Joseph Cawthorn
Known For
Acting
Born
1868-03-27 in New York City, New York, USA
Died
1949-01-21
Biography
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.
Most Known For
Housewife
as Krueger (as Joe Cawthorne)
Scatterbrain
as Nicholas Raptis
Naughty Marietta
as Herr 'Schumie' Schuman
Blondie Johnson
as Jewelry Store Manager (as Joe Cawthorn)
Kiki
as Alfred Rapp
White Zombie
as Dr. Bruner
The Runaround
as Lou
Love Me Tonight
as Dr. Armand de Fontinac
The Great Ziegfeld
as Dr. Ziegfeld
Gold Diggers of 1935
as August Schultz
Two Girls Wanted
as Philip Hancock
Young and Beautiful
as Herman Cline
So Ends Our Night
as Leopold Potzloch
Music in the Air
as Hans Uppman
Page Miss Glory
as Mr. Freischutz
Sweet Music
as Sidney Selzer
The Taming of the Shrew
as Gremio
Lillian Russell
as Leopold Damrosch
Twenty Million Sweethearts
as Herbert Brokman
Bright Lights
as Oscar Schlemmer