Willie Best

Willie Best

Acting 1913-05-27 Sunflower, Mississippi, USA

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 an African-American bit player. Willie 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 in Up Pops the Devil (1931), The Monster Walks (1932), Kentucky Kernels and West of the Pecos (both 1934), and Murder on a Honeymoon (1935). Best was first loved as a great clown, then later in the 20th century reviled and pitied, before being forgotten in the history of film. Hal Roach called him one of the greatest talents he had ever met. Comedian Bob Hope similarly acclaimed him as “the best actor I know,” while the two were working together in 1940 on The Ghost Breakers. As a supporting actor, Best, like many black actors of his era, was regularly cast in domestic worker or service-oriented roles (though a few times he played the role echoing his previous occupation as a private chauffeur). He was often seen making a brief comic turn as a hotel, airline or train porter, as well as an elevator operator, custodian, butler, valet, waiter, deliveryman, and at least once as a launch pilot (in the 1939 movie Mr. Moto in Danger Island). Willie Best received screen credit most of the time, which was unusual for “bit players,” most in the 1930s and '40s were not accorded due credit. This also happened to white actors in small roles, but black actors were not credited even when their roles were larger. In more than 80 of his movies, he was given a proper character name (as opposed to simple descriptions such as “room service waiter” or “shoe-shine boy”), beginning with his second film. Best played “Chattanooga Brown” in two Charlie Chan films —The Red Dragon in 1945 and Dangerous Money in 1946. He also played the character of “Hipp” in three of RKO’s six Scattergood Baines films with Guy Kibbee: Scattergood Baines (1941), Scattergood Survives a Murder (1942), and Cinderella Swings It in 1943. (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.) 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.

代表作

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全部作品

2004 Self (archive footage)
1975 Self (archive footage)
1962 Charlie (archive footage)
1954 Billy Slocum
1952 Male Model
1951 Willie, Stable Boy
1950 Willie
1948 Willie Best
展开全部作品
1948 Andy Jones
1947 Jackson
1947 Porter on Train
1946 Chattanooga Brown
1946 Shadrach
1946 Joe
1945 Chattanooga Brown
1945 Porter (uncredited)
1945 Lucille, Colonial Auto Court Porter
1945 Flash
1945 Willie Shelley
1944 Woodrow
1944 Mo' Rum (uncredited)
1944 Red Cap (uncredited)
1944 Men's Room Attendant (uncredited)
1943 Hipp
1943 Second Idea Man
1943 Men's Room Attendant (uncredited)
1943 Steward (uncredited)
1943 Soldier in "Ice Cold Katie" Number (uncredited)
1943 Bones
1942 Waiter
1942 Eustis, the chauffeur
1942 Euclid White Brown
1942 Jo-Mo
1942 Sam (Uncredited)
1942 Sunshine
1941 Algernon
1941 Bub Wellington
1941 Clarence
1941 Samuel
1941 Willie
1941 George
1941 Arnold
1941 Self (archive footage) (uncredited)
1941 George
1941 Hipp
1941 Singer
1941 Willie
1941 Hot-Breath Harry (voice) (uncredited)
1940 Alex
1940 Andrew
1940 George Washington Jones
1940 Newsboy (uncredited)
1940 Sambo
1939 Hotel Janitor (uncredited)
1939 Baltimore
1939 Apollo Johnson
1939 Redcap (uncredited)
1939 Algernon, Simon's Butler (Uncredited)
1939 Launch Pilot
1939 Chimney Sweep
1939 Driver (uncredited)
1939 Art, Elevator Operator
1939 Bunny - the Janitor (uncredited)
1939 Norton's Valet
1938 Porter
1938 Jughead
1938 George
1938 Joshua
1938 George
1938 Jasper - Elevator Operator
1938 Porter on Train
1938 Train Porter (uncredited)
1938 Train Porter
1938 Porter
1938 Hannibal
1937 Warts, Martin's manservant
1937 Bootblack
1937 Sam
1937
1937 McTavish
1937 Airport Porter (uncredited)
1937 Brass
1937 Airline Porter (uncredited)
1937 Speed
1936 'High-Pockets'
1936 Noah
1936 Janitor at Spivali's Bar (uncredited)
1936 Eph
1936 Catfish
1936 Smokie
1936 Black Pedestrian
1936 Henry - the Angel (uncredited)
1936 Drowsy
1936 Henry
1936 Excitement
1935 Shoe Shine Man (uncredited)
1935 James Henry
1935 Willie (as Sleep 'n' Eat)
1935 Elevator Operator
1935 Sleepy
1935
1935 Sam
1935 Apollo
1935 Pompey
1934 Dizzy Memphis (uncredited)
1934 Buckshot (as Sleep 'n' Eat)
1934 Jonah (as Sleep 'n' Eat)
1932 Exodus (as Sleep n' Eat)
1931 Laundryman
1931 Luftus
1931 Club Merlin Doorman (uncredited)
1930 Janitor
1930 George (uncredited)