1868-03-27 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.
The Postman Didn't Ring | Silas Harwood | 1942-07-03 | |
So Ends Our Night | Leopold Potzloch | 1941-02-27 | |
Lillian Russell | Leopold Damrosch | 1940-05-24 | |
Scatterbrain | Nicholas Raptis | 1940-07-20 | |
Brides Are Like That | Fred Schultz | 1936-04-18 | |
Crime Over London | Mr. Sherwood / Reilly | 1936-10-21 | |
Freshman Love | Wilson, Sr. | 1936-01-18 | |
One Rainy Afternoon | Monique's Father | 1936-05-13 | |
Hot Money | Max Dourfuss | 1936-07-18 | |
The Great Ziegfeld | Dr. Ziegfeld | 1936-04-08 | |
Harmony Lane | Professor Henry Kleber | 1935-10-22 | |
Naughty Marietta | Herr 'Schumie' Schuman | 1935-03-29 | |
Maybe It's Love | Adolph Sr. | 1935-01-12 | |
Bright Lights | Oscar Schlemmer | 1935-07-27 | |
Page Miss Glory | Mr. Freischutz | 1935-09-07 | |
Sweet Music | Sidney Selzer | 1935-02-23 | |
Gold Diggers of 1935 | August Schultz | 1935-03-15 | |
Smart Girl | Karl Krausemeyer | 1935-07-16 | |
Lazy River | Mr. Julius Ambrose | 1934-03-16 | |
Music in the Air | Hans Uppman | 1934-12-13 | |
Twenty Million Sweethearts | Herbert Brokman | 1934-05-26 | |
Sweet Adeline | Oscar Schmidt | 1934-12-29 | |
Housewife | Krueger (as Joe Cawthorne) | 1934-08-11 | |
The Last Gentleman | Dr. Wilson | 1934-04-27 | |
The Human Side | Fritz Speigal | 1934-09-01 | |
Young and Beautiful | Herman Cline | 1934-09-16 | |
Best of Enemies | Gus Schneider | 1933-06-22 | |
Whistling in the Dark | Barfuss | 1933-01-21 | |
Broken Dreams | Pop | 1933-10-19 | |
Grand Slam | Alex Alexandrovitch | 1933-02-22 | |
Blondie Johnson | Jewelry Store Manager (as Joe Cawthorn) | 1933-02-25 | |
They Call It Sin | Mr. Hollister | 1932-11-05 | |
White Zombie | Dr. Bruner | 1932-07-28 | |
Love Me Tonight | Dr. Armand de Fontinac | 1932-08-18 | |
Men Are Such Fools | Werner (as Joseph Cawthorne) | 1932-11-18 | |
A Tailor-Made Man | Huber | 1931-03-28 | |
The Runaround | Lou | 1931-08-21 | |
Peach-o-Reno | Joe Bruno | 1931-12-25 | |
Kiki | Alfred Rapp | 1931-03-14 | |
The Princess and the Plumber | Merkl | 1930-12-21 | |
Dixiana | Cornelius Van Horn, Carl's Father | 1930-07-22 | |
Speakeasy | Yokel | 1929-03-08 | |
Jazz Heaven | Herman Kemple | 1929-11-03 | |
Street Girl | Keppel - Cafe Owner | 1929-08-21 | |
The Taming of the Shrew | Gremio | 1929-10-26 | |
Dance Hall | Bremmer | 1929-12-13 | |
Hold 'Em Yale | Professor George Bradbury | 1928-05-14 | |
Two Girls Wanted | Philip Hancock | 1927-09-11 | |
Silk Legs | Ezra Fulton | 1927-12-18 | |
Very Confidential | Donald Allen | 1927-11-06 |