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Bobby Watson (actor)

{{short description|American actor (1888–1965)}}

{{other people|Bobby Watson}}

{{Infobox person

| name = Bobby Watson

| image = Nazty Nuisance (1943) 1.jpg

| caption = Watson (right) with Charley Rogers in That Nazty Nuisance (1943)

| birth_name = Robert Watson Knucher

| birth_date = {{birth date|1888|11|28}}

| birth_place = Springfield, Illinois, U.S.

| death_date = {{death date and age|1965|5|22|1888|11|28}}

| death_place = Los Angeles, California, U.S.

| burial_place = Oak Ridge Cemetery

| occupation = Actor

| years_active = 1925–1962

}}

Bobby Watson (born Robert Watson Knucher;{{cite book |last1=Hess |first1=Earl J. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=e8sqAQAAIAAJ&dq=%22Bobby+Watson%22+actor&pg=PA86 |title=Singin' in the Rain: The Making of an American Masterpiece |last2=Dabholkar |first2=Pratibha A. |date=2009 |publisher=University Press of Kansas |isbn=978-0-7006-1656-5 |page=86 |language=en |access-date=September 21, 2022}} November 28, 1888 – May 22, 1965) was an American theater and film actor, playing a variety of character roles, including, after 1942, Adolf Hitler.

Life and career

File:Gladys Miller, Bobby Watson, and Eva Puck in "Irene".jpg

Born in Springfield, Illinois,{{cite news |title=Song-and-dance man plays 'Hitler' |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/109946386/bobby-watson/ |access-date=September 21, 2022 |work=The Birmingham News |date=September 23, 1961 |page=9|via = Newspapers.com}} Watson, who was of German descent, began his career at age 15 performing a vaudeville act at the Olympic Theatre in Springfield. As a teenager, he toured the U.S. midwest with the "Kickapoo Remedies Show", a traveling medicine show. He then appeared on Coney Island in a Gus Edwards show.{{Citation needed |date=April 2022}} In 1918, he first played on Broadway when he was a replacement in the role of Robert Street in Going Up and then created the role of the flamboyant dressmaker "Madame Lucy" in the hit musical Irene (1919), later repeating the role. He continued to play on Broadway through the 1920s.{{cite web |title=Bobby Watson |url=https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-cast-staff/bobby-watson-64210 |website=Internet Broadway Database |publisher=The Broadway League |access-date=April 30, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211220200322/https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-cast-staff/bobby-watson-64210 |archive-date=December 20, 2021 |url-status=live}}

Watson began to appear in films in 1925, playing various character roles. Some of them were inspired by his scene-stealing characterization from Irene -- the gag roles of fey choreographers, prissy interior decorators, and delicate couturiers fell to Bobby Watson. But he proved his versatility by playing professional men and officious types: military officers, hotel managers, detectives, carnival barkers, and manservants.{{Citation needed |date=April 2022}} Today's audiences know him as the enthusiastic diction coach in Singin' in the Rain (1952)Ericson, Hal. [http://www.hollywood.com/celebrities/191530/bobby-watson/biographies#tabs "Bobby Watson"], All Movie Guide, accessed March 4, 2013, and Fred Astaire's butler in The Band Wagon (1953).

Watson also wrote for, and performed on, radio programs.{{cite news |title='Irene' good to lift mortgages, says actor |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/94654778/the-los-angeles-times/ |access-date=September 21, 2022 |work=Los Angeles Times |date=June 7, 1931 |page=39|via = Newspapers.com}}

As Hitler

Watson bore a resemblance to Adolf Hitler,{{Citation needed |date=April 2022}} which he played for laughs in a pair of wartime Hal Roach burlesques, The Devil with Hitler (1942) and Nazty Nuisance (1943). This typecast him as the dictator for a time; Watson would appear as Hitler in nine films altogether. He starred in one feature film, Paramount's The Hitler Gang (1944), a serious dramatization of Nazi politics, with the actor billed as Robert Watson. Watson also impersonated Hitler in Hitler – Dead or Alive (1942), The Miracle of Morgan's Creek (1944), A Foreign Affair (1948), The Story of Mankind (1957), On the Double (1961), and Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1962).

Death

Watson died in Los Angeles in 1965 at age 76. He is buried in the Oak Ridge Cemetery in Springfield, Illinois.Wilson, Scott. Resting Places: The Burial Sites of More Than 14,000 Famous Persons, 3d ed.: 2 (Kindle Locations 25047-25048). McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers. Kindle Edition.

Selected filmography

File:The-Hitler-Gang-1944.jpg and Poldi Dur as Geli Raubal in The Hitler Gang (1944)]]

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References

{{Reflist}}

External links

{{Commons category|Bobby Watson (actor)}}

  • {{IMDb name|0914520|Bobby Watson}}
  • {{IBDB name}}
  • [https://books.google.com/books?id=VCQ9AErr-uMC&pg=PA241 Screen World biography]

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Watson, Bobby}}

Category:1888 births

Category:1965 deaths

Category:Cultural depictions of Adolf Hitler

Category:American male film actors

Category:People from Springfield, Illinois

Category:Male actors from Illinois

Category:20th-century American male actors

Category:American people of German descent