Edward Everett Horton
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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.
Acted in
The Silver Screen: Color Me Lavender
1997
as Self (archive footage)
Cold Turkey
1971
as Hiram C. Grayson
Nanny and the Professor
1970
Love, American Style
1969
as Elmo
2000 Years Later
1969
as Evermore
The Name of the Game
1968
as Philip Armistead
The Perils of Pauline
1967
as Caspar Coleman
Batman
1966
as Chief Screaming Chicken
F Troop
1965
Sex and the Single Girl
1964
as The Chief
The Cara Williams Show
1964
The Emperor's Oblong Pancake
1964
as Narrator
One Got Fat
1963
as Narrator (voice)
It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World
1963
as Mr. Dinckler
Burke's Law
1963
as Grover Leander Smith
Burke's Law
1963
as Wilbur Starlington
Saints and Sinners
1962
as Mr. Hollister
Pocketful of Miracles
1961
as Hudgins
The Wonderful World of Trains
1960
as Professor Hotbox
Fractured Fairy Tales
1959
as Narrator (voice)
The Bullwinkle Show
1959
as Fractured Fairy Tales Narrator (voice)
Dennis the Menace
1959
as Uncle Ned Matthews
The Story of Mankind
1957
as Sir Walter Raleigh
The Lux Show
1957
as Self
The Gerald McBoing-Boing Show
1956
as Storyteller (voice)
Saturday Spectacular: Manhattan Tower
1956
as Noah
The Steve Allen Show
1956
as Self - Guest
Matinee Theater
1955
December Bride
1954
The George Gobel Show
1954
as Self
Max Liebman Presents
1954
General Electric Theater
1953
as Mr. Parkinson
I Love Lucy
1951
as Mr. Ritter
The Colgate Comedy Hour
1950
as Self
The Philco Television Playhouse
1948
Her Husband's Affairs
1947
as J.B. Cruikshank
Down to Earth
1947
as Messenger 7013
The Ghost Goes Wild
1947
as Eric
Earl Carroll Sketchbook
1946
as Dr. Milo Edwards
Faithful in My Fashion
1946
as Hiram Dilworthy
Cinderella Jones
1946
as Keating
Lady on a Train
1945
as Mr. Haskell
Steppin' in Society
1945
as Judge Avery Webster
The Town Went Wild
1944
as Everett Conway
Brazil
1944
as Everett St. John Everett
San Diego I Love You
1944
as Philip McCooley
Arsenic and Old Lace
1944
as Mr. Witherspoon
Summer Storm
1944
as Count "Piggy" Volsky
Her Primitive Man
1944
as Orrin
The Gang's All Here
1943
as Peyton Potter
Thank Your Lucky Stars
1943
as Farnsworth
Forever and a Day
1943
as Anthony Trimble-Pomfret
Springtime in the Rockies
1942
as McTavish
I Married an Angel
1942
as Peter
The Magnificent Dope
1942
as Horace Hunter
Weekend for Three
1941
as Fred Stonebraker
The Body Disappears
1941
as Professor Shotesbury
Here Comes Mr. Jordan
1941
as Messenger 7013
Bachelor Daddy
1941
as Joseph Smith
Sunny
1941
as Henry Bates
Ziegfeld Girl
1941
as Noble Sage
You're the One
1941
That's Right – You're Wrong
1939
as Tom Village
The Gang's All Here
1939
as Treadwell
Paris Honeymoon
1939
as Ernest Figg
Little Tough Guys in Society
1938
as Oliver
Holiday
1938
as Nick Potter
College Swing
1938
as Hubert Dash
Bluebeard's Eighth Wife
1938
as Marquis De Loiselle
Hitting a New High
1937
as Lucius B. Blynn
The Great Garrick
1937
as Tubby
Angel
1937
as Graham
The Perfect Specimen
1937
as Mr. Grattan
Danger – Love at Work
1937
