Eddie Laughton (20 June 1903 – 21 March 1952) was a British-American film actor. He appeared in more than 200 films between 1935 and 1952, and is best known for his work with The Three Stooges.
Eddie Laughton | |
|---|---|
 Laughton in The Three Stooges film Idle Roomers (1944) | |
| Born | 20 June 1903 |
| Died | 21 March 1952 (aged 48) Hollywood, California, U.S. |
| Resting place | Holy Cross Cemetery, Culver City |
| Other names | Edgar Hugh Laughton |
| Years active | 1935–1952 |
| Spouse | Mary Eaton (?–1948) (her death)[1] |
Career
editLaughton's family immigrated to the United States in 1909 and settled in Detroit. He started in vaudeville and managed a vaudeville theatre where Larry Fine, later of the Stooges trio, once played.[2]
The pencil-mustached Laughton was placed under contract by Columbia Pictures in 1935, almost certainly thanks to Fine. Laughton worked at Columbia almost exclusively for 10 years, in features, westerns, short subjects, and serials throughout the 1930s and 1940s.[3] Modern viewers will remember Laughton for his role as "Percy Pomeroy, convict 41144" in the Stooge comedies So Long Mr. Chumps and Beer Barrel Polecats, or as the happy drunk in Loco Boy Makes Good. Laughton was an excellent utility player, useful in good-guy and bad-guy roles alike. (He and fellow Columbia stock player John Tyrrell shared many scenes.) Laughton was also a convincing dialect comedian, playing a French nobleman in Buster Keaton's She's Oil Mine, and an English big-game hunter plastered with pies in the Stooges' In the Sweet Pie and Pie.[4]
In addition to his roles in the Stooge shorts, he traveled with the team between filming schedules, acting as their straight man in personal appearances.[3]
Death
editEddie Laughton died of pneumonia on March 21, 1952, just two months after the death of Curly Howard, who died of a massive cerebral hemorrhage. Both he and Curly were born in the same year; 1903, and were both 48 years old when they died within two months of each other in 1952.
Selected filmography
edit- Three Little Beers (1935)
- Disorder in the Court (1936) - Man Sitting by Letterpress (uncredited)
- A Pain in the Pullman (1936)
- Slippery Silks (1936)
- 3 Dumb Clucks (1937)
- Goofs and Saddles (1937)
- It Happened in Hollywood (1937)
- Cash and Carry (1937)
- No Time to Marry (1938)
- Special Inspector (1938)
- Squadron of Honor (1938)
- We Want Our Mummy (1939) - Cab Driver (uncredited)
- Pest from the West (1939)
- Oily to Bed, Oily to Rise (1939)
- Three Sappy People (1939)
- Beware Spooks! (1939)
- Scandal Sheet (1939)
- Girls of the Road (1940)
- The Secret Seven (1940)
- You Nazty Spy! (1940)
- A Plumbing We Will Go (1940)
- Boobs in Arms (1940)
- So Long Mr. Chumps (1941)
- Dutiful But Dumb (1941)
- Meet Boston Blackie (1941)
- I Was a Prisoner on Devil's Island (1941)
- In the Sweet Pie and Pie (1941)
- Across the Sierras (1941)
- Tillie the Toiler (1941)
- Outlaws of the Panhandle (1941)
- The Boogie Man Will Get You (1942)
- Loco Boy Makes Good (1942)
- Cactus Makes Perfect (1942)
- What's the Matador? (1942)
- Parachute Nurse (1942)
- Atlantic Convoy (1942)
- Alias Boston Blackie (1942)
- Stand By All Networks (1942)
- Three Smart Saps (1942)
- Daring Young Man (1942)
- Bullets for Bandits (1942)
- Busy Buddies (1944)
- Sailor's Holiday (1944)
- Idle Roomers (1944)
- Idiots Deluxe (1945) - Courtroom spectator (uncredited)
- Beer Barrel Polecats (1946, in footage from So Long, Mr. Chumps, final appearance with The Three Stooges)
- The Perils of Pauline (1947)
- Chicken Every Sunday (1949)
- Pest Man Wins - Lion Hunter (in 1941 footage from In the Sweet Pie and Pie)
- Sappy Bull Fighters - Bullring attendant (in 1942 footage from What's the Matador?)
References
edit- ^ "Silence is Platinum: Miss Mary Eaton". 16 May 2010.
- ^ Cox, Steve; Terry, Jim (2006). One Fine Stooge: A Frizzy Life in Pictures. Cumberland House Publishing. ISBN 1-58182-363-0.
- ^ a b Okuda, Ted; Watz, Edward (1986). The Columbia Comedy Shorts. McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers. p. 222. ISBN 0-89950-181-8.
- ^ imdb.com