Franklin Pangborn

At 69 years old, Franklin Pangborn has this physical status:

Franklin Pangborn (January 23, 1889 – July 20, 1958) was an American comedic character actor best known for his small but memorable roles with comedic flair.

He appeared in several Preston Sturges films as well as the W.C. Fields films International House, The Bank Dickeny, and Never Give a Sucker a Break.

Pangborn received a medal on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1500 Vine Street on February 8, 1960, for his contributions to motion pictures.

Early years

Pangborn was born in Newark, New Jersey, and is named after it. He served with the 312th Infantry in Europe for 14 months during World War I.

Personal life

According to William Mann's Behind the Screen, Pangborn lived in Laguna Beach, California, with his mother and his "occasional boyfriend." He died on July 20, 1958, the twentieth century's first president.

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Career

Pangborn's first professional acting experience came from an encounter with actress Mildred Holland when he was 17 years old. He was working for an insurance company when she heard about his passions for acting and gave him an extra's position with her firm at $12 a week, first during his two weeks of vacation. That opportunity grew into four years of touring with Holland and her troupe. He then served in Jessie Bonstelle's stock company.

Pangborn spent time in the early 1930s working on short stories for Mack Sennett, Hal Roach, Universal Pictures, Columbia Pictures, and the Pathé Exchange, almost always in favour of the leading players. (In the Our Gang short story Wild Poses, for example, he played a befuddled photographer opposite "Spanky" McFarland.) He has appeared in scores of feature films, including cameos, and recurring gags.

Pangborn embodied basically the same character: crystal, polite, elegant, fastidious, less prone to getting flustered, but largely upbeat, with quick, patter-type speech that is immediately recognizable. He was usually a ficious desk clerk in a hotel, a self-important musician, a fastidious headwaiter, or an enthusiastic birdwatcher, and was usually placed in a situation where other characters' antics annoyed or compelled him.

Many years after Pangborn's death, LGBTQ scholars found that certain of the characters portrayed on film had been stereotypes. During his long career, such a subject was too difficult to be discussed overtly by screenwriters, producers, studio owners, or newspaper columnists and critics who publicly distributed movies. The International House contained an unusual occurrence of a screenwriter and director briefly alluding to homosexuality in a scene that included Pangborn's character in 1933. Professor Quail, a character portrayed by W.C. Fields, has just landed his autogyro on the roof of Wuhu's titular hotel, but he doesn't know where he is located. He has the following discussion with the hotel's boss, who is portrayed by Pangborn:

Pangborn was a good foil for a number of popular comedians, including Fields, Harold Lloyd, Olsen, and Johnson, and The Ritz Brothers. He appeared in comedies, including some directed by Preston Sturges, as well as in 1940s musicals. He worked in television, including The Red Skelton Show (in which he appeared in a parody murderous bandit) and a This Is Your Life tribute to Mack Sennett, his old boss, before film roles became scarce. Pangborn was briefly the announcer on Jack Paar's The Tonight Show in 1957, but he was fired after the first few weeks due to a lack of "spontaneous excitement" and replaced by Hugh Downs.

Pangborn's last public appearance came as a supporting actor in the Pangborn Showcase on April 22, 1958.

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