as Howard Rogers
Wild Money
1937
as P.E. Dodd
Shall We Dance
1937
as Jeffrey Baird
Oh, Doctor
1937
as Edward J. Billop
The King and the Chorus Girl
1937
as Count Humbert Evel Bruger
Lost Horizon
1937
as Alexander P. " Lovey " Lovett
The Man in the Mirror
1936
as Jeremy Dilke
Let's Make a Million
1936
as Harrison Gentry
Hearts Divided
1936
as John
Nobody's Fool
1936
as Will Wright
The Singing Kid
1936
as Davenport Rogers
Her Master's Voice
1936
as Ned Farrar
Your Uncle Dudley
1935
as Dudley Dixon
Things You Never See on the Screen
1935
as Self
His Night Out
1935
as Homer B. Bitts
Little Big Shot
1935
as Mortimer Thompson
Top Hat
1935
as Horace Hardwick
The Private Secretary
1935
as Rev. Robert Spalding
Going Highbrow
1935
as Augie Winterspoon
In Caliente
1935
as Harold Brandon
$10 Raise
1935
as Hubert T. Wilkins
The Devil Is a Woman
1935
as Gov. Don Paquito 'Paquitito'
All the King's Horses
1935
as Count Josef 'Peppi' von Schlapstaat
The Night Is Young
1935
as Baron Szereny
Biography of a Bachelor Girl
1935
as Leander 'Bunny' Nolan
The Merry Widow
1934
as Ambassador Popoff
The Gay Divorcee
1934
as Egbert Fitzgerald
Ladies Should Listen
1934
as Paul Vernet
Kiss and Make-Up
1934
as Marcel Caron
It's a Boy
1934
as Dudley Leake
Smarty
1934
as Vernon
Sing and Like it
1934
as Adam Frink - Producer
Success at Any Price
1934
as Harry Fisher
The Poor Rich
1934
as Albert Stuyvesant Spottiswood
Easy to Love
1934
as Eric
Design for Living
1933
as Max Plunkett
Alice in Wonderland
1933
as Mad Hatter
The Way to Love
1933
as Professor Gaston Bibi
A Bedtime Story
1933
as Victor Dubois
Soldiers of the King
1933
as Sebastian Marvello
Trouble in Paradise
1932
as François Filiba
Roar of the Dragon
1932
as Busby
But the Flesh Is Weak
1932
as Sir George Kelvin
The Great Junction Hotel
1931
as The Groom
The Age for Love
1931
as Horace Keats
Smart Woman
1931
as Billy Ross
Six Cylinder Love
1931
as Monty Winston
The Front Page
1931
as Bensinger
Lonely Wives
1931
as Richard 'Dickie' Smith / Felix, the Great Zero
Kiss Me Again
1931
as Rene
Reaching for the Moon
1930
as Roger, the Valet
Once a Gentleman
1930
as Oliver
Holiday
1930
as Nick Potter
Wide Open
1930
as Simon Haldane
Take the Heir
1930
as Smithers
The Aviator
1929
as Robert Street
The Sap
1929
as The Sap, Bill Small
The Hottentot
1929
as Sam Harrington
Sonny Boy
1929
as Crandall Thorpe
Ask Dad
1929
as Dad
Vacation Waves
1928
as Eddie Davis
The Terror
1928
as Ferdinand Fane
Horse Shy
1928
as Eddie Hamilton
Behind the Counter
1928
as Eddie Baxter
Dad's Choice
1928
as Eddie
Scrambled Weddings
1928
as Eddie Howe
Call Again
1928
as Eddie
Find the King
1927
as Edward Fairchild
No Publicity
1927
as Eddie Howard
Taxi! Taxi!
1927
The Whole Town's Talking
1926
as Chester Binney
Poker Faces
1926
as Jimmy Whitmore
La Bohème
1926
as Benoit - Janitor
Beggar on Horseback
1925
as Neil McRae
Helen's Babies
1924
as Uncle Harry
To the Ladies
1924
as Leonard Beebe
The Man Who Fights Alone
1924
as Bob Alten
Flapper Wives
1924
as Vincent Platt
Ruggles of Red Gap
1923
as Ruggles
The Right Bed
as Bobby Kent
Try and Get It
as Glenn Collins