Joseph Cawthorn

Known for ActingBorn 1868-03-27Died 1949-01-21New 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.Read more

Movies & web series

The Princess and the Plumber

Silk Legs

The Human Side

Best of Enemies

Two Girls Wanted

The Runaround

The Secret Studio

Scatterbrain

Housewife

The Postman Didn't Ring

Hot Money

Freshman Love

Crime Over London

Maybe It's Love

Smart Girl

Lazy River

Made on Broadway

Men Are Such Fools

A Tailor-Made Man

Very Confidential

Sweet Music

Sweet Adeline

Lillian Russell

Page Miss Glory

Hold 'Em Yale

Love Me Tonight

Twenty Million Sweethearts

Gold Diggers of 1935

Broken Dreams

Peach-o-Reno

So Ends Our Night

The Great Ziegfeld

Brides Are Like That

Street Girl

They Call It Sin

Whistling in the Dark

White Zombie

Speakeasy

Blondie Johnson

Jazz Heaven

The Taming of the Shrew

Music in the Air

Naughty Marietta

Kiki

Bright Lights

One Rainy Afternoon

Dixiana

The Last Gentleman