# Eugene Pallette

Eugene William Pallette (July 8, 1889 – September 3, 1954) was an American actor who worked in both the silent and sound eras, performing in more than 240 productions between 1913 and 1946.
After an early career as a slender leading man, Pallette became a stout character actor. He had a deep voice, which some critics have likened to the sound of a croaking frog, and is probably best-remembered for comic character roles such as Alexander Bullock (Carole Lombard's character's father) in My Man Godfrey (1936), Friar Tuck in The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938), and his similar role as Fray Felipe in The Mark of Zorro (1940). He also co-starred in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) and Heaven Can Wait (1943).

## Early life

Eugene Pallette was born in Winfield, Kansas, the son of William Baird Pallette and Elnora "Ella" Jackson. His parents had both been stage actors in their younger years, but by 1889 (the year of Pallette's birth) his father was working as an insurance salesman. His sister was Beulah L. Pallette.
Pallette attended Culver Military Academy in Culver, Indiana. He also worked as a jockey, and did a stage act which included three horses.

## Career

Pallette began his acting career on the stage in stock company roles, appearing for a period of six years.

### Silent films

Pallette began his silent film career as an extra and stunt man in 1910 or 1911. His first credited appearance was in the one-reel short western/drama The Fugitive (1913) which was directed by Wallace Reid for Flying "A" Studios at Santa Barbara. The up-and-coming actor was also splitting an apartment with actor Wallace Reid.
Quickly advancing to featured status, Pallette was cast in many westerns. He worked with D. W. Griffith on such films as The Birth of a Nation (1915), where he played two parts, one in blackface, and Intolerance (1916). He also played a Chinese role in Tod Browning's The Highbinders. At this time, Pallette had a slim, athletic figure, a far cry from his portly build later in his career. He starred as the slender sword-fighting swashbuckler Aramis in Douglas Fairbanks' 1921 version of The Three Musketeers, one of the great smash hits of the silent era. However, his girth had begun to get stockier, ending his ambitions of becoming a leading man. Discouraged, Pallette left Hollywood for the oil fields of Texas, where he both made and lost a sizable fortune of $140,000 (equivalent to $2,468,022 in 2024) in the same year. Eventually he returned to film work.
After gaining a great deal of weight, he became one of the screen's most recognizable character actors. In 1927, he signed as a regular for Hal Roach Studios and was a reliable comic foil in several early Laurel and Hardy movies. In later years, Pallette's weight may have topped out at more than 300 pounds (136 kg).

### Sound films

The advent of the talkies proved to be the second major career boost for Pallette. In 1929 he appeared as "Honey" Wiggin in the 1929 talkie The Virginian. His inimitable rasping gravel voice (described as "half an octave below anyone else in the cast") made him one of Hollywood's most sought-after character actors in the 1930s and 1940s.
The typical Pallette role was gruff, aggravated and down to earth. He played the comically exasperated head of the family (e.g., My Man Godfrey, The Lady Eve, Heaven Can Wait), the cynical backroom sharpy (Mr. Smith Goes to Washington), and the gruff police sergeant in five Philo Vance films including The Kennel Murder Case. Pallette thus appeared in more Philo Vance films than any of the ten actors who played the aristocratic lead role of Vance. Pallette's best-known role may be as Friar Tuck in The Adventures of Robin Hood; he made a similar appearance as Friar Felipe two years later in The Mark of Zorro.
BBC commentator Dana Gioia described Pallette's onscreen appeal:
   The mature Pallette character is a creature of provocative contradictions—tough-minded but indulgent, earthy but epicurean, relaxed but excitable. His grit and gravel voice sounds simultaneously tough and comic. ... Pallette uses his girth to create a common touch. Stuffed into a tuxedo that seems perpetually near bursting, he seems more down-to-earth than the stylish high society types who surround him.
Pallette was cast as the father of lead actress Jeanne Crain for the film In the Meantime, Darling (1944). Director Otto Preminger clashed with Pallette and claimed he was "an admirer of Hitler and convinced that Germany would win the war". Pallette refused to sit at the same table with black actor Clarence Muse in a scene set in a kitchen. "You're out of your mind, I won't sit next to a nigger," Pallette hissed at Preminger. Preminger furiously informed Fox studio head Darryl F. Zanuck, who fired Pallette. Although Pallette remains in scenes he already had filmed, the remainder of his role not yet shot was eliminated from the script. However, a 1953 issue of the African-American magazine Jet listed Pallette as being among the attendees of a Hollywood banquet honoring the then "oldest Negro actress in the world", Madame Sul-Te-Wan. For his part, Pallette always maintained that a medical problem with his throat ended his career.
In increasingly ill health by his late fifties, Pallette made fewer and fewer movies, and for lesser studios. His final movie, Suspense, was released in 1946.

