James C. Morton

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James C. Morton (born August 25, 1884 in Helena , Montana as James Carmody Lankton , † October 24, 1942 in Los Angeles , California ) was an American actor .

life and career

James C. Morton was born in the US state of Montana in the northwest of the US under the name James Carmody Larkin. He worked as an actor from 1910 at the latest. He spent the first decades of his career mainly at the theater or in vaudeville shows. So he was involved in nine Broadway plays by 1931 , mostly in musicals or comedies. He had perhaps his most important theater role in 1913 in the premiere of the musical The Tik-Tok Man of Oz by Oz creator L. Frank Baum , with Morton in the title role. Although he made his first film in 1912, he was only occasionally active in the film business until the beginning of the sound film. In 1918 he made the silent film A Daughter of Uncle Sam , Morton's only directorial work. It was not until the early 1930s that James C. Morton began making films on a regular basis and was seen in over 200 films until his death, although his roles were mostly very small.

He was best known for his appearances in the comedies of Hal Roach , so he played in eleven films with Roach's star comedians Laurel and Hardy . In the films of the comedian duo, he often played bartenders, for example in Two Rode to Texas , or policemen, for example in The Dirty Honor , where Morton even heard the film's final gag. He also played an old wood chopper in the film Hands Up - or not , whom Laurel and Hardy try in vain as a robber. In addition to his appearances at Laurel and Hardy, Morton worked several times with comedians such as the Three Stooges , Charley Chase , the little thugs and WC Fields . He had grateful bigger roles in the two Todd & Pitts short films Alum and Eve and The Soilers , and at the beginning of Modern Times he appeared briefly as Charlie Chaplin's assembly line replacement, when he "removed" a bee from Charlie's face. A trademark of the almost bald-headed Morton was the toupee in some films , which mostly flew off his head during the course of the film, including the role of a bailiff in the Stooges short film Disorder in the Court .

James C. Morton died of a heart attack at the age of 58 and was buried in Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City . His last films were not released until the year after his death.

Filmography (selection)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ James C. Morton on the Internet Broadway Database
  2. ↑ James C. Morton at Lordheath  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.lordheath.com  
personal data
SURNAME Morton, James C.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Lankton, James Carmody (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION US-American actor
DATE OF BIRTH August 25, 1884
PLACE OF BIRTH Helena , Montana
DATE OF DEATH October 24, 1942
Place of death Los Angeles , California