Edward Everett Horton

Edward Everett Horton Jr. (March 18, 1886 – September 29, 1970) was an American character actor.[1] He had a long career in film, theater, radio, television, and voice work for animated cartoons.

Edward Everett Horton
Born	Edward Everett Horton Jr. (1886-03-18)March 18, 1886 Brooklyn, New York, U.S.
Died	September 29, 1970(1970-09-29) (aged 84) Encino, California, U.S.
Other names	E.E. Horton Edward Horton Edward E. Horton
Alma mater	Oberlin College (no degree) Brooklyn Polytechnic Columbia University
Occupation	Actor, singer, dancer
Years active	1906–1970

Early life

Horton was born in Brooklyn, New York (then an independent city) to Edward Everett Horton, a compositor for The New York Times, and his wife Isabella S. (née Diack) Horton.[2] His father had English and German ancestry, and his mother was born in Matanzas, Cuba to George and Mary (Orr) Diack, natives of Scotland.[3] He attended Boys' High School, Brooklyn and Baltimore City College, where he later was inducted into its Hall of Fame.[4]

He was a student at Oberlin College in Ohio. However, he was asked to leave after he climbed to the top of a building and, after a crowd gathered, threw off a dummy, making them think he had jumped. He then attended Brooklyn Polytechnic, followed by Columbia University, where he was a member of Phi Kappa Psi.[5]

Stage and film career

Horton began his stage career in 1906, singing and dancing and playing small parts in vaudeville and in Broadway productions. In 1919, he moved to Los Angeles, California, where he began acting in Hollywood films. His first starring role was in the comedy Too Much Business (1922), but he portrayed the lead role of an idealistic young classical composer in the drama Beggar on Horseback (1925). In the late 1920s, he starred in two-reel silent comedies for Educational Pictures and made the transition to sound films with Educational in 1929. As a stage-trained performer, he found more film work easily and appeared in some of Warner Bros.' movies, including The Terror (1928) and Sonny Boy (1929).

Horton initially used his given name, Edward Horton, professionally, but his father persuaded him to adopt his full name professionally, reasoning that other actors might be named Edward Horton, but only one named Edward Everett Horton. Horton soon cultivated his own special variation of the double take (an actor's reaction to something, followed by a delayed, more extreme reaction). In Horton's version, he smiled ingratiatingly and nod in agreement with what just happened; then, when realization set in, his facial features collapsed entirely into a sober, troubled mask.

Horton starred in many comedy features in the 1930s, usually playing a mousy fellow who put up with domestic or professional problems to a certain point and then finally asserted himself for a happy ending. He is best known, however, for his work in supporting roles. These include The Front Page (1931), Trouble in Paradise (1932), Alice in Wonderland (1933), The Gay Divorcee (1934, the first of several Astaire/Rogers films in which Horton appeared), Top Hat (1935), Biography of a Bachelor Girl (1935), Danger - Love at Work (1937), Lost Horizon (1937), Holiday (1938), Here Comes Mr. Jordan (1941), Arsenic and Old Lace (1944), Pocketful of Miracles (1961), It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963), and Sex and the Single Girl (1964). His last role was in the comedy film Cold Turkey (1971), in which his character communicated only through facial expressions.

Horton continued to appear in stage productions, often in summer stock. His performance in the play Springtime for Henry became a perennial in summer theaters.[6]

Radio and television

From 1945 to 1947, Horton hosted radio's Kraft Music Hall. An early television appearance came in the play Sham, shown on The Chevrolet Tele-Theatre on 13 December 1948. During the 1950s, Horton worked primarily in television. One of his best-remembered appearances is in an episode of I Love Lucy, broadcast in 1952, in which he is cast against type as a frisky, amorous suitor. In 1960, he guest-starred on The Real McCoys as J. Luther Medwick, grandfather of the boyfriend of series character Hassie McCoy (Lydia Reed). In the story, Medwick clashes with the equally outspoken Grandpa Amos McCoy (played by Walter Brennan).

