Frank Faylen
| Frank Faylen | |
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Faylen in trailer for "Hangman's Knot" (1952)
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| Born | Frank Ruf December 8, 1905 St. Louis, Missouri, U.S. |
| Died | Script error: The function "death_date_and_age" does not exist. Burbank, California, U.S. |
| Resting place | San Fernando Mission Cemetery in Mission Hills, Los Angeles, California |
| Occupation | Actor |
| Years active | 1936–1978 |
| Spouse(s) | Carol Hughes (1936-1985) (his death) 2 children |
| Children | Carol Faylen (b. 1948) Catherine "Kay" Faylen (1931–68) |
Frank Faylen (December 8, 1905 – August 2, 1985) was an American film and television actor.
Career
Born Frank Ruf in St. Louis, Missouri, he began his acting career as an infant appearing with his vaudeville performing parents on stage. The family lived on a showboat.[1] After traveling with his showbiz parents through his childhood, Faylen became a stage actor at 18, and eventually began working in films in the 1930s. He began playing a number of unmemorable bit parts for Warner Brothers, then freelanced for other studios in gradually larger character roles. He appears as Walt Disney's musical conductor in The Reluctant Dragon, and as a stern railroad official in the Laurel and Hardy comedy A-Haunting We Will Go. Faylen and Laurel & Hardy supporting player Charlie Hall were teamed briefly by Monogram Pictures.
Faylen's breakthrough came in 1945, where he was cast as Bim, the cynical male nurse at Bellevue's alcoholic ward in The Lost Weekend. In the following year he played Ernie Bishop, the friendly taxi driver in Frank Capra's 1946 film It's a Wonderful Life. Faylen's career also stretched to television, playing long-suffering grocer Herbert T. Gillis on the 1950s-60s television sitcom The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis. In 1968, he had a small part in the Barbra Streisand film Funny Girl. Faylen appeared in almost 200 films. He has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, but not on the St. Louis Walk of Fame.
Personal life
Faylen was married to Carol Hughes, an actress. He died from pneumonia in 1985. He was interred in the San Fernando Mission Cemetery in Mission Hills, Los Angeles, California. His two daughters, Catherine "Kay" and Carol, have both been actresses.[1] Kay was Regis Philbin's first wife.
Partial filmography
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- The Case of the Stuttering Bishop (1937)
- Back in Circulation (1937)
- Smart Blonde (1937)
- Talent Scout (1937)
- Kid Galahad (1937)
- The Invisible Menace (1938)
- Waterfront (1939)
- Reno (1939)
- Curtain Call (1940)
- Come Live with Me (1941)
- Affectionately Yours (1941)
- Father Steps Out (1941)
- A-Haunting We Will Go (1942)
- Nazty Nuisance (1943)
- Good Morning, Judge (1943)
- Address Unknown (1944)
- The Canterville Ghost (1944)
- The Lost Weekend (1945)
- Blue Skies (1946)
- Two Years Before the Mast (1946)
- It's a Wonderful Life (1946) as the cab driver
- The Blue Dahlia (1946)
- The Perils of Pauline (1947)
- Road to Rio (1947)
- Blood on the Moon (1948)
- Whispering Smith (1948)
- Convicted (1950)
- Fourteen Hours (1951)
- Detective Story (1951)
- My Favorite Spy (1951)
- The Sniper (1952)
- Hangman's Knot (1952)
- The Lusty Men (1952)
- 99 River Street (1953)
- Red Garters (1954)
- 7th Cavalry (1956)
- Terror at Midnight (1956)
- Away All Boats (1956)
- Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957)
- Fluffy (1965)
- When the Boys Meet the Girls (1965)
- Funny Girl (1968)
References
External links
- Pages with broken file links
- Articles with hCards
- Pages using div col with unknown parameters
- 1905 births
- 1985 deaths
- American male film actors
- American male television actors
- Deaths from pneumonia
- Male actors from St. Louis, Missouri
- Vaudeville performers
- 20th-century American male actors
- Burials at San Fernando Mission Cemetery