## Later life

In 1946, convinced that there was going to be a "world blow-up" by atomic bombs, the hawkish Pallette received considerable publicity when he set up a "mountain fortress" on a 3,500-acre (14 km$^2$) ranch near Imnaha, Oregon, as a hideaway from universal catastrophe. The "fortress" reportedly was stocked with a sizable herd of prize cattle, enormous supplies of food, and had its own canning plant and lumber mill.
When the "blow-up" he anticipated failed to materialize after two years, he began disposing of the Oregon ranch and returned to Los Angeles and his movie colony friends. He never appeared in another movie, however.
Eugene Pallette died at age 65 in 1954 from throat cancer at his apartment, 10835 Wilshire Boulevard, in Los Angeles. His wife, Marjorie, and his sister, Beulah Phelps, were at his side. Private funeral services were conducted on Saturday, September 4, 1954, at the Armstrong Family Mortuary. His cremated remains are interred in an unmarked grave behind the monument of his parents at Green Lawn Cemetery in Grenola, Kansas.
He has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6702 Hollywood Boulevard for his contribution to motion pictures.

## Filmography

| Year | Film | Role | Director | Notes |
| 1913 | The Fugitive | The Fugitive | | Short Lost film |
| 1913 | When the Light Fades | John Robertson | | Short Lost film |
| 1915 | The Birth of a Nation | Union Soldier | D. W. Griffith | Uncredited |
| 1915 | The Highbinders | Hop Woo | Tod Browning | Short Lost film |
| 1915 | The Story of a Story | The Author | Tod Browning | Short Lost film |
| 1915 | The Spell of the Poppy | Manfredi | Tod Browning | Short Lost film |
| 1916 | Sunshine Dad | Alfred Evergreen | Edward Dillon | |
| 1916 | The Children in the House | Arthur Vincent | | |
| 1916 | Going Straight | Jimmy Briggs | S.A. Franklin | |
| 1916 | Hell-to-Pay Austin | Harry Tracey | Paul Powell | Lost film |
| 1916 | Gretchen the Greenhorn | Rodgers | Sidney A. Franklin | |
| 1916 | Intolerance | Prosper Latour | D. W. Griffith | |
| 1917 | Each to His Kind | Dick Larimer | Edward LeSaint | Lost film |
| 1917 | The Winning of Sally Temple | Sir John Gorham | George Melford | |
| 1917 | The Bond Between | Raoul Vaux | Donald Crisp | Lost film |
| 1917 | The Lonesome Chap | George Rothwell | Edward LeSaint | Lost film |
| 1917 | The Marcellini Millions | Mr. Murray | Donald Crisp | |
| 1917 | The World Apart | Clyde Holt | William Desmond Taylor | Lost film |
| 1917 | The Heir of the Ages | Larry Payne | Edward LeSaint | |
| 1917 | The Ghost House | Spud Foster | William C. deMille | Lost film |
| 1918 | Madam Who? | Lieutenant Conroy | Reginald Barker | Incomplete film |
| 1918 | His Robe of Honor | Clifford Nordhoff | Rex Ingram | Lost film |
| 1918 | Tarzan of the Apes | | Scott Sidney | |
| 1918 | A Man's Man | Capt. Benevido | Oscar Apfel | Lost film |
| 1918 | The Turn of a Card | Eddie Barrett | Oscar Apfel | Lost film |
| 1918 | Breakers Ahead | Jim Hawley | Charles Brabin | Lost film |
| 1918 | Viviette | Dick Ware | Walter Edwards | Lost film |
| 1918 | No Man's Land | Sidney Dundas | Will S. Davis | |
| 1919 | Words and Music by - | Gene Harris | | |
| 1919 | The Amateur Adventuress | George Goodie | Henry Otto | Lost film |
| 1919 | Be a Little Sport | Dick Nevins | Scott Dunlap | Lost film |
| 1919 | Fair and Warmer | Billy Bartlett | Henry Otto | Lost film |
| 1920 | Alias Jimmy Valentine | 'Red' Jocelyn | Arthur D. Ripley | Lost film |
| 1920 | Terror Island | Guy Mourdant | James Cruze | Incomplete film |
| 1920 | Parlor, Bedroom and Bath | Reggie Irving | Edward Dillon | Lost film |
| 1920 | Twin Beds | | Lloyd Ingraham | Lost film |
| 1921 | Fine Feathers | Bob Reynolds | Fred Sittenham | |
| 1921 | The Three Musketeers | Aramis | Fred Niblo | |
| 1922 | Two Kinds of Women | Old Carson | Colin Campbell | Lost film |
