1868-03-27 ( 157 years old ) in New York City, New York, USA
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Joseph Cawthorn (March 29, 1868, New York City, New York – January 21, 1949, Beverly Hills, California) was an American stage and film comic actor. Cawthorn started out in show business as a child, debuting at Robinson's Music Hall in his hometown of 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. 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).
Cawthorn died peacefully on January 21, 1949. He was survived by his wife, actress Queenie Vassar.
Movies
The Postman Didn't Ring
1942-07-03
So Ends Our Night
1941-02-27
Scatterbrain
1940-07-20
Lillian Russell
1940-05-24
Crime Over London
1936-10-21
Hot Money
1936-07-18
One Rainy Afternoon
1936-05-13
Brides Are Like That
1936-04-18
The Great Ziegfeld
1936-04-08
Freshman Love
1936-01-18
Harmony Lane
1935-10-22
Page Miss Glory
1935-09-07
Bright Lights
1935-07-27
Smart Girl
1935-07-16
Naughty Marietta
1935-03-29
Gold Diggers of 1935
1935-03-15
Sweet Music
1935-02-23
Maybe It's Love
1935-01-12
Sweet Adeline
1934-12-29
Music in the Air
1934-12-13
Young and Beautiful
1934-09-16
The Human Side
1934-09-01
Housewife
1934-08-11
Twenty Million Sweethearts
1934-05-26
The Last Gentleman
1934-04-27
Lazy River
1934-03-16
Broken Dreams
1933-10-19
Best of Enemies
1933-06-22
Made on Broadway
1933-05-19
Blondie Johnson
1933-02-25
Grand Slam
1933-02-22
Whistling in the Dark
1933-01-21
Men Are Such Fools
1932-11-18
They Call It Sin
1932-11-05
Love Me Tonight
1932-08-18
White Zombie
1932-07-28
Peach-o-Reno
1931-12-25
The Runaround
1931-08-21
A Tailor-Made Man
1931-03-28
Kiki
1931-03-14
The Princess and the Plumber
1930-12-21
Dixiana
1930-07-22
Dance Hall
1929-12-13
Jazz Heaven
1929-11-03
The Taming of the Shrew
1929-10-26
Street Girl
1929-08-21
Speakeasy
1929-03-08
Hold 'Em Yale
1928-05-14
Silk Legs
1927-12-18
Very Confidential
1927-11-06
Two Girls Wanted
1927-09-11
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