A key function and reason for being of this blog is to pay tribute to favorite comedians, comediennes and animators from decades gone by; we love the spectacular, the merely great and just occasionally great who take us to "the laughing place." Right now, we're reeling from the passing earlier this week of one of the all-time greats, Second City and SCTV troupe member Joe Flaherty, while also celebrating the natal anniversary of the hilariously funny Grady Sutton (1906-1995).
Could have celebrated the 100th birthday of Grady Sutton, another all-time favorite, especially as a foil to all-time great W.C. Fields, when I started this blog way back in 2006. Why not? I don't know! Shall tip our battered top hat worn by William Claude Dukenfeld to Grady Sutton, born April 5, 1906, today!
Rather amazingly, Grady Sutton, over a 55 year career, both appeared in silent films and played the role of the principal in ROCK N' ROLL HIGH SCHOOL. That's right - that means he had a show business career that crossed paths with both W.C. Fields and The Ramones. His first claim to fame was a continuing role in the early 1930's Hal Roach Studios series The Boy Friends.
On a YouTube channel devoted to the career of ace movie stuntman Dave Sharpe and, lo and behold, there's The Boy Friends in AIR-TIGHT. Grady was, along with former Our Gang star Mickey Daniels, the top comic in the series, while dapper Dave Sharpe acted as the leading man.
There are two comedy shorts we know of titled THE KNOCKOUT. Most dyed-in-the-wool silent movie buffs have seen the 1914 Keystone Comedy featuring Roscoe Arbuckle and a young Edgar "Slow Burn" Kennedy (with hair!) as pugilists and none other than Charlie Chaplin as the referee. The second is a Hal Roach Studios 2-reeler featuring The Boy Friends; Grady's dancing at 0:54 is a hoot!
Very likely as a direct result of appearing in The Pharmacist, produced by Mack Sennett, Grady Sutton also appeared in the following Mack Sennett Star Comedy - Husbands' Reunion.
When Hal Roach Studios cameraman George Stevens moved on from The Lot Of Fun to RKO Radio Pictures in 1933, he launched a short subjects series, The Blondes & The Redheads, featuring Grady along with cartoon voice artist Carol Tevis (you know her when you hear that high-pitched squeaky voice) and leading ladies June Brewster and Dorothy Granger.
The Blondes & The Redheads comedies are very enjoyable 2-reelers and, having fallen into the public domain, all available on YouTube, in some cases as a playlist.
Grady Sutton is best known to classic movie buffs and comedy fans for his supporting roles in W.C. Fields films.
He is consistently hilarious in the 1939 Fields vehicle You Can't Cheat An Honest Man.
Fields subsequently cast Grady as the unbelievably dense Og Oggilby in THE BANK DICK (1940).
Grady Sutton continued working in TV and movies through the 1970's. As there are so many guest appearances and walk-ons in movies and sitcoms through the 1950's, 1960's and 1970's, it is difficult to say where to begin, He was one of the co-stars of The Pruitts Of Southampton a.k.a. The Phyllis Diller Show, featuring standup comedienne Diller, along with a host of talented character actors (including Grady, Reginald Gardiner and the ubiquitous Richard Deacon, post-Dick Van Dyke Show role as subject of scorn Mel Cooley).
While on the topic of comedians who brought the writer of this blog a million laughs, we're saddened to hear that Joe Flaherty, writer, teacher, director, improv expert and cast member in Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog's favorite sketch comedy show, SCTV, has passed at the age of 82.
Here, two cast members from that great series, Joe and John Candy, appear on Late Night With David Letterman.
One SCTV character who never fails to crack up the crew here is Guy Caballero!
Another is Count Floyd.
Monster Chiller Horror Theatre's House Of Cats remains a favorite!
Mr. Flaherty, a Pittsburgh-born cornerstone of the Second City troupe and the National Lampoon radio show, brought the comedy-centric gang here a million laughs on SCTV and a slew of other television programs and movies (Freaks & Geeks, Happy Gilmore, Maniac Mansion). . . as well as thrills introducing the superlative Canadian rock band Rush in concert as Count Floyd!
And Grady Sutton, our often befuddled assistant in navigating the distictive world of W.C. Fields in The Pharmacist, The Man On The Flying Trapeze, You Can't Cheat An Honest Man and The Bank Dick did the same, getting big laughs from this comedy fan on everything from pre-code 2-reelers to MGM's Ziegfeld Follies to many TV shows and the latter-day likes of I Love You, Alice B. Toklas, Support Your Local Gunfighter and Rock N' Roll High School.
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