| 1922 | Without Compromise | Tommy Ainsworth | Emmett J. Flynn | Lost film |
| 1923 | A Man's Man | Captain Benevido | | Lost film |
| 1923 | To the Last Man | Simm Bruce | Victor Fleming | |
| 1923 | Hell's Hole | Pablo | Emmett J. Flynn | Lost film |
| 1923 | North of Hudson Bay | Peter Dane | John Ford | |
| 1923 | The Ten Commandments | Israelite Slave | Cecil B. DeMille | Uncredited |
| 1924 | The Wolf Man | Pierre | Edmund Mortimer | Lost film |
| 1924 | The Galloping Fish | Anti-Volstead Esquire | Del Andrews | uncredited |
| 1924 | Wandering Husbands | Percy | William Beaudine | |
| 1924 | The Cyclone Rider | Eddie | Tom Buckingham | |
| 1924 | Stupid, But Brave | Banana King | Roscoe Arbuckle | Short |
| 1925 | The Light of Western Stars | Stub | William K. Howard | Lost film |
| 1925 | Ranger of the Big Pines | | W.S. Van Dyke | Lost film |
| 1925 | Wild Horse Mesa | Melberne Townsman | George B. Seitz | Uncredited |
| 1925 | Without Mercy | Simon Linke | George Melford | |
| 1926 | The Fighting Edge | Simpson | Henry Lehrman | Lost film |
| 1926 | Rocking Moon | Side Money | George Melford | Lost film |
| 1926 | The Volga Boatman | Revolutionary | Cecil B. DeMille | Uncredited |
| 1926 | Whispering Canyon | Harvey Hawes | | |
| 1926 | Mantrap | E. Wesson Woodbury | Victor Fleming | |
| 1926 | You Never Know Women | Party Guest | William Wellman | Uncredited |
| 1926 | Desert Valley | Deputy | Scott R. Dunlap | |
| 1927 | Should Men Walk Home? | Detective, Intelligence Bureau | Leo McCarey | Short |
| 1927 | Enemies of Society | Barney Mulholland | Ralph Ince | |
| 1927 | Fluttering Hearts | Motorcycle Cop | James Parrott | Short |
| 1927 | Sugar Daddies | Hardy Look-alike | Leo McCarey | Short |
| 1927 | The Second Hundred Years | Dinner Host | Fred Guiol | Short; uncredited |
| 1927 | Chicago | Rodney Casley | Frank Urson | |
| 1927 | The Battle of the Century | Insurance agent | Clyde Bruckman | Short; uncredited |
| 1928 | Lights of New York | Gene | Bryan Foy | |
| 1928 | The Good-Bye Kiss | The Captain | Mack Sennett | Lost film |
| 1928 | Out of the Ruins | Volange | John Francis Dillon | Lost film |
| 1928 | The Red Mark | Sergeo | James Cruze | |
| 1928 | His Private Life | Henri Bérgere | Frank Tuttle | Lost film |
| 1928 | The Swell Head | | Bryan Foy | Short |
| 1929 | The Canary Murder Case | Sgt. Ernest Heath | Malcolm St. Clair | |
| 1929 | The Dummy | Madison | Robert Milton | |
| 1929 | The Studio Murder Mystery | Detective Lieutenant Dirk | Frank Tuttle | |
| 1929 | The Greene Murder Case | Sgt. Ernest Heath | Frank Tuttle | |
| 1929 | The Virginian | 'Honey' Wiggin | Victor Fleming | |
| 1929 | The Love Parade | War Minister | Ernst Lubitsch | |
| 1929 | Pointed Heels | Joe Carrington | A. Edward Sutherland | |
| 1930 | The Kibitzer | Klaus | Edward Sloman | |
| 1930 | Slightly Scarlet | Sylvester Corbett | Edwin H. Knopf | |
| 1930 | Men Are Like That | Traffic Cop | Frank Tuttle | |
| 1930 | The Benson Murder Case | Sgt. Ernest Heath | Frank Tuttle | |
| 1930 | Paramount on Parade | Sergeant Heath | Edmund Goulding and 10 other directors | Murder Will Out |
| 1930 | The Border Legion | Bunco Davis | Otto Brower | |
| 1930 | Let's Go Native | Deputy Sheriff 'Careful' Cuthbert | Leo McCarey | |
| 1930 | The Sea God | Square Deal McCarthy | George Abbott | |
| 1930 | Follow Thru | J.C. Effingham | Lloyd Corrigan | |
| 1930 | The Santa Fe Trail | Doc Brady | Edwin H. Knopf | |
| 1930 | Playboy of Paris | Pierre Bourdin | Ludwig Berger | |
| 1930 | Sea Legs | Hyacinth Nitouche | Victor Heerman | |
| 1931 | Fighting Caravans | Seth | Otto Brower and David Burton | |
| 1931 | It Pays to Advertise | Cyrus Martin | Frank Tuttle | |
| 1931 | The Stolen Jools | Reporter #1 | William C. McGann | Short |
| 1931 | Gun Smoke | Stub Wallack | Edward Sloman | |
| 1931 | Dude Ranch | Judd/Black Jed | Frank Tuttle | |
| 1931 | Huckleberry Finn | