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Wikipedia / William Demarest

Carl William Demarest (February 27, 1892 – December 28, 1983) was an American actor, known especially for his supporting roles in screwball comedies by Preston Sturges and as Uncle Charley in the sitcom My Three Sons from 1965 until 1972. Demarest, who frequently played crusty but good-hearted roles, was a prolific film and television actor, appearing in over 140 films, beginning in 1926 and ending in the late 1970s. Before his career in movies, he performed in vaudeville for two decades.

Early life

Carl William Demarest was born in Saint Paul, Minnesota, the youngest of three sons of Wilhelmina (née Lindgren) and Samuel Demarest. During William's infancy, the family moved to New Bridge, a hamlet in Bergen County, New Jersey. He served in the U.S. Army during World War I.

Career

Demarest began his career performing in Vaudeville, in his youth with his two older brothers and later with his wife Estelle Collette (born Esther Zichlin) as "Demarest and Colette". He then moved to Broadway, and by 1926 had moved into films. By the 1940s he was a member of director Preston Sturges' informal troupe of character actors, appearing in 10 films written by Sturges, many of them screwball comedies, and eight films in all under Sturges' direction. Among these he had prominent roles in The Lady Eve, Sullivan's Travels, Hail the Conquering Hero, and The Miracle of Morgan's Creek. Demarest was such a familiar figure at the Paramount studio that just his name was used in the 1950 movie Sunset Boulevard as a potential star for William Holden's unsold baseball screenplay.

In 1951 Demarest had a featured role in The Strip opposite Mickey Rooney as a philosophic nightclub owner and pianist fronting for a band composed of Louis Armstrong, Jack Teagarden, Barney Bigard, Earl "Fatha" Hines, and Rooney himself on drums.

He played folksy Jeb Gaine, an occasional sidekick to the main character, in the 1961–62 season of the Western series Tales of Wells Fargo.

Demarest appeared as Police Chief Aloysius of the Santa Rosita Police Department in the film It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963) and in 1964 he co-starred in an episode originally aired in the final season of The Twilight Zone ("What's in the Box"), portraying a hen-pecked husband who murders his wife, played by Joan Blondell. Several years later, Blondell and Demarest reunited on an episode of My Three Sons.

His most famous television role was in the sitcom My Three Sons from 1965 to 1972, playing Uncle Charley O'Casey. He replaced William Frawley, who was in failing health. Demarest had worked with series star Fred MacMurray previously in the films Hands Across the Table (1935), Pardon My Past (1945), On Our Merry Way (1948), and The Far Horizons (1955), and was a personal friend.

Personal life

Demarest was married twice. His first wife was his vaudeville partner Estelle Collette, born Esther Zichlin. Demarest helped raise her daughter, author Phyllis Gordon Demarest, from her earlier marriage, in 1907, to English poet and novelist Samuel Gordon, who had divorced Zichlin before his death. Demarest's second wife was Lucille Thayer, born Lucille Theurer, whom he married in Prescott, Arizona, on August 31, 1942. Thayer, who later became an activist on health issues in the motion picture industry, was appointed California's lay-chairman of the American Nurses Association in October 1960.

Death

Demarest died at his home in Palm Springs, California on December 28, 1983, and his body is interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California.

Awards and recognition

Demarest received a single Academy Award nomination for his supporting role in The Jolson Story (1946), playing Al Jolson's fictional mentor. He shared the screen with the real Al Jolson in The Jazz Singer.

Demarest also received an Emmy nomination for the 1968–1969 season of My Three Sons as Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy Role.

Demarest has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his contributions to motion pictures, bestowed upon him on August 8, 1979, by the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce. In attendance at the ceremony and then later at Musso & Frank Grill for celebrations were his My Three Sons co-stars Fred MacMurray and his wife June Haver, Tina Cole, Stanley Livingston, Barry Livingston, and Dawn Lyn.

In 1998, a Golden Palm Star on the Palm Springs Walk of Stars was dedicated to him.

Partial filmography

Features

Short subjects

  • A Night at Coffee Dan's (1927) as M.C.

  • Amateur Night (1927) as Theatre Manager

  • The Night Court (1927) as Defense Counsel (uncredited)

  • Seeing Things (1930)

  • The Run Around (1932)

Television

Radio appearances

References