Eugene Pallette
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Eugene Pallette | |
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Born | Eugene William Pallette July 8, 1889 Winfield, Kansas, U.S. |
Died | September 3, 1954 Los Angeles, California, U.S. | (aged 65)
Resting place | Green Lawn Cemetery, Grenola, Kansas |
Occupation | Actor |
Years active | 1910–1946 |
Spouses |
Eugene William Pallette (July 8, 1889 – September 3, 1954[citation needed]) was an American actor who worked in both the silent and sound eras, performing in more than 240 productions between 1913 and 1946.
After an early career as a slender
Early life
Eugene Pallette was born in Winfield, Kansas, the son of William Baird Pallette and Elnora "Ella" Jackson. His parents had both been stage actors in their younger years, but by 1889 (the year of Pallette's birth) his father was working as an insurance salesman. His sister was Beulah L. Pallette.[3]
Pallette attended Culver Military Academy in Culver, Indiana. He also worked as a jockey, and did a stage act which included three horses.[citation needed]
Career
Pallette began his
Silent films
Pallette began his
Quickly advancing to featured status, Pallette was cast in many westerns. He worked with D. W. Griffith on such films as The Birth of a Nation (1915), where he played two parts, one in blackface, and Intolerance (1916). He also played a Chinese role in Tod Browning's The Highbinders. At this time, Pallette had a slim, athletic figure, a far cry from his portly build later in his career. He starred as the slender sword-fighting swashbuckler Aramis in Douglas Fairbanks' 1921 version of The Three Musketeers, one of the great smash hits of the silent era. However, his girth had begun to get stockier, ending his ambitions of becoming a leading man. Discouraged, Pallette left Hollywood for the oil fields of Texas, where he both made and lost a sizable fortune of $140,000 (equivalent to $2,391,493 in 2023) in the same year. Eventually he returned to film work.
After gaining a great deal of weight, he became one of the screen's most recognizable character actors. In 1927, he signed as a regular for Hal Roach Studios and was a reliable comic foil in several early Laurel and Hardy movies. In later years, Pallette's weight may have topped out at more than 300 pounds (136 kg).[citation needed]
Sound films
The advent of the talkies proved to be the second major career boost for Pallette. In 1929 he appeared as "Honey" Wiggin in the 1929 talkie The Virginian. His inimitable rasping gravel voice (described as "half an octave below anyone else in the cast") made him one of Hollywood's most sought-after character actors in the 1930s and 1940s.
The typical Pallette role was gruff, aggravated and down to earth. He played the comically exasperated head of the family (e.g.,
BBC commentator Dana Gioia described Pallette's onscreen appeal:
The mature Pallette character is a creature of provocative contradictions—tough-minded but indulgent, earthy but epicurean, relaxed but excitable. His grit and gravel voice sounds simultaneously tough and comic. ... Pallette uses his girth to create a common touch. Stuffed into a tuxedo that seems perpetually near bursting, he seems more down-to-earth than the stylish high society types who surround him.
Pallette was cast as the father of lead actress
In increasingly ill health by his late fifties, Pallette made fewer and fewer movies, and for lesser studios. His final movie, Suspense, was released in 1946.
Later life
In 1946, convinced that there was going to be a "world blow-up" by
When the "blow-up" he anticipated failed to materialize after two years, he began disposing of the Oregon ranch and returned to Los Angeles and his movie colony friends. He never appeared in another movie, however.
Eugene Pallette died at age 65 in 1954 from
He has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6702 Hollywood Boulevard for his contribution to motion pictures.[8]
Filmography
References
- ISBN 9781365021282.
- ISBN 978-0517573020.
- ISBN 978-1-4809-4499-2.
- ISBN 978-0-86547-995-1.
- ^ "Eugene Pallette – Brief Biography with Additional Trivia". July 8, 2013.
- ^ California Death Index, Name: Eugene William Pallette, Birth Date: 07-08-1889, Mother's Maiden Name: Jackson, Father's Last: Pallette, Sex: Male, Birth Place: Kansas, Death Place: Los Angeles (19), Death Date: 09-03-1954, Age: 65 yrs.
- ^ "Pioneer Film Actor Eugene Pallette Dies". Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles, California. September 4, 1954. p. A1.
- ^ "Eugene Pallette". Hollywood Walk of Fame. Archived from the original on February 19, 2014. Retrieved October 23, 2022.
- ^ Love 1977, p. 153
Works cited
- Love, Bessie (1977). From Hollywood with Love: An Autobiography of Bessie Love. London: Elm Tree Books. OCLC 734075937.
Further reading
- Alistair, Rupert (2018). "Eugene Pallette". The Name Below the Title : 65 Classic Movie Character Actors from Hollywood's Golden Age (softcover) (First ed.). Great Britain: Independently published. pp. 208–211. ISBN 978-1-7200-3837-5.