Edward Everett Horton
Biography
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Edward Everett Horton Jr. (March 18, 1886 – September 29, 1970) was an American character actor. He had a long career in film, theater, radio, television, and voice work for animated cartoons. 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 talking pictures with Educational in 1929. As a stage-trained performer, he found more film work easily, and appeared in some of Warner Bros.' early talkies, including The Terror (1928) and Sonny Boy (1929).
Horton initially used his given name, Edward Horton, professionally. 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 time-honored double take (an actor's reaction to something, followed by a delayed, more extreme reaction). In Horton's version, he would smile 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 as a character actor 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), 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.
Known For
Acting
1932
asFrançois Filiba
1944
asMr. Witherspoon
1961
asHudgins
1935
asHorace Hardwick
1937
asAlexander P. " Lovey " Lovett
1930
asSmithers
1945
asMr. Haskell
1963
asMr. Dinckler
1964
asNarrator
1937
asJeffrey Baird
1930
asOliver
1938
asMarquis De Loiselle
1930
asRoger, the Valet
1933
asMad Hatter
1964
asThe Chief
1934
asEgbert Fitzgerald
1971
asHiram C. Grayson
1931
asBensinger
1935
asGov. Don Paquito 'Paquitito'
1957
asSir Walter Raleigh
1943
asAnthony Trimble-Pomfret
1942
asMcTavish
1934
asAmbassador Popoff
1937
asGraham
1924
asLeonard Beebe
1938
asNick Potter
1941
asMessenger 7013
1926
asChester Binney
1947
asMessenger 7013
1943
asPeyton Potter
1947
asEric
1944
asCount "Piggy" Volsky
1934
asPaul Vernet
1944
asPhilip McCooley
1934
asMarcel Caron
1933
asMax Plunkett
1937
asLucius B. Blynn
1930
asNick Potter
1935
asMortimer Thompson
1933
asVictor Dubois
1969
asEvermore
1937
asMr. Grattan
1938
asHubert Dash
1931
asRichard 'Dickie' Smith / Felix, the Great Zero
1937
asHoward Rogers
1941
asHenry Bates
1937
asTubby
1923
asRuggles
1937
asCount Humbert Evel Bruger
1936
asDavenport Rogers
1929
asDad
1935
asAugie Winterspoon
1935
asLeander 'Bunny' Nolan
1931
asBilly Ross
1934
asDudley Leake
1934
asEric
1967
asCaspar Coleman
1932
asSir George Kelvin
1936
asJohn
1924
asUncle Harry
1934
asAlbert Stuyvesant Spottiswood
1934
asAdam Frink - Producer
1930
asSimon Haldane
1935
asBaron Szereny
1944
asEverett Conway
1931
asThe Groom
1934
asVernon
1944
asEverett St. John Everett
1935
asHarold Brandon
1935
asHubert T. Wilkins
1934
asHarry Fisher
1941
asFred Stonebraker
1963
asNarrator (voice)
1939
asErnest Figg
1935
asCount Josef 'Peppi' von Schlapstaat
1931
asRene
1931
asMonty Winston
1932
asBusby
1931
asHorace Keats
1935
asHomer B. Bitts
1924
asVincent Platt
1942
asHorace Hunter
1939
asTreadwell
1941
asNoble Sage
1926
asBenoit - Janitor
1925
asNeil McRae
1946
asHiram Dilworthy
1929
asThe Sap, Bill Small
1944
asOrrin
1936
asNed Farrar
1946
asKeating
1942
asPeter
1936
asJeremy Dilke
1939
asTom Village
1928
asEddie
1938
asOliver
1945
asJudge Avery Webster
1946
asDr. Milo Edwards
1929
asRobert Street
1947
asJ.B. Cruikshank
1943
asFarnsworth
1937
asP.E. Dodd
1936
asWill Wright
1937
asEdward J. Billop
1929
asSam Harrington
1935
asRev. Robert Spalding
1924
asBob Alten
1941
asProfessor Shotesbury
asBobby Kent
1933
asProfessor Gaston Bibi
1928
asEddie Baxter
1924
asGlenn Collins
1928
asFerdinand Fane
1933
asSebastian Marvello
1935
asDudley Dixon
1935
asSelf
1941
asJoseph Smith
1941
asDeath Valley Joe Frink
1997
asSelf (archive footage)
1926
asJimmy Whitmore
1928
asEddie Hamilton
1928
asEddie Davis
1927
asEdward Fairchild
1927
asEddie Howard
1936
asHarrison Gentry
1929
asCrandall Thorpe
1960
asProfessor Hotbox
1928
asEddie Howe
1928
asEddie
1956
asNoah
1927
asPeter Whitby
1926
asHoratio Slipaway
1922
asJohn Henry Jackson
1922
asArthur Barnes
1957
asNarrator
1957
asMr. Carver
1934
asElliot Crane
asGrover Leander Smith
as
asSelf
as
asChief Screaming Chicken
asSelf
asMr. Ritter
asSelf
asMr. Parkinson
asMr. Hollister
asUncle Ned Matthews
as
as
as
as
asSelf - Guest
as 
asNarrator (voice)
asSelf
asWilbur Starlington
asSelf
asPhilip Armistead
asFractured Fairy Tales Narrator (voice)
asSelf
asStoryteller (voice)
asElmo
asFractured Fairy Tales Narrator (voice)
Production
Crew
Directing
