Willie Best

This article is about the actor. For other uses, see William Best.

Willie Best
200px Best in a photo from Film Star Who's Who (1938)
Born	William Best (1916-05-27)May 27, 1916 Sunflower, Mississippi, U.S.
Died	Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Cause of death	Cancer
Resting place	Valhalla Memorial Park Cemetery
Other names	Sleep 'n' Eat
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1930–1955

William "Willie" Best (May 27, 1916 – February 27, 1962), sometimes known as Sleep n' Eat, was an American television and film actor.

Best was one of the first African-American film actors and comedians to become well known. In the 21st century, his work, like that of Stepin Fetchit, is sometimes reviled because he was often called upon to play stereotypically lazy, illiterate, and/or simple-minded characters in films. Of the 124 films he appeared in, he received screen credit in at least 77, an unusual feat for a bit player.

Career as an actor

Stage

A native of Sunflower, Mississippi, Best reached Hollywood as a chauffeur for a vacationing couple. He decided to stay in the region and began his performing career with a traveling show in southern California. He was regularly hired as a character actor in Hollywood films after a talent scout discovered him on stage.

Film

Best appeared in more than one hundred films of the 1930s and 1940s. Although several sources state that for years he was billed only as “Sleep n’ Eat,” Best received credit under this moniker instead of his real name in only six movies: his first film as a bit player (Harold Lloyd’s Feet First) and his next five films (Up Pops the Devil (1931), The Monster Walks (1932), Kentucky Kernels and West of the Pecos (both 1934), and Murder on a Honeymoon (1935)). He thereafter usually received credit as “Willie Best” or “William Best.”

Best was alternately loved as a great clown, then later in the 20th century reviled and pitied, before being virtually forgotten in the passage of time. Hal Roach called him one of the greatest talents he had ever met. Similarly, comedian Bob Hope acclaimed Best as "the best actor I know," while the two were working together in 1940 on The Ghost Breakers.

As a bit player, Best, like many black actors of his era, was regularly cast in domestic worker or service-oriented roles (a few times he played the role that echoed his previous occupation—that of a private chauffeur). He often was seen making a brief comedic turn as a hotel, airline or train porter, but also as an elevator operator, custodian, butler, valet, waiter, deliverymen—and at least once as a launch pilot (in 1939’s Mr. Moto in Danger Island).

Best received screen credit most of the time, which was unusual for bit players; most in the 1930s and '40s did not gain such credit. Walter Brennan, for example, made 125 movies between 1930 and 1939 but was credited on only 57 of them.

Best’s career was also unusual because he was regularly—in over 80 of his movies—given a proper character name (as opposed to simple descriptions like ‘room service waiter’ or ‘shoe shine boy’), starting with his second film. By comparison, Lucille Ball wasn’t billed with a proper character name until her 14th film, and some bit players like Robert Dudley and Ethelreda Leopold were only rarely billed with anything more than a character description.

Best played “Chattanooga Brown” in two Charlie Chan films, 1945’s The Red Dragon and 1946’s Dangerous Money. He also played the character of “Hipp” in three of RKO’s six Scattergood Baines films with Guy Kibbee: 1941’s Scattergood Baines, 1942’s Scattergood Survives a Murder, and 1943’s Cinderella Swings It. (Actor Paul White, who played a young version of Best’s “Hipp” in the first film, went on to play “Hipp” in the next three films. Best returned to the role in the last two.)

Television

After a drug arrest ended his film career, he worked in television for a while and became known to early TV audiences as Charlie, the elevator operator on CBS's My Little Margie, from 1953 to 1955.

He also played Willie, the house servant/handyman and close friend of the title character of ABC’s The Trouble with Father, for its entire run from 1950 to 1955.

Death

Best died on February 27, 1962, at the Motion Picture Country Home in Woodland Hills, California, of cancer at age forty-five. He was buried (by the Motion Picture Fund) on March 5, 1962, at Valhalla Memorial Park Cemetery.

Legacy

Best's "Sleep n' Eat" moniker surfaced again in the 2000 motion picture satire Bamboozled, directed by Spike Lee. In the film a "twenty-first-century minstrel show" is televised starring two African American performers, one of whom (portrayed by Tommy Davidson) plays a character named "Sleep n' Eat." In a nod to one of Best's most respected contemporaries, his on-stage counterpart is named "Mantan."

Partial filmography

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1930	Feet First	Janitor	Credited as Sleep 'n' Eat
1931	The Virtuous Husband	Luftus	Alternative title: What Wives Don't Want
1931	Up Pops the Devil	Laundryman	Uncredited
1932	The Monster Walks	Exodus	Credited as Sleep 'n' Eat
1934	Little Miss Marker	Dizzy Memphis	Uncredited
1934	West of the Pecos	Jonah	Credited as Sleep 'n' Eat
1934	Kentucky Kernels	Buckshot	Credited as Sleep 'n' Eat
1935	The Arizonian	Pompey
1935	Murder on a Honeymoon	Willie, the Porter	Credited as Sleep 'n' Eat
1935	Annie Oakley	Second Cook	Uncredited
1935	The Littlest Rebel	James Henry, a Cary slave
1936	The Bride Walks Out	Smokie - at marriage bureau
1936	Mummy's Boys	Catfish
1936	Thank You, Jeeves!	Drowsy
1937	Breezing Home	Speed	Credited as William Best
1937	The Lady Fights Back	McTavish
1937	Deep South		Short film
1938	Merrily We Live	George W. Jones
1938	Gold Is Where You Find It	Joshua
1938	Youth Takes a Fling	George
1938	Vivacious Lady	Train Porter
1939	Nancy Drew... Trouble Shooter	Apollo Johnson
1939	Miracle on Main Street	Duke
1940	The Ghost Breakers	Alex	Credited as Willie Best
1940	Who Killed Aunt Maggie?	Andrew
1940	I Take This Woman	Sambo
1941	High Sierra	Algernon
1941	Scattergood Baines	Hipp
1941	Nothing But the Truth	Samuel
1941	The Smiling Ghost	Clarence
1942	Whispering Ghosts	Euclid White Brown
1942	The Hidden Hand	Eustis the Chauffeur
1942	Busses Roar	Sunshine
1943	Cabin in the Sky	Second Idea Man
1943	The Kansan	Bones
1943	Thank Your Lucky Stars	Soldier	Uncredited
1944	The Adventures of Mark Twain	George, Twain's Butler	Uncredited
1944	The Girl Who Dared	Woodrow
1945	Pillow to Post	Lucille
1945	Hold That Blonde	Willie Shelley
1945	The Red Dragon	Chattanooga Brown
1946	The Bride Wore Boots	Joe
1946	Dangerous Money	Chattanooga Brown	Alternative title: Charlie Chan in Dangerous Money
1947	Suddenly, It's Spring	Porter on train
1947	The Red Stallion	Jackson
1948	Smart Woman	Train Porter	Uncredited
1949	Jiggs and Maggie in Jackpot Jitters	Willie	Uncredited
1950	High and Dizzy	Wesley
1950 to 1955	The Stu Erwin Show	Willie, The Handyman	30 episodes
1951	South of Caliente	Willie
1951 to 1952	Racket Squad	Janitor Cleaning Man	2 episodes
1952 to 1955	My Little Margie	Charlie	21 episodes
1954 to 1955	Waterfront	Billy Slocum/Willie Slocum	18 episodes

See also

• Stepin Fetchit
• Mantan Moreland
• Fred Toones
• Blackface
• Uncle Tom

External links

• Willie Best at the Internet Movie Database
• Willie Best at AllMovie
• Willie Best at Find a Grave