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Wikipedia / Donald MacBride

Donald Hugh MacBride (June 23, 1893 – June 21, 1957) was a prominent American character actor on stage, films, and television. Starting in vaudeville, he went on to appear in nearly 140 films between 1914 and 1955. His credits include Northwest Passage (1940), My Favorite Wife (1940), High Sierra (1941), The Glass Key (1942), and The Killers (1946), and the final film was The Seven Year Itch (1955).

Early life

MacBride was born 1893 in Brooklyn, New York. His year of birth is given variously as 1889 or 1893 in the standard reference books. He launched his entertainment career as the leader of the choir at St Thomas Fifth Avenue and Garden City Cathedral in New York. As a teenager, he recorded the earliest example of a solo recording by a chorister from the United States, on November 15,1907, singing Handel's 'Angels Ever Bright and Fair'.

Career

Motion pictures

Beginning in 1930, like many New York-based, stage-trained actors, he found work at the Paramount, Vitaphone, and Educational studios, all of which had East Coast branches. He is clearly visible as a crowd extra welcoming Groucho Marx in the Paramount feature Animal Crackers. Speaking roles in short subjects followed which established MacBride as a comic tough guy or villain opposite Tom Howard, Shemp Howard, Buster Keaton, and other comedy stars.

MacBride's fortunes improved when he was featured in the hit play, Room Service. In this farce comedy about a shoestring producer and his desperate associates trying to avoid eviction from a hotel, MacBride played the no-nonsense hotel manager, who frequently met bad news with an explosive "Oh, God damn!"

RKO Radio Pictures bought the film rights to Room Service as a vehicle for The Marx Brothers, and brought many of the Broadway cast members to Hollywood, including Donald MacBride where he reprised his role (with his catchphrase sanitized to "Jumping butterballs!").

Hollywood producers noticed MacBride's comic timing and he was established overnight as a skilled character actor. Like fellow character actor and comedian Edgar Kennedy, MacBride specialized in the comedy of frustration, and his portrayals showed the harried MacBride enduring various indignities patiently and yet progressively reaching his boiling point. He often played police inspectors, detectives, military officers, and other authority figures, all of whom were tormented by the leading players in the films.

MacBride signed a non-exclusive RKO contract, allowing him to freelance among the major studios for the next several years. In 1947, with the larger studios cutting down on the number of films in production, MacBride accepted featured roles at smaller studios: Monogram, Republic, and Lippert. He continued to work at the larger studios, but often in smaller or uncredited roles.

MacBride was an early arrival in the new field of television, having appeared in the pioneering series Public Prosecutor in 1947. He continued to work in television until shortly before his death.

Personal life

Death

MacBride died on June 21, 1957 in Los Angeles, California, of a heart ailment. Survivors included his wife and a stepson, Jack Craddock.

Selected filmography

References