Joseph Cawthorn

Joseph Cawthorn (March 29, 1868 – January 21, 1949) was an American stage and film comic actor.

Not to be confused with Walter Joseph Cawthorn or Joe T. Cawthorn.
Joseph Cawthorn, c. 1914

Biography

Born in New York City, Cawthorn started out in show business as a child, debuting at Robinson's Music Hall in New York in 1872.[1] He appeared in minstrel shows and vaudeville as a "Dutch" comic, employing a thick German dialect.[2] He later worked in British music halls and American touring companies.

Cawthorn made his Broadway debut in 1895,[3] 1897[2] or 1898,[4] and embarked on a long career lasting over two decades. His first success was playing Boris in Victor Herbert's 1898 operetta The Fortune Teller. Other notable Broadway roles included the title character in Mother Goose (1903) and inventor Dr. Pill in the fantasy musical Little Nemo (1908). In the latter, he was called upon to ad lib to buy time during one performance. As "the scene called for him to describe imaginary animals he had hunted",[1] he invented the "whiffenpoof" on the spot.[2] Yale students in the audience appropriated it for the name of their glee club.[2]

When his Broadway stardom waned, Cawthorn moved to Hollywood in 1927 and started a second prolific career, appearing in over 50 films, the last in 1942. He played Gremio in the first sound adaptation of The Taming of the Shrew in 1929, starring Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks; Schultz in Gold Diggers of 1935; and Florenz Ziegfeld's father in The Great Ziegfeld (1936).

Cawthorn died peacefully on January 21, 1949, in Beverly Hills, California.[4] He was survived by his wife, actress Queenie Vassar.

Complete filmography

References
  1. "Oxford Companion to American Theatre: Joseph Cawthorn". answers.com. Retrieved June 15, 2011.
  2. Hischak, Thomas S. (2008). The Oxford Companion to the American Musical: Theatre, Film, and Television. Oxford University Press. p. 138. ISBN 978-0-19-533533-0. Retrieved June 15, 2011.
  3. "Joseph Cawthorn Biography". starpulse.com. Retrieved June 15, 2011.
  4. Joseph Cawthorn at the Internet Broadway Database
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.