He remains, however, best known to the Baby Boomer generation as the venerable narrator of Fractured Fairy Tales on The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show (1959–61),[7] an American animated television series that originally aired from November 19, 1959, to June 27, 1964.

In 1962, he portrayed the character Uncle Ned in three episodes of Dennis the Menace. In 1965, he played the medicine man, Roaring Chicken, in F Troop. He echoed this role, portraying Chief Screaming Chicken, on Batman as a pawn to Vincent Price's Egghead.

Death and legacy

Horton died of cancer in 1970 at age 84 in Encino, California. His remains were interred in Glendale's Whispering Pines section of Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery.[8] Horton never publicly discussed his private life.

In 1925, Horton purchased several acres in the district of Encino, Los Angeles and lived on the property at 5521 Amestoy Avenue until his death. He named the estate Belleigh Acres, and it contained Horton's own house and houses for his brother, his sister and their respective families.[1] In the 1950s, the state of California forced Horton to sell a portion of his property for construction of the Ventura Freeway. The freeway construction left a short stump of Amestoy Avenue south of Burbank Boulevard, and shortly after his death the city of Los Angeles renamed that portion Edward Everett Horton Lane.[9]

Edward Everett Horton Lane begins in the shadow of the Ventura Freeway and ends at Burbank Boulevard. On the other side of the boulevard is a bus stop, also named for Edward Everett Horton, between bus stops at Aldea and Balboa. The borderline of Anthony C. Beilenson Park is directly across the street from the corner of Burbank Boulevard and EE Horton Lane. The opposite end of the lane leads to a foot bridge that overlooks the Ventura Freeway and ends on the Amestoy Avenue side.

British Radio DJ and Comedian Kenny Everett adopted the name of Everett in honor of Horton, who was a childhood hero of his. (Kenny's real name was Maurice Cole.)[10]

For his contribution to the motion picture industry, Horton has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6427 Hollywood Boulevard.[11]

Filmography

All feature films are listed below; only some shorts are missing.

