Jack Norton
Birth : 1889-09-02, Brooklyn, New York, USA
Death : 1958-10-15
History
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jack Norton (September 2, 1882 – October 15, 1958) was an American stage and film character actor who appeared in 184 films between 1934 and 1948, often playing drunks, although in real life he was a teetotaler.
Career
Jack Norton was born in Brooklyn, New York on September 2, 1882.
In his early career he had a vaudeville comedy act with his wife Lillian Healy. Norton made his Broadway debut in 1925 in that year's edition of Earl Carroll's Vanities, and also appeared in Florida Girl, which was produced and staged by Carroll.
Norton's first film work was for a musical short, School for Romance, in 1934, in which a young Betty Grable appeared, but his scenes were deleted. His work survived to reach the screen in his next assignment, The Super Snooper, a comedy short, and in his third film, his first full-length movie, Finishing School, which featured Frances Dee, Billie Burke, Ginger Rogers and Bruce Cabot, Norton played a drunk, setting the pattern for many of his future performances. Although he also played stone sober characters as well, he was best known for his inebriated characterizations, and he improved his work by following genuine drunks around, picking up behavioral tips.
Norton worked continuously and consistently, sometimes appearing in as many as 20 films in one year, although many of his performances went uncredited. One of the few times he was credited as part of the main cast was in 1945 for the film A Guy, a Gal and a Pal In the 1940s, Norton was part of Preston Sturges' unofficial "stock company" of character actors, appearing in five films written and directed by Sturges. He is perhaps best known to modern audiences as A. Pismo Clam, the drunken film director whom W.C. Fields is hired to replace in The Bank Dick (1940).
In 1947, Norton retired from films due to illness, his last appearance being in Alias a Gentlemen, which was released in 1948, although he did make some live television appearances in the early 1950s.
Jack Norton's final appearance would have been in the 1956 episode of The Honeymooners entitled "Unconventional Behavior", but age and infirmity had so overwhelmed him that he was literally written out of the show as it was being filmed, though Jackie Gleason saw to it that Norton was paid fully for the performance he was ready, willing, but unable to give.
Norton died on October 15, 1958 in Saranac Lake, New York at the age of 76. He is buried in Sacred Hearts Cemetery in Southampton, New York on Long Island.
(archive footage)
Film clips highlight the funniest scenes and brightest comic stars in MGM's history.
Jim Benson
1947 film "Linda, Be Good" with added 3-D scenes with chorus girls.
Jim Benson
A writer decides to join a burlesque show so that she can write an authentic expose of the business.
Busboy at Brown Derby
Dozens of star and character-actor cameos and a message about the Variety Club (a show-business charity) are woven into a framework about two hopeful young ladies who come to Hollywood, exchange identities, and cause comic confusion (with slapstick interludes) throughout the Paramount studio.
Mr. Drinkwater
The millionairess aunt of Errol's previously married wife is coming to visit, and since the aunt is dead set against divorce, the wife prevails upon Errol to pose as the butler, and brings back her inebriated first husband to pose as her current mate.
James R. Smoke
Twenty-three years after scoring the winning touchdown for his college football team mild-mannered Harold Diddlebock, who has been stuck in a dull, dead-end book-keeping job for years, is let go by his pompous boss, advertising tycoon J.E. Wagglebury, with nothing but a tiny pension. Harold, who never touches the stuff, takes a stiff drink with his new pal... and another, and another. What happened Wednesday?
Charlie
In 1940s Los Angeles, when womanizing composer Keith Vincent is found dead, the inquest concludes it was a suicide but police detective Joe Warne isn't so sure.
Mr. Walsh
The stooges are actors who can't seem to find a job, so they decide to jump off a high building and end it all. On the roof top they meet three girl dancers with the same idea. Before they can jump, they meet a millionaire Broadway producer who hires them all for his next show. The rehearsal goes so well that he doubles their salary, but it all comes to naught when they discover that the "producer" is an escaped patient from Dr. Dippy's retreat.
Cosgrove
In San Francisco's Chinatown, Charlie helps two different people search for their missing relatives and uncovers a murder for insurance scheme.
