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Wally Vernon

{{Short description|American actor and dancer (1905–1960)}}

{{Use American English|date=September 2021}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=September 2021}}

{{Infobox person

| name = Wally Vernon

| image = Wally Vernon in Sailor's Lady.jpg

| image_size =

| caption = Vernon in Sailor's Lady (1940)

| alt = Film still of Wally Vernon

| birth_name = Walter J. Vernon

| birth_date = {{Birth date|1905|05|27|mf=yes}}

| birth_place = New York City, U.S.

| death_date = {{Death date and age|1970|03|27|1905|05|27|mf=yes}}

| death_place = Hollywood, California, U.S.

| resting_place = Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Hollywood Hills, California

| other_names =

| occupation = Actor, dancer

| years_active = 1937–1964

}}

Walter J. Vernon (May 27, 1905 – March 7, 1970) was an American comic and character actor and dancer.

Early life

Vernon was born in New York City{{Citation needed |date=March 2019}} in 1905. He was in show business from the age of three, appearing in vaudeville and stock theater; he made his first Hollywood appearance in 1937's Mountain Music.

Career

He made more than 75 films, almost always playing a Brooklynese wiseguy and/or the hero's assistant. He was a fixture in Twentieth Century Fox features of the late 1930s and early 1940s; Vernon is seen as an eccentric dancer in Fox's Alexander's Ragtime Band (1938), where he appears as himself.

File:The Man from the Rio Grande (1943) 1.jpg and Wally Vernon in The Man from the Rio Grande (1943) ]]

Vernon freelanced at other studios after leaving Fox. He became the sidekick to cowboy star Don "Red" Barry at Republic Pictures, and when Barry began producing his own features in 1949, he remembered Vernon and brought him back as his sidekick.

File:Wally Vernon in Bloodhounds of Broadway (1952) trailer.jpg for Bloodhounds of Broadway (1952) ]]

In 1948 Columbia Pictures producer Jules White paired Vernon with Eddie Quillan, another comedian with a vaudeville background. White emphasized physical comedy in films, and Vernon and Quillan indulged in pratfalling, head-banging, kick-in-the-pants slapstick. The Vernon & Quillan comedies were favorites of White, who kept making them through 1956.

In 1961, he appeared as a bartender in the TV Western series Bat Masterson (S3E18 "The Prescott Campaign").

Death

On March 7, 1970, Vernon died in an ambulance shortly after being struck by a hit-and-run driver in Hollywood, California.{{cite news |title=Wally Vernon, movie comic, in Hollywood |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/29295810/wally_vernon/ |accessdate=9 March 2019 |work=The Boston Globe |agency=Associated Press |date=March 8, 1970 |location=Massachusetts, Boston |page=95|via = Newspapers.com}} He was buried in Hollywood Hills at Forest Lawn Cemetery.

Films

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References

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External links

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  • {{IMDb name|0894734}}

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Category:1905 births

Category:1970 deaths

Category:American male film actors

Category:Eccentric dancers

Category:Male actors from New York City

Category:20th-century American male actors

Category:Pedestrian road incident deaths

Category:Road incident deaths in California