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1922	Too Much Business	John Henry Jackson	(film debut)
	The Ladder Jinx	Arthur Barnes
	A Front Page Story	Rodney Marvin
1923	Ruggles of Red Gap	Ruggles	Credited as Edward Horton
	The Vow of Vengeance
	To the Ladies	Leonard Beebe
1924	Flapper Wives	Vincent Platt
	Try and Get It	Glenn Collins
	The Man Who Fights Alone	Bob Alten
	Helen's Babies	Uncle Harry	with Clara Bow and Baby Peggy
1925	Beggar on Horseback	Neil McRae
	Marry Me	John Smith #2
	The Business of Love	Edward Burgess
1926	La Bohème	Colline
	Poker Faces	Jimmy Whitmore
	The Whole Town's Talking	Chester Binney
1927	Taxi! Taxi!	Peter Whitby
1928	The Terror	Ferdinand Fane
1929	Ask Dad	Dad	Short film
	Sonny Boy	Crandall Thorpe
	The Hottentot	Sam Harrington
	The Sap	The Sap
	The Aviator	Robert Steele
1930	Take the Heir	Smithers
	Wide Open	Simon Haldane
	Holiday	Nick Potter
	Once a Gentleman	Oliver
	Reaching for the Moon	Roger - the Valet
1931	Kiss Me Again	René	Alternative title: Toast of the Legion
	Lonely Wives	Richard Smith / Felix, the Great Zero
	The Front Page	Roy V. Bensinger
	Six Cylinder Love	Monty Winston
	Smart Woman	Billy Ross
	The Age for Love	Horace Keats
1932	But the Flesh Is Weak	Sir George Kelvin
	Roar of the Dragon	Busby
	Trouble in Paradise	François Filiba
1933	Soldiers of the King	Sebastian Marvello
	A Bedtime Story	Victor Dubois
	It's a Boy	Dudley Leake
	The Way to Love	Prof. Gaston Bibi
	Design for Living	Max Plunkett
	Alice in Wonderland	The Mad Hatter
1934	Easy to Love	Eric
	The Poor Rich	Albert Stuyvesant Spottiswood
	Success at Any Price	Fisher
	Uncertain Lady	Elliot Crane
	Sing and Like It	Adam Frink - Producer
	Smarty	Vernon
	Kiss and Make-Up	Marcel Caron
	Ladies Should Listen	Paul Vernet
	The Merry Widow	Ambassador Popoff
	The Gay Divorcee	Egbert Fitzgerald
1935	Biography of a Bachelor Girl	Leander 'Bunny' Nolan
	The Night Is Young	Baron Szereny
	All the King's Horses	Count Josef von Schlapstaat
	The Devil Is a Woman	Gov. Don Paquito 'Paquitito'
	$10 Raise	Hubert T. Wilkins
	In Caliente	Harold Brandon
	Going Highbrow	Augie Winterspoon
	Top Hat	Horace Hardwick
	The Private Secretary	Reverend Robert Spalding
	Little Big Shot	Mortimer
	His Night Out	Homer B. Bitts
	Your Uncle Dudley	Dudley Dixon
1936	Her Master's Voice	Ned Farrar
	The Singing Kid	Davenport Rogers
	Nobody's Fool	Will Wright
	Hearts Divided	John
	The Man in the Mirror	Jeremy Dilke
	Let's Make a Million	Harrison Gentry
1937	Lost Horizon	Alexander P. Lovett
	The King and the Chorus Girl	Count Humbert Evel Bruger
	Oh, Doctor	Edward J. Billop
	Shall We Dance	Jeffrey Baird
	Wild Money	P.E. Dodd
	Danger – Love at Work	Howard Rogers
	Angel	Graham
	The Perfect Specimen	Mr. Grattan
	The Great Garrick	Tubby
	Hitting a New High	Lucius B. Blynn
1938	Bluebeard's Eighth Wife	The Marquis De Loiselle
	College Swing	Hubert Dash
	Holiday	Professor Nick Potter
	Little Tough Guys in Society	Oliver
1939	Paris Honeymoon	Ernest Figg
	The Gang's All Here	Treadwell
	That's Right—You're Wrong	Tom Village
1941	You're the One	Death Valley Joe Frink
	Ziegfeld Girl	Noble Sage
	Sunny	Henry Bates
	Bachelor Daddy	Joseph Smith
	Here Comes Mr. Jordan	Messenger 7013
	Week-End for Three	Stonebraker
	The Body Disappears	Professor Shotesbury
1942	The Magnificent Dope	Horace Hunter
	I Married an Angel	Peter
	Springtime in the Rockies	McTavish
1943	Forever and a Day	Sir Anthony Trimble-Pomfret
	Thank Your Lucky Stars	Farnsworth
	The Gang's All Here	Peyton Potter
1944	Her Primitive Man	Orrin
	Summer Storm	Count 'Piggy' Volsky
	Arsenic and Old Lace	Mr. Witherspoon
	San Diego, I Love You	Philip McCooley
	Brazil	Everett St. John Everett
	The Town Went Wild	Everett Conway
1945	Steppin' in Society	Judge Avery Webster
	Lady on a Train	Mr. Haskell
1946	Cinderella Jones	Keating
	Faithful in My Fashion	Hiram Dilworthy
	Earl Carroll Sketchbook	Dr. Milo Edwards
1947	The Ghost Goes Wild	Eric
	Down to Earth	Messenger 7013
	Her Husband's Affairs	J. B. Cruikshank
1955	Max Liebman Presents: The Merry Widow	Baron Zelta	TV movie
1956	Saturday Spectacular: Manhattan Tower	Noah	TV movie
1957	The Story of Mankind	Sir Walter Raleigh
1961	Pocketful of Miracles	Hudgins
1963	One Got Fat	Narrator	Short subject
	It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World	Mr. Dinckler
1964	Sex and the Single Girl	The Chief
1967	The Perils of Pauline	Caspar Coleman
1969	2000 Years Later	Evermore
1971	Cold Turkey	Hiram C. Grayson (non-speaking role)	(final film role); released posthumously