Shiftless
This tale of two tugboats focuses upon the rivalries between two operators competing to win a major shipping contract. Meanwhile a tugboat office secretary and an ex-con who wants to go straight, fall in love. Tugboat Annie is put in charge of a child violinist. When a waterfront fire breaks out, the two warring captains join forces to put it out.
William T. Lafferty
A reportedly dead man haunts his wife and her boyfriend.
Jack
A scientist who is working on a cure for influenza is victimized by his unscrupulous boss, who releases the vaccine before it's ready, resulting in the death of the scientist's son.
Drunk at the Gilded Cage (uncredited)
In the gay '90s, cardsharps take over a Mississippi riverboat from a kindly captain. Their first act is to change the showboat into a floating gambling house. A ham actor and his bumbling sidekick try to devise a way to help the captain regain ownership of the vessel.
Byline Conners, Reporter San Francisco Star
Duke Fergus falls for Ann 'Flaxen' Tarry in the Barbary Coast in turn-of-the-century San Francisco. He loses money to crooked gambler Boss Tito Morell, goes home, learns to gamble, and returns. After he makes a fortune, he opens his own place with Flaxen as the entertainer; but the 1906 quake destroys his place.
Willie Rand
Chinese sleuth Charlie Chan discovers a scheme for the theft of government radar plans while investigating several murders.
Norton
A young woman devises a clever scheme to secure a train reservation by pretending to be married to a stranger.
Herbert
When two employees of a clothing factory are murdered, the shadow of suspicion falls upon a lowly stock boy.
Country Club Man Ordering Champagne (uncredited)
A small-town girl with a soft spot for American soldiers wakes up the morning after a wild farewell party for the troops to find that she married someone she can't remember.
'Janssen' Passenger (uncredited)
As the Japanese sweep through the East Indies during World War II, Dr. Wassell is determined to escape from Java with some crewmen of the cruiser Marblehead. Based on a true story of how Dr. Wassell saved a dozen or so wounded sailors who were left behind when able bodied men were evacuated to Australia.
Man In Barber Chair
Broadway producer Jerry Flynn is anxious to recapture the magic and reclaim the crowds after a set of costly flops. Outside his theater one night, Flynn meets a young boy who just might save the day. Inside a small box the boy shows Flynn his pride and joy: a caterpillar named Curly that dances to Yes Sir, That's My Baby. Word quickly spreads about the amazingly talented hoofer, and the caterpillar becomes a symbol of hope for wartime America. Soon, offers are pouring in to capitalize on this sensational insect.
Drunk
Walter and Vivian live in the country and have a difficult time keeping servants. Walter then hires a private detective who has been fired for arresting the District Attorney. They only way that Walter can get Jerry to work for him is to tell Jerry that his life is in danger; the neighbor is trying to take his wife; and that Nazi spies are everywhere. Jerry needs a cook for his 'cover' so he gets his fiancée Susan to work with him. To keep Jerry working, Walter sends the threatening letters to himself and hires actors to play the spies but when a real group of spies disguised as a troupe of radio actors appears on the scene, events quickly spiral out of control.
Hotel Desk Clerk
To solve the murder of a man shot in a locked room, Chan must wade through a Fun House, the writings of an unscrupulous author, and chess pieces.
Mr. Lilly (uncredited)
Youthful Father Chuck O'Malley led a colorful life of sports, song, and romance before joining the Roman Catholic clergy. After being appointed to a run-down New York parish, O'Malley's worldly knowledge helps him connect with a gang of boys looking for direction, eventually winning over the aging, conventional Parish priest.
Drunk
Ole Olsen and Chic Johnson are Broadway stars who return to Universal Studios to make another movie. The mere mention of Olsen and Johnson's names evacuates the studio and terrorizes the management and personnel. Undaunted, the comedians hire an assistant director and unknown talent, and set out to make their own movie.
Saloon Drunk
Wounded while stopping the James gang from robbing the local bank, a cowboy wakes up in the hospital to find that he's been elected town marshal. He soon comes into conflict with the town banker, who controls everything in town and is squeezing the townspeople for every penny he can get out of them.
Drunk
Circumstances arise that result in a man impersonating his uncle. As the "uncle", he finds himself pursued by his girlfriend's aunt, who does not approve of their relationship.
Henry Lewis-Clark III
Two unemployed cowhands help a pill-popping rancher find the nasty varmint who's been rustling cattle.
