Leon Errol

Hollywood Stars : Leonce Errol Sims

Leon Errol, Leon Errol (July 3, 1881 - October 12, 1951), was an Australian-born American comedian and actor, popular in the first half of the 20th century.[edit] BiographyBorn Leonce Errol Sims in Sydney, he managed a traveling vaudeville troupe and gave a young comedian named Roscoe Arbuckle his first professional opportunity. In America, Errol became a well-known vaudevillian who appeared in the Ziegfeld Follies on Broadway, and played skits with such notables as Bert Williams and W. C. Fields. Errols sister, Leda Errol (nГ©e Sims), appeared with him in the Follies.Errol made a successful transition to films in a variety of comedy roles (over 150 films from 1923). His comic trademark was a wobbly, unsteady walk, moving as though his legs were made of rubber; this bit served him well in drunk routines such as the drunken valet in Morgy and Shoos Mamas Little Babies as well as numerous RKO two-reelers.Leon Errol is well remembered for his energetic performances in the Mexican Spitfire movies opposite Lupe VГ©lez (1939–43), in which Errol had the recurring dual role of affable Uncle Matt and foggy British nobleman Lord Epping. Monogram Pictures signed Errol to appear as fight manager Knobby Walsh in the Joe Palooka sports comedies (1946–50). Leon Errols most famous non-series appearance is in the nonsensical comedy feature Never Give a Sucker an Even Break (1941), starring fellow vaudeville and Ziegfeld alumnus W. C. Fields.Errol concurrently starred in a long string of two-reel comedy shorts, which began at Columbia Pictures in 1933. He also starred in two early three-strip Technicolor shorts made at Warner Brothers, Service With a Smile (released 28 July 1934) and Good Morning, Eve! (5 August), just beating La Cucaracha (31 August) as the first live action wholly Technicolor film (these films were preceded by several of Disneys Silly Symphony Technicolor cartoons and by Technicolor sequences in black and white features such as The Cat and the Fiddle).Moving to RKO Radio Pictures in 1934, he continued to make six shorts per year until his death in 1951. Most of these were marital farces in which Leon would get mixed up with a pretty girl or an involved business proposition, and face the wrath of his wife (usually Dorothy Granger). Errols last film, Lord Epping Returns, reprised his famous characterization (and some of the gags) from Mexican Spitfire.Footage from the Leon Errol short subjects was incorporated into RKOs compilation features Variety Time, Make Mine Laughs, Footlight Varieties, and Merry Mirthquakes. RKO kept Leon Errol in the public eye by reissuing his older comedies through the mid-1950s. His RKO shorts soon became a staple of syndicated television.Errol married Stella Chatelaine (born 1886) in Denver, Colorado in 1906. She died on November 7, 1946 in Los Angeles. Errol died there, five years later, on October 12, 1951, aged 70. They had no children.[edit] External linksLeon Errol at the Internet Movie DatabaseLeon Errol at the Internet Broadway DatabaseLeon Errol at Find a GravePersondataNameErrol, LeonAlternative namesShort descriptionDate of birth1881-07-03Place of birthSydney, New South Wales, AustraliaDate of death1951-10-12Place of deathLos Angeles, California, United StatesRetrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leon_ErrolCategories: 1881 births | 1951 deaths | American film actors | American silent film actors | Burlesque performers | Vaudeville performers | American people of Australian descent | People from SydneyHidden categories: Articles needing additional references from August 2008 | All articles needing additional references | Articles with hCardsPersonal toolsLog in / create accountNamespacesArticleDiscussionVariantsViewsReadEditView historyActionsSearchNavigationMain pageContentsFeatured contentCurrent eventsRandom articleDonate to WikipediaInteractionHelpAbout WikipediaCommunity portalRecent changesContact WikipediaToolboxWhat links hereRelated changesUpload fileSpecial pagesPermanent linkCite this pagePrint/exportCreate a bookDownload as PDFPrintable version This page was last modified on 6 January 2011 at 18:43.Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License;additional terms may apply.See Terms of Use for details.Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.Contact usPrivacy policyAbout WikipediaDisclaimers if ( window.isMSIE55 ) fixalpha(); if (window.runOnloadHook) runOnloadHook();