Partial television credits

Year	Title	Role	Episode(s)
1949	The Ford Theatre Hour	Sheridan Whiteside	1 episode
1952	I Love Lucy	Mr. Ritter	1 episode
1956	General Electric Theater	Mr. Parkinson	1 episode
1957	Playhouse 90	Mr. Carver	1 episode
1959–1964	The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends	Many Roles	All episodes
1960	The Real McCoys	Mr. Medwick	1 episode
1962	Mr. Smith Goes to Washington	Senator Crabtree	1 episode
1962–1963	Dennis the Menace	Ned Matthews	3 episodes
1963	Our Man Higgins	Rawley	"Who's on First?" with Don Drysdale
1965	Burke's Law	Wilbur Starlington	1 episode
1965–1966	F Troop	Roaring Chicken	6 episodes
1966	Batman	Chief Screaming Chicken	episodes 47 and 48
1969	It Takes a Thief	Lord Pelham-Gifford	1 episode
1970	Nanny and the Professor	Professor Clarendon	1 episode
1971	The Governor & J.J.	Doc Simon	2 episodes

Radio appearances

Year	Program	Episode/source
1952	Musical Comedy Theater	On an Island with You[12]

References

1. Fowler, James (April 12, 1997). "Horton's House Grew with Film Career". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2013-09-06.
2. "Actor Edward Everett Horton Dies at 84". Dayton Beach Morning Journal. October 1, 1970.
3. "Edward Everett Horton, Jr". Ancestry.com. Retrieved 2013-09-06.
4. Bernstein, Neil (2008). "Notable City College Knights". Baltimore, MD: Baltimore City College Alumni Association.
5. Keehn, Roy D. (1910). Grand Catalogue of the Phi Kappa Psi Fraternity (7th ed.). Chicago: Phi Kappa Psi Fraternity. p. 289. OCLC 5469453.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
6. Aliperti, Cliff (December 7, 2011). "Edward Everett Horton – Biography of the Beloved Character Actor". Immortal Ephemera. Retrieved 2013-09-06.
7. Desowitz, Bill (August 27, 1999). "Something 'Fractured,' Something New". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2013-09-06.
8. Wilson, Scott. Resting Places: The Burial Sites of More Than 14,000 Famous Persons, 3d ed.: 2 (Kindle Location 22166). McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers. Kindle Edition.
9. "Edward Everett Horton's Encino Ranch Estate and the 101 Freeway; How A Celebrity Lost His Ranch to Suburbanization". San Fernando Valley Blog. 4 April 2012. Retrieved 2013-09-06.
10. Larkin, Colin (1997). The Virgin Encyclopedia of Seventies Music. Virgin, Muze. p. 148. ISBN 0753501546.
11. http://projects.latimes.com/hollywood/star-walk/edward-everett-horton/
12. Kirby, Walter (March 16, 1952). "Better Radio Programs for the Week". The Decatur Daily Review. p. 44. Retrieved May 23, 2015 – via Newspapers.com.

Listen to

• Interview with Edward Everett Horton (January 8, 1940)

Further reading

• Alistair, Rupert (2018). "Edward Everett Horton". The Name Below the Title : 65 Classic Movie Character Actors from Hollywood's Golden Age (softcover) (First ed.). Great Britain: Independently published. pp. 125–128. ISBN 978-1-7200-3837-5.

External links

Media related to Edward Everett Horton at Wikimedia Commons

• Edward Everett Horton at the Internet Broadway Database
• Edward Everett Horton on IMDb
• Edward Everett Horton at the TCM Movie Database
• Edward Everett Horton at Find a Grave
• Edward Everett Horton on SilentMajority.com (dead link)
• Edward Everett Horton at Virtual History