Reginald Van Nostrum - the Drunk
The owner (William Bendix) of a cab company tries to foil a racketeer.
Second Hobo (uncredited)
The Falcon is framed for the murder of a banker and the theft of war bonds. He makes his escape into the mountains where he hides out in a rustic lodge. From here he uncovers a phony war bond operation.
Drunk (uncredited)
Abbot and Costello must find a replacement for a woman's horse they accidentally killed after feeding it some candy. They head for the racetrack, find a look-a-like and take it. They do not realize that the nag is "Tea Biscuit," a champion racehorse.
Mr. Austin
A remake of the 1927 horror film "The Wizard". Dr. Larry Forbes arrives in a remote French village to visit his fiancée who lives with her scientist father Dr. Renault and his Ape-like manservant Noel. Several Murders coincide with Dr. Forbes arrival, with clues pointing in multiple directions.
George
Allan Jones stars as hotshot baseball player Johnny Norton, in Havana for spring training. It turns out that Johnny has a beautiful singing voice, but only when he's suffering from a cold. Enterprising nightclub manager Barney Crane (William Frawley) attempts to inflict poor Johnny with cold germs, resulting in unchecked zaniness whenever our hero recovers sufficiently to lose his voice. The film's 63-minute running time manages to accommodate the drunken comedy relief of Hugh O'Connell and Jack Norton, and an abundance of musical numbers, courtesy of Allan Jones, Jane Frazee, the Horton Dancing Group, the Jivin' Jacks and Jills and Grace & Nicco.
Second Member Ale and Quail Club
A New York inventor, Tom Jeffers, needs cash to develop his big idea, so his adoring wife, Gerry (Geraldine), decides to raise it by divorcing him and marrying an eccentric Florida millionaire, J. D. Hackensacker III.
Orchid Room Drunk
The Army takes a bandleader (Kay Kyser) away from his bride (Ellen Drew) and sends him on a spy mission with a woman (Jane Wyman).
Mr. Skinner
When honest ship captain Roy Glennister gets swindled out of his mine claim, he turns to saloon singer Cherry Malotte for assistance in his battle with no-good town kingpin Alexander McNamara.
Jonathan McFeeder
Two taxi-fleet operators rescue a girl and she follows them to a mountain resort.
Kellogg
Shy sailor Casey Kirby suddenly becomes known as a sea wolf when his picture is taken with a famous actress. Things get complicated when bets are placed on his prowess with the ladies.
Jester
A bumbling senator investigating graft in Louisiana is the target of a scheme involving a Viennese beauty.
Drunk
Falsely convicted of murder, young Robert Draper (Robert Preston) escapes custody during a practice blackout drill. Under cover of darkness, Draper hopes to find the real killer, who turns out to be a member of a Nazi sabotage ring. Completed shortly before America entered WW2.
Bartender at The Nugget Room
A wise-cracking private detective's honeymoon is interrupted by a kidnapping case.
The Cisco Kid is captured while keeping a rendezvous with cantina dancer Dolores but is released by his captor, the commander of a U.S. Army regiment, to help break up a kidnap ring. On his way to Las Tables with his pal, Gordito, he makes a stop at the Martinez Rancho, where they learn that his friend Carlos has been kidnapped, from his wife Marquerita. At the Crystal Palace Saloon, Cisco runs into an old girlfriend, Sally, who he once jilted for a tight-rope walker, but she doesn't betray him when the sheriff and an army officer enter searching for Cisco.
Drunk
An elderly schoolmarm makes a hit in New York after a bandleader jazzes up her corny song.
A. Pismo Clam
Egbert Sousé becomes an unexpected hero when a bank robber falls over a bench he's occupying. Now considered brave, Egbert is given a job as a bank guard. Soon, he is approached by charlatan J. Frothingham Waterbury about buying shares in a mining company. Egbert persuades teller Og Oggilby to lend him bank money, to be returned when the scheme pays off. Unfortunately, bank inspector Snoopington then makes a surprise appearance.
Drunk
Victorian melodrama gets a big send-up in this spoof production of the old play "The Drunkard; or, The Fallen Saved." The play within the movie is the old one where evil villain Cribbs schemes to get his lusty clutches on the heroine by driving her naive husband to alcoholic ruin. Luckily, a temperance lecturer is on hand to set things straight, as is the great Buster Keaton as the drunkard's friend.
