Joseph Cawthorn (March 29, 1868 – January 21, 1949) was an American stage and film comic actor.
Biography
Born in New York City to a minstrel-show family, Cawthorn started out in show business as a child, debuting at Robinson’s Music Hall in New York in 1872. He appeared in minstrel shows and vaudeville as a “Dutch” comic, employing a thick German dialect. He later worked in British music halls and American touring companies.
Cawthorn made his Broadway debut in 1895, 1897 or 1898, 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 while a problem backstage was dealt with. As “the scene called for him to describe imaginary animals he had hunted”, he invented the “whiffenpoof” on the spot. Yale students in the audience appropriated it for the name of their glee club.
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).
He was Queenie Vassar’s third husband; they were married from 1902 to his death.
Cawthorn died on January 21, 1949, at age 80, in Beverly Hills, California.
Complete filmography
The Secret Studio (1927) – Pa Merton
Two Girls Wanted (1927) – Philip Hancock
Very Confidential (1927) – Donald Allen
Silk Legs (1927) – Ezra Fulton
Hold ‘Em Yale (1928) – Professor George Bradbury
Speakeasy (1929) – Yokel
Street Girl (1929) – Keppel – Cafe Owner
The Taming of the Shrew (1929) – Gremio
Jazz Heaven (1929) – Herman Kemple
Dance Hall (1929) – Bremmer
Dixiana (1930) – Cornelius Van Horn – Carl’s Father
The Princess and the Plumber (1930) – Merkl
Kiki (1931) – Alfred Rapp
A Tailor Made Man (1931) – Huber
The Runaround (1931) – Lou
Peach O’Reno (1931) – Joe Bruno
White Zombie (1932) – Dr. Bruner
Love Me Tonight (1932) – Dr. Armand de Fontinac
They Call It Sin (1932) – Mr. Hollister
Men Are Such Fools (1932) – Werner
Whistling in the Dark (1933) – Otto Barfuss
Grand Slam (1933) – Alex Alexandrovitch (uncredited)
Blondie Johnson (1933) – Jewelry Store Manager
Made on Broadway (1933) – Maxie Schultz
Best of Enemies (1933) – Gus Schneider
Broken Dreams (1933) – Pop
Cold Turkey (1933 short)
The Cat and the Fiddle (1934) – Rudy
Lazy River (1934) – Mr. Julius Ambrose
Glamour (1934) – Ibsen
Twenty Million Sweethearts (1934) – Herbert Brokman
The Last Gentleman (1934) – Dr. Wilson
Housewife (1934) – Krueger
The Human Side (1934) – Fritz Speigal
Young and Beautiful (1934) – Herman Cline
Music in the Air (1934) – Hans Uppman
Sweet Adeline (1934) – Oscar Schmidt
Maybe It’s Love (1935) – Adolph Sr.
Sweet Music (1935) – Sidney Selzer
Naughty Marietta (1935) – Herr Schuman
Gold Diggers of 1935 (1935) – Schultz
Smart Girl (1935) – Karl Krausemeyer
Bright Lights (1935) – Oscar Schlemmer
Page Miss Glory (1935) – Mr.Freischutz
Harmony Lane (1935) – Professor Henry Kleber
Freshman Love (1936) – Wilson, Sr.
The Great Ziegfeld (1936) – Dr. Ziegfeld
Brides Are Like That (1936) – Fred Schultz
One Rainy Afternoon (1936) – Monsieur Pelerin
Hot Money (1936) – Max Dourfuss
Crime Over London (1936) – Mr. Sherwood / Reilly
Lillian Russell (1940) – Leopold Damrosch
Scatterbrain (1940) – Nicholas Raptis
So Ends Our Night (1941) – Leopold Potzloch
The Postman Didn’t Ring (1942) – Silas Harwood (final film role)
External Links
Actor Joseph Cawthorn – Wikipedia
