Edward Everett Horton

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EE Horton

Edward Everett Horton (born March 18, 1886 in Brooklyn , New York , † September 29, 1970 in Encino , California ) was an American actor . Between 1922 and 1971 he played in almost 150 feature films, mostly in supporting comedic roles.

Life

Edward Everett Horton was born in Brooklyn to Scottish, English and German ancestors. He was expelled from Oberlin College as a student for rebellious behavior, whereupon he played a student prank with a straw doll that he was jumping off the school building. He then attended the Brooklyn Polytechnic and Columbia University . From 1906 the 20-year-old Horton appeared as a singer and dancer in US vaudeville , in 1912 he had his first engagement on Broadway . In 1919 he moved to Hollywood to work in film. Three years later he had his first major role in the silent film - comedy Too Much Business . Horton had one of his most famous silent film appearances in 1926 alongside Lillian Gish in King Vidor's drama La Bohème . The switch to sound film in the late 1920s posed no problems as a long-time theater actor with sufficient language experience. He was also seen in some of the first Warner Brothers sound films .

In the sound film he found his position as the actor of nervous-looking secondary characters who often seemed overwhelmed or silly by the surrounding situations. Therefore, he also starred in a variety of comedies and musicals in the 1930s and 1940s. He was used in a number of films directed by Ernst Lubitsch , including as the unsuccessful admirer of Kay Francis in Trouble in Paradise (1932) and as the French marquis in Bluebeard's eighth wife (1938). For director Frank Capra , he played a paleontologist in the adventure film In the Fetters of Shangri-La (1937), the head of the insane asylum in Arsenic and Lace Cap (1944) and the butler Hudgins in The Lower Ten Thousand (1961). Horton has also appeared on the side of the dancing couple Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in several films . He had one of his best-known film appearances as a clumsy millionaire and patron of Astaire in the classic musical I dance into your heart (1935). In the film Holiday (1930) and the remake of the same name from 1938, he played the role of the lovable and unconventional Professor Nick Potter .

In addition to his film roles, Horton continued to play in theater performances, and between 1945 and 1947 he worked as a presenter of the radio show Kraft Music Hall . From the beginning of the 1950s he worked increasingly for television , in addition to guest roles in television series such as I Love Lucy , Dennis the Menace and Batman , he worked as a narrator for the cartoon series Rocky and His Friends . Until his death, Horton worked as a film and television actor, his last film - the comedy The 25 Million Dollar Prize with Dick Van Dyke - did not appear in theaters until after his death.

Horton died at the age of 84 years a cancer in California Encino , where he was residing. The writer F. Scott Fitzgerald lived as a tenant in a bungalow on Horton's property in the late 1930s. Horton was gay, he had a longstanding relationship with the actor Gavin Gordon , among others .

Filmography (selection)

Awards

Star on the Walk of Fame , 6427 Hollywood Boulevard

Web links

Commons : Edward Everett Horton  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ JAMES R. COOLEY: Parker's Crossroads: Revenge of the Golden Lion . Trafford Publishing, 2014, ISBN 978-1-4907-4732-3 ( google.de [accessed July 31, 2019]).
  2. ↑ Stuart Lavietes: Frances Kroll Ring, Secretary to F. Scott Fitzgerald, this at 99 . In: The New York Times . June 23, 2015, ISSN  0362-4331 ( nytimes.com [accessed July 31, 2019]).
  3. ^ Anthony Slide: Eccentrics of Comedy. Scarecrow Press, 1998, ISBN 9780810835344 Limited preview in Google Book Search
personal data
SURNAME Horton, Edward Everett
BRIEF DESCRIPTION US-American actor
DATE OF BIRTH March 18, 1886
PLACE OF BIRTH Brooklyn , New York
DATE OF DEATH 29th September 1970
Place of death Encino , California