Barber
Paul Kriza is a cashier of a bank in a small town, and the happy husband of Anna and the father of four children. He is sent to New York to deliver some securities for the bank. There, he is tagged as easy-pickings by a con-game gang and Mary Brown, gang accomplice, proves he is. Waking up in the morning he discovers he has been robbed of the securities and, when he confronts the gang, he is hit on the head and taken out to be left on a railroad track. He comes to, struggles with the henchman and the man is killed when a train comes roaring by. Paul escapes but his watch is found and he is reported as the dead man. But he can't go home again.
Drunk (uncredited)
After intrepid working girl Mary Carter becomes the new owner of a reputedly haunted mansion located on Black Island near the Cuban coast, a stranger phones warning her to stay away from the castle. Undaunted, Mary sets sail for Cuba with a stowaway in her trunk—wise-cracking Larry Lawrence, a radio announcer who helps Mary get to the bottom of the voodoo magic, zombies and ghosts that supposedly curse the spooky estate.
Al, the Bartender
A wise-guy reporter and a tippling sportswriter acquire an unclaimed trunk with a corpse inside.
Shimmy Conway
Broadway producer Nickie North and press agent Scoop Trimble find an investor for their next show who insists that they cast his ex-girlfriend, Clarice Sheldon, in the lead role and rehearse out of town. The crew set up on a family farm, and all is well until the leading man falls for the farmer's daughter, Patience Bingham. When flighty starlet Sheldon finds out he has a new girlfriend, she takes off, leaving North and Trimble to find a new leading lady.
Mr. Murphy
Texas girl goes to New York, becomes a newspaper reporter, and tries to get her gambler boyfriend to come home.
Parker
Joe and Ethel Turp are up in arms when their faithful old mailman is fired. Unable to get satisfaction on a municipal level, Joe and Ethel plead their mailman's case to the President himself.
Drunk at Henderson Club (uncredited)
After World War I, Armistice Lloyd Hart goes back to practice law, former saloon keeper George Hally turns to bootlegging, and out-of-work Eddie Bartlett becomes a cab driver. Eddie builds a fleet of cabs through delivery of bootleg liquor and hires Lloyd as his lawyer. George becomes Eddie's partner and the rackets flourish until love and rivalry interfere.
Drunk
Newspaper editor (Foster) will do almost anything to increase circulation. He campaigns to free a condemned man while accusing a wealthy ex-criminal of a string of murders.
Doyle
A newspaper reporter gets involved with shady stock promoters when he listens in on a jury room session.
Prentis
The Treasury Department plants a female agent in the office of a luggage company that is suspected of smuggling diamonds.
Charlie Fenton - the Party Drunk
Spies force former jewel thief Michael Lanyard to steal defense secrets in Washington.
Bert Monroe
Steve Merrick is an out of work writer who stays home and plays house husband while his wife goes to work for her former fiancé and Merrick's publisher who is still carrying a torch for her.
Fletcher
Entertainers lose their jobs and their fares from Honolulu back to San Francisco so they must become stowaways.
Dr. Schultz
When one of the Our Gang kids finds money under his pillow after losing a tooth, all the kids decide to get rich by having all their teeth pulled.
Mallory
Two young people meet at a wedding and begin dating, each thinking the other is extremely wealthy. Comedy.
Drunk (uncredited)
In 1850s Louisiana, the willfulness of a tempestuous Southern belle threatens to destroy all who care for her.
Hotel Manager (uncredited)
A woman and a man vying for a woman's affection: the usual love trio? Not quite so since the belle in question is Lorraine de Grissac, a very wealthy and alluring society woman, while one of the two rivals is none other than Arsène Lupin, the notorious jewel thief everybody thought dead, now living under the assumed name of René Farrand. As for the other suitor he is an American, a former F.B.I. sleuth turned private eye by the name of Steve Emerson. Steve not only suspects Farrand of being Lupin but when someone attempts to steal a precious emerald necklace from Lorraine's uncle, Count de Brissac, he is persuaded Lupin is the culprit. Is Emerson right or wrong? Which of the two men will win over Lorraine's heart?
Harry The Drunk
Gangsters are attempting to control the solutions (and winning) of the puzzles in a national newspapers picture puzzles contest craze.
Bartender (uncredited)
A press agent for a Broadway actress whose career is going downhill, attempts to get her some publicity by having her adopt two orphans, without her knowledge.
First Drunk at Red Apple Inn (uncredited)
A young woman inherits a newspaper whose editor refuses to hire lady reporters.
Mr. Norton
A small town Ohio barber accompanies his ditzy wife to Atlantic City, where she competes in the Happy Noodle Company's Mrs. America Contest.
Drunk
In the underworld of Manhattan, a woman dares to stand up to one of the city's most powerful gangsters.
Crapshooter
A girl escapes marriage and hitchhikes with a young man in whose car a jewel thief has planted his loot.
Herbert Brown
Mr. Brown is riding home from work one day with his new neighbor, Mr. Johnson. When Brown explains that he has all kinds of problems at home, Johnson wants to help him. So, when they arrive, Johnson gives Brown a demonstration of one of the tricks that he uses to get his family to act as he wishes them too. But when Brown tries out Johnson's ideas on his own, things do not go as planned.
Leon Errol trying to report a stolen car.
Comedy Director (Uncredited)
The star of "Song of the Toreador" receives threatening messages that he will not survive the preview screening of the film. The studio publicist works with the Director, the Producer and the police, to discover who is behind the threats.
Jimmy
A little entry from the RKO shorts department serving also as an audition-type (stick 'em in one of these and see if they appeal to a real audience, and make a buck or two at the same time)film for studio contractees and budding starlets. And, surrounded and supported by veteran character actors, such as Jack Norton, Jack Rice and Harrison Green, the likes of Tony Martin, Phyllis Brooks and Lucille Ball usually looked pretty good. And soon made for themselves, with studio help, rather nice Hollywood careers.
Mr. Randall (uncredited)
The singing stoker and the vamp.
Drunk in Park
Dr. Socrates gave up his brilliant career as surgeon in a prominent hospital because his betrothed died under his knife. He is now a struggling doctor in a small town that has a gangster's hideout.
Dr. Singer
When a meek purchasing agent is told by a quack doctor that he only has three months to live, he gets involved with a bank robbery and kidnapped by the gang.
Reporter (uncredited)
A country girl goes to the city and gets a job in a posh hotel, and winds up becoming an instant celebrity thanks to an ambitious photographer.
Sinclair
A ditzy wife yearns to join "high society" when she and her husband become suddenly wealthy. Comedy.
Man on Ship with Pipe
A taxi driver travels to Venice and poses as a gondolier to land a radio singing job.
J. Mortimer 'Mousy' Slade
Owen, a small time bookie, decides to open an insurance business as it involves lesser risk. His first client is Colonel Youngblood who insures his daughter, Marilyn, against marriage.
Phillips (uncredited)
Band leader Jack Conrad is impressed by prison inmate Ray Ferrera on saxophone. Conrad hires Ray to join his band and tour upon his release. Ray hooks up with Jean, a dancer in the show, and the two become a successful dance act. However, when an ex-inmate buddy of Ray's robs the tour bus, Ray is suspected of wrongdoing by Jack and the others in the group. After a gang of thugs hijacks the tour bus, Ray tries to use his street smarts to redeem his reputation.
Drunk (uncredited)
A midwest band leader and his lead singer share a love-hate relationship as they try for success in New York.
Drunk
Three people live together in the maintenance shed at Central Park as an alternative to living on the streets.
Duke Costello
A reporter out to break up a criminal gang finds time to make a play for a mobster's girlfriend.
Wife tries to do something about her husband's fondness for the bottle.
Pete
Leon Erroll drinks too much, in the opinion of his mother-in-law, Dot Farley. So she arranges for everyone around him to talk in non-sequiturs until he decides to sober up permanently.
King's Physician
Two yokels try to crash royal society by posing as the King's physicians.
Andy is a rich and well-respected man. But he's concerned what sort of boyfriend his daughter might have gotten as she's talking marriage and her previous boyfriends were very short-term and he didn't like them very much. So, when he learns where this boyfriend works, he goes undercover as a porter there to spy on him. Unfortunately, he ends up befriending the wrong folks and thinks the boyfriend is a crook...when it's really these new 'friends' who are jewel thieves.
