Roscoe Ates

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Roscoe Ates , even Rosco Ates (* 20th January 1895 in Grange , Mississippi ; † 1. March 1962 in Encino , California ), a was American Vaudeville - Entertainer , actor (film comedian) and singer .

Live and act

Ates was born in a town in Mississippi that no longer exists. Until he was 18 years old, he suffered from a severe speech disorder . Ates made his first contact with cinematography at a young age by accompanying silent film screenings in the cinema des Nests Chickasha (Oklahoma) with his violin. Ates was able to achieve first successes thanks to his unusual physiognomy as a vaudeville artist, where he had laughter on his side, especially as a comedian - his trademarks were the big ears and wide eyes in an astonished child's face. Ates made his former tendency to stutter into another trademark.

With the dawn of the sound film age, Roscoe Ates from Hollywood was given corresponding roles in a plethora of films. These included short and completely unknown C-productions as well as miniature offers in large-scale productions such as King Kong and the white woman (as a press photographer), Gone with the Wind (as a recovering civil war soldier) and Girls in the Spotlight (as janitor). Roscoe Ates was also seen in some of the later legendary films: He played a not unimportant supporting role in the horror film Freaks (here in the opening credits shortened by the letter e in his first name). There he played a character named Roscoe. At the beginning of 1933, Ates was seen as the brewer Schultz at the side of the famous comedians Buster Keaton and Jimmy Durante in the comedy Bier! . In the same year Ates starred alongside Gary Cooper and Cary Grant in an early film adaptation of Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland . Ates temporarily received its own short film series from RKO and Vitaphone . Roscoe Ates also showed his singing talent several times, especially in Wild West films. Until the USA entered the war in 1941, box office stars and movie favorites such as Clark Gable , Henry Fonda , John Wayne , Hedy Lamarr , Judy Garland , James Stewart , Fredric March and an oversized ape were his best-known film partners. In 1937 Ates also appeared in the musical comedy Sea Legs on Broadway in New York and shortly thereafter went on a vaudeville tour to Great Britain.

Roscoe Ates in The Death of the Old Circus Lion in 1940

After his military service with the aviators in Texas during World War II, Roscoe Ates returned to film in 1944, but from then on got almost only miniature parts in mostly insignificant films. A recurring, leading role was that of the weird and comical Soapy Jones in a plethora of B- Westerns that hit American cinemas between 1946 and 1948 and in which Ates took on the role of the funny sidekick of the singing cowboy star Eddie Dean . Since the early 1950s, Roscoe Ates has also appeared as a guest in a plethora of television series, including Annie Oakley, Rin-Tin-Tin, Dezernat M , The Restless Gun, Wagon Train, Wells Fargo, Maverick, Alfred Hitchcock Presents , Sugarfoot, The Untouchables and outlaws . In the series Lawman 1959/60 he had a continuous role. By the time Roscoe Ates made his last (now unnamed) appearance in front of the camera in the Jerry Lewis dressing room in 1961 , he had been largely forgotten.

Ates was married three times: his first marriage was divorced, his second wife Leonore died in 1955 and his last marriage to Beatrice Naranjo lasted from 1960 until his death. He died of lung cancer in 1962 at the age of 67.

Filmography

  • 1929: South Sea Rose
  • 1930: Our Daily Bread ( City Girl / Our Daily Bread )
  • 1930: The Last Bandit ( Billy the Kid )
  • 1930: Hell Behind Bars ( The Big House )
  • 1930: The three from the fire station ( Soup to Nuts )
  • 1930: Pioneers of the Wild West (Cimarron)
  • 1931: The Champ (The Champ)
  • 1931: The Courage to Luck ( A Free Soul )
  • 1931: The Great Lover
  • 1931: Politics
  • 1932: Come on Danger!
  • 1932: Renegades of the West
  • 1932: freaks
  • 1932: Young Bride
  • 1932: Deported
  • 1932: The Roadhouse Murder
  • 1933: Lucky Devils
  • 1933: King Kong and the White Woman ( King Kong )
  • 1933: Scarlet River
  • 1933: Have a beer! (What! No Beer?)
  • 1933: Alice in Wonderland (Alice in Wonderland)
  • 1934: Merry Wives of Reno
  • 1934: She Made Her Bed
  • 1934: Woman in the Dark
  • 1935: The People's Enemy
  • 1935: Why Pay Rent?
  • 1936: Fair Exchange
  • 1936: River of Truth ( God's Country and the Woman )
  • 1937: Alpine Cabaret
  • 1937: Drug Store Follies
  • 1938: Riders of the Black Hills
  • 1938: The Great Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok
  • 1939: Gone with the Wind (Gone with the Wind)
  • 1939: The Stars of Texas ( Three Texas Steers )
  • 1940: Rancho Grande
  • 1940: Untamed
  • 1940: Assault on the Olive Branch (Captain Caution)
  • 1940: The Death of the Old Circus Lion (Chad Hanna)
  • 1941: Girls in the Spotlight ( Ziegfeld Girl )
  • 1941: The Avengers of Missouri (Bad Men from Missouri)
  • 1941: One Foot in Heaven ( One Foot in Heaven )
  • 1941: Sullivan's Travels ( Sullivan's Travels )
  • 1942: Breathless to Florida ( The Palm Beach Story )
  • 1943: The Great Moment
  • 1944: The Song of the Golden West ( Can't Help Singing )
  • 1946: Colorado Serenade
  • 1946: Tumbleweed Trail
  • 1946: Wild West
  • 1947: Wild Country
  • 1947: Black Hills
  • 1947: Shadow Valley
  • 1948: Tornado Range
  • 1948: The Westward Trail
  • 1948: Journey to Doom ( Inner Sanctum )
  • 1950: Hills of Oklahoma
  • 1951: Honeychile
  • 1952: Trail Guide
  • 1952: Escape from the Fire ( The Blazing Forest )
  • 1953: The silent stranger ( The Stranger Wore a Gun )
  • 1954: Abbott and Costello as a gangster Schreck ( Abbott and Costello Meet the Keystone Cops )
  • 1955: I want you to love me ( Lucy Gallant )
  • 1955: Come Next Spring
  • 1955: Viva Las Vegas ( Meet Me in Las Vegas )
  • 1956: The wrong Eva ( The Birds and the Bees )
  • 1957: Hell of 1000 Tortures ( Run of the Arrow )
  • 1957: With Satan on You ( Short Cut to Hell )
  • 1958: The Sheepman ( The Sheepman )
  • 1961: Bathed Too Hot ( The Ladies Man )
  • 1961: The Errand Boy (The Errand Boy)

literature

  • Ephraim Katz : The Film Encyclopedia, Fourth Edition. Revised by Fred Klein and Ronald Dean Nolen. New York 2001, p. 60

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ROSCOE ATES, 67, COMEDIAN, DIES; Veteran of Movies Played Stuttering Cowboy Roles . In: The New York Times . March 2, 1962, ISSN  0362-4331 ( nytimes.com [accessed January 6, 2020]).