Walter Leland Catlett (February 4, 1889 – November 14, 1960) was an American actor of stage and screen, as well as a comedian. He made a career of playing excitable, meddlesome, temperamental, and officious blowhards.
Career
Catlett was born in San Francisco, California. He started out in vaudeville, teaming up with Hobart Cavanaugh at some point, with a detour for a while to opera, before breaking into acting.
He started on stage in 1906 and made his Broadway debut in either The Prince of Pilsen (1910 or 1911) or So Long Letty (1916). His first film appearance was in 1912, but then he went back to the stage and did not return to films until 1929. He performed in operettas and musicals, including The Ziegfeld Follies of 1917, the original production of the Jerome Kern musical Sally (1920) and the Gershwins’ Lady, Be Good (1924). In the last, he introduced the song “Oh, Lady Be Good!” In 1918, he starred in, stage-managed and rewrote an Oliver Morosco-Elmer Harris-Harry Plani production titled Look Pleasant, playing at the Majestic Theatre in Los Angeles. His antics in the musical Baby Bunting in London in 1922 had King George V laughing “uproariously”.
Catlett made a handful of silent film appearances, but his film career did not catch on until the advent of talking pictures allowed moviegoers to experience his full comic repertoire. Three of his better remembered roles were as the theatre manager driven to distraction by James Cagney’s character in Yankee Doodle Dandy, the local constable who throws the entire cast in jail and winds up there himself in the Howard Hawks’ classic screwball comedy Bringing Up Baby, and as Morrow, the drunken poet in the restaurant who “knows when [he’s] been a skunk” and takes Longfellow Deeds on a “bender” in Mr. Deeds Goes to Town. The New York Times film critic Mordaunt Hall wrote that “This clever comedian runs away with the acting laurels” in Big City Blues (1932). He played John Barsad in the 1935 David O. Selznick production of A Tale of Two Cities, starring Ronald Colman. He also provided the uncredited voice of J. Worthington Foulfellow (a.k.a. Honest John) the Fox, the main villain in the 1940 Disney animated film Pinocchio. In the 1950s, he appeared in films like Here Comes the Groom, Friendly Persuasion, and Beau James.
For his contributions to the film industry, Catlett was inducted into the Hollywood Walk of Fame on February 8, 1960 with a motion pictures star located at 1713 Vine Street.
Walter Catlett died of a stroke on November 14, 1960 in Woodland Hills, California.
Filmography
Second Youth (1924) as John McNab
Summer Bachelors (1926) as Bachelor No. 1
The Music Master (1927) as Medicine Show Barker
Why Leave Home? (1929) as Elmer
Married in Hollywood (1929) as Joe Glitner
Happy Days (1929) as End Man – Minstrel Show
Let’s Go Places (1930) as Rex Wardell
The Big Party (1930) as Mr. Goldfarb
The Golden Calf (1930) as Master of Ceremonies
The Florodora Girl (1930) as De Boer
The Front Page (1931) as Murphy
Honeymoon Trio (1931, short) as The Nuisance
One Quiet Night (1931, short)
Platinum Blonde (1931) as Bingy
Maker of Men (1931) as McNeil
Cock of the Air (1932) as Col. Wallace
Sky Devils (1932) as Master of Ceremonies – Canteen Show (uncredited)
The Expert (1932) as Al
It’s Tough to Be Famous (1932) as Joseph Craig ‘Joe’ Chapin
Back Street (1932) as Bakeless
Okay, America! (1932) as City Editor aka ‘Lucille’
Big City Blues (1932) as Cousin ‘Gibby’ Gibboney
Rain (1932) as Quartermaster Bates
The Sport Parade (1932) as ‘Shifty’ Morrison
Rockabye (1932) as Jimmy Dunn
Olsen’s Big Moment (1933) as Robert Brewster III
Private Jones (1933) as Spivey
Mama Loves Papa (1933) as Tom Walker
Arizona to Broadway (1933) as Ned Flynn
Only Yesterday (1933) as Barnes (uncredited)
So This Is Harris! (1933, Oscar-winning short) as Himself
Unknown Blonde (1934) as Publicity Man
The Captain Hates the Sea (1934) as Joe Silvers
Lightning Strikes Twice (1934) as Gus
Every Night at Eight (1935) as Master of Ceremonies
The Affair of Susan (1935) as Gilbert
A Tale of Two Cities (1935) as Barsad
Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936) as Morrow, the Poet
We Went to College (1936) as Senator Budger
Follow Your Heart (1936) as Joe Sheldon
Cain and Mabel (1936) as Jake Sherman
Four Days’ Wonder (1936) as Duffy
Banjo on My Knee (1936) as Warfield Scott
Sing Me a Love Song (1936) as Mr. Sprague (uncredited)
I Loved a Soldier (1936)
On the Avenue (1937) as Jake Dibble
Love Is News (1937) as Eddie Johnson
Wake Up and Live (1937) as Gus Avery
Love Under Fire (1937) as Tip Conway
Varsity Show (1937) as Professor Sylvester Biddle
Danger – Love at Work (1937) as Uncle Alan
Every Day’s a Holiday (1937) as Nifty Bailey
Come Up Riches (1937)
Bringing Up Baby (1938) as Slocum
Zaza (1938) as Marlardot
Going Places (1938) as Franklin Dexter
Exile Express (1939) as Gus
Kid Nightingale (1939) as Skip Davis
Pinocchio (1940) as Honest John Worthington Foulfellow (voice, uncredited)
Half a Sinner (1940) as Station Attendant
Pop Always Pays (1940) as Tommy Lane
Comin’ Round the Mountain (1940) as W.P.A. Clerk
Spring Parade (1940) as Headwaiter
The Quarterback (1940) as Tom
Li’l Abner (1940) as Barber
Remedy for Riches (1940) as Clem
Honeymoon for Three (1941) as Waiter
The Wild Man of Borneo (1941) as ‘Doc’ Skelby
You’re the One (1941) as Program Director
Horror Island (1941) as Sergeant McGoon
Million Dollar Baby (1941) as Mr. Simpson
Hello, Sucker (1941) as G. Remington ‘Max’ Conway
Bad Men of Missouri (1941) as Mr. Pettibone
Manpower (1941) as Sidney Whipple
Unfinished Business (1941) as Billy Ross
Sing Another Chorus (1941) as Theodore Gateson
It Started with Eve (1941) as Doctor Harvey
Steel Against the Sky (1941) as Professor Rupert Sampson
Wild Bill Hickok Rides (1942) as Sylvester W. Twigg
Star Spangled Rhythm (1942) as Walter- ‘Sweater, Sarong & Peekaboo Bang’ Number
My Gal Sal (1942) as Col. Truckee
Syncopation (1942) as Spelvin
Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942) as Theatre Manager
Maisie Gets Her Man (1942) as Jasper
Give Out, Sisters (1942) as Gribble
Between Us Girls (1942) as Desk Sergeant
Heart of the Golden West (1942) as Colonel Silas Popen
How’s About It (1943) as Whipple
They Got Me Covered (1943) as Hotel Manager
Hit Parade of 1943 (1943) as J. MacClellan Davis
Cowboy in Manhattan (1943) as Ace Robbins
Get Going (1943) as Horace Doblem
The West Side Kid (1943) as Ramsey Fensel
Fired Wife (1943) as Judge Allen
His Butler’s Sister (1943) as Mortimer Kalb
Up in Arms (1944) as Major Brock
Hat Check Honey (1944) as Tim Martel
Her Primitive Man (1944) as Hotel Clerk
Lady, Let’s Dance (1944) as Timber Applegate
Pardon My Rhythm (1944) as O’Bannion
Ghost Catchers (1944) as Colonel Breckinridge Marshall
Three Is a Family (1944) as Barney Meeker
My Gal Loves Music (1944) as Dr. Bilbo
Hi, Beautiful (1944) as Gerald Bisbee
Lake Placid Serenade (1944) as Carlton Webb
The Man Who Walked Alone (1945) as Wiggins
I Love a Bandleader (1945) as B. Templeton James
Riverboat Rhythm (1946) as Colonel Jeffrey ‘Smitty’ Witherspoon
Slightly Scandalous (1946) as Mr. Wright
I’ll Be Yours (1947) as Mr. Buckingham
Are You with It? (1948) as Jason (Pop) Carter
Mr. Reckless (1948) as Joel Hawkins
The Boy with Green Hair (1948) as The King
Henry, the Rainmaker (1949) as Mayor Colton
Leave It to Henry (1949) as Mayor Colton
Look for the Silver Lining (1949) as Himself
Dancing in the Dark (1949) as Joe Brooks
The Inspector General (1949) as Colonel Castine
Father Makes Good (1950) as Mayor George Colton
Father’s Wild Game (1950) as Mayor George Colton
Father Takes the Air (1951) as Mayor George Colton
Here Comes the Groom (1951) as Mr. McGonigle
Honeychile (1951) as Al Moore
Davy Crockett and the River Pirates (1956) as Colonel Plug (archive footage)
Friendly Persuasion (1956) as Professor Quigley
The Gay Nineties (1956)
Beau James (1957) as Gov. Alfred E. ‘Al’ Smith
Broadway stage credits
So Long Letty (1916–1917)
Ziegfeld Follies of 1917 (1917)
Follow the Girl (1918)
Sally (1920–1922, 1923)
Dear Sir (1924)
Lady, Be Good (1924–1925)
Lucky (1927)
Treasure Girl (1928)
External Links
Actor Walter Catlett – Wikipedia
