.

Biography

Knight was born in Fairmont, West Virginia the third child and son of James A. and Olive Knight. In Fairmont, he worked as a clerk at a hotel and played in a theater orchestra.

He attended nearby West Virginia University where he was a member of Sigma Nu fraternity, a cheerleader and law student. He wrote a pep song, "Fight Mountaineers," which is still frequently used by the Mountaineer Marching Band 90 years later. He also wrote the melody for a WVU song entitled "To Thee Our Alma Mater," with words by fellow graduate David A. Christopher. He formed his own band in college and played drums, eventually leaving school to perform in vaudeville and in big bands such as Irving Aaronson's and George Olsen's.

Eventually his musical and comedy skills took him to New York, where he appeared in Earl Carroll's Vanities of 1927 and on Broadway in Here's Howe and Ned Wayburn's Gambols. He was billed under his nickname, Fuzzy (given him because of his peculiarly soft voice).

While touring with bands, Knight came to Hollywood and appeared in several musical short films for MGM and Paramount between 1928 and 1932. Mae West gave him his first notable film role in She Done Him Wrong, and he went on to play in hundreds of films over the next 30 years. By the 1940s, he was primarily playing in Western movies and was voted one of the Top Ten Money-Making Stars in Westerns in 1940.

Knight became famous to a new generation when he co-starred as Buster Crabbe's sidekick (using his own name as Private Fuzzy Knight) on the 1955 television series Captain Gallant of the Foreign Legion. In semi-retirement thereafter, Knight continued to make occasional appearances in films and TV shows through 1967.

He died in his sleep at the Motion Picture Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills, California, and was survived by his wife, actress Patricia Ryan (née Thelma de Long). He was buried in Valhalla Memorial Park Cemetery in Burbank, California. His grave is next to that of the grave of Slapsie Maxie Rosenbloom, Knight's two-time co-star, who died less than two weeks after Knight.

Partial filmography

Film
Year	Film	Role	Notes
1932	Fighting For Justice	Playing himself	Song singer at piano
1933	Her Bodyguard	Danny Dare
1935	Home on the Range
	Danger Ahead	Fred Klein	Delicatessen Owner (singer/pianist)
1936	The Trail of the Lonesome Pine	Tater
	Sea Spoilers	Hogan
	Palm Springs		off screen credit
1937	Mountain Music
	Courage of the West	Hank Givens	First of four as the comic sidekick of Bob Baker
	The Singing Outlaw	Longhorn	Second with Bob Baker
1938	Spawn of the North	Lefty Jones
	The Cowboy and the Lady	Buzz
1939	Union Pacific	Cookie
1940	Chip of the Flying U	"Weary"
	Law and Order	Deadwood
1941	Law of the Range	Chap
	The Shepherd of the Hills	Mr. Palestrom
1943	Arizona Trail	Kansas
1944	Trigger Trail	Echo
1945	Song of the Sarong	Pete McGillicutty
	Renegades of the Rio Grande	Ranger Trigger Bidwell	Alternative title: Bank Robbery
	Senorita from the West	Rosebud
1947	The Egg and I	Cab Driver
1949	Rimfire	Porky Hodges
1951	Skipalong Rosenbloom	Sneaky Pete	Alternative title: Square Shooter
1952	Night Raiders	Tex
	Rodeo	Jazbo Davis
1965	The Bounty Killer	Captain Luther
1966	Waco	Telegraph Operator	Uncredited
1967	Hostile Guns	Buck
Television
Year	Title	Role	Notes
1950–1951	The Gene Autry Show	Sagebrush - Sidekick	4 episodes
1955–1957	Captain Gallant of the Foreign Legion	Pvt. Fuzzy Knight	33 episodes
1959	The Man and the Challenge	Burro Charlie	1 episode
1960	Outlaws	Isaac Miller	1 episode
1962	The Tall Man	Johnny Red	"Trial by Fury"
	The Joey Bishop Show	Charles Porter	2 episodes

External links

• Fuzzy Knight at IMDb
• Fuzzy Knight at Find a Grave
• Fuzzy Knight and His Little Piano film short from YouTube