Andy Devine


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Andy Devine

from the film A Star Is Born (1937).
Born Andrew Vabre Devine
October 7, 1905(1905-10-07)
Flagstaff, Arizona, U.S.
Died February 18, 1977 (aged 71)
Orange, California, U.S.
For the English actor, see Andy Devine (English actor).

Andrew Vabre "Andy" Devine (October 7, 1905 - February 18, 1977) was a rotund, raspy-voiced American character actor and comic cowboy sidekick.

Contents

Life and work

Born in Flagstaff, Arizona on October 7, 1905, Andy Devine grew up in nearby Kingman, where his family moved when he was a year old. His father was Thomas Devine Jr., born in 1869 in Kalamazoo County, Michigan. Andy's grandfather, Thomas Devine Sr., was born in 1842 in Tipperary County, Ireland, and immigrated to the United States in 1852. Andy's mother was Amy Ward, the granddaughter of Commander James H. Ward, the first officer of the United States Navy killed during the Civil War.

He was a star football player at Ball State University.[citation needed] He also played semi-professional football under the pseudonym "Jeremiah Schwartz" -- it was not his birth name as has been erroneously reported elsewhere. His football experience led to his first film role in the silent film The Fighting Football Cardinals.[citation needed]

It was in 1933 on a John Ford directed picture at Universal Studios, "Doctor Bull", that Andy met his wife, Dorothy House. They were married on October 28, 1933, in Las Vegas, Nevada, and remained united until his death on February 18, 1977.

Although it was at first thought that his peculiar voice would prevent him from moving to the talkies, it became his trademark and strongest selling point. Devine told people that his speech was the result of a childhood accident. (His story is that he had been running with a curtain rod in his mouth and fell, the instrument piercing the roof of his mouth, and when he was finally able to speak, he had the wheezing, duo-tone voice that would make him famous as an actor.) However, a biographer explains that this wasn't true but was one of several stories about his voice fabricated by Devine.[1] Devine's son Tad told an Encore Westerns Channel interviewer (Jim Beaver, reporting from 2007 Newport Beach Film Festival) that the accident had indeed happened but that Andy Devine himself was uncertain whether it was the actual cause of his unique vocal quality.

Film, radio, and television

He appeared in more than 400 films and shared with Walter Brennan, another character actor, the rare ability to move with ease from "B" Westerns to "A" pictures. His notable roles included ten films as sidekick "Cookie" to Roy Rogers, a role in Romeo and Juliet (1937), and "Danny" in A Star Is Born (1937). He made several appearances in films with John Wayne, including Stagecoach (1939), Island in the Sky (1953), and as the frightened marshal in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962). He also played "The Cheerful Soldier" in The Red Badge of Courage and the First Mate of the S.S. Henrietta in Around the World in Eighty Days (1956). While most of his characters were reluctant to get involved in the action, he played the hero in Island in the Sky, as an expert pilot who leads his fellow aviators through the arduous search for a missing airplane.

His film appearances in his later years included movies such as The Over-the-Hill Gang, and "Coyote Bill" in Myra Breckinridge.

Devine also worked in radio. He is well-remembered for his role as "Jingles", Guy Madison's sidekick in The Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok, which Devine and Madison reprised on television. He appeared over 75 times on Jack Benny's radio show between 1936 and 1942, often appearing in Benny's semi-regular western series of sketches "Buck Benny Rides Again".

And Devine worked in television. He played "Hap" on the TV series Flipper and hosted a children's TV show, Andy's Gang. He starred in a Twilight Zone episode as "Frisby", a talkative fibster faced with an alien invasion called "Hocus-Pocus and Frisby". He was also a frequent guest star in many television shows throughout the 1950s and 1960s.

Finally, Devine performed voice parts in animated films, including "Friar Tuck" in Disney's Robin Hood. He provided the voice of Cornelius the Rooster in several Kellogg's Corn Flakes TV commercials.

In 1973, Devine came to Monroe, Louisiana at the request of George C. Brian, an actor and filmmaker who headed the theater department at a Louisiana university, to perform in Edna Ferber's Show Boat.

Devine died of leukemia on February 18, 1977, at the age of 71, in Orange, California. The main street of his home town of Kingman was renamed "Andy Devine Avenue" in his honor. His career is also highlighted in the Mohave Museum of History and Arts in Kingman, and there is a star in his honor in the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Quotation

  • When asked if he had strange nodes on his vocal cords, Devine replied, "I've got the same nodes as Bing Crosby, but his are in tune."

References

  1. ^ See the link to http://www.froggythegremlin.com/

See also

External links

Persondata
NAME Devine, Andy
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Devine, Andrew Vabre
SHORT DESCRIPTION Actor
DATE OF BIRTH 1905-10-7
PLACE OF BIRTH Flagstaff, Arizona, U.S.
DATE OF DEATH 1977-2-18
PLACE OF DEATH Orange, California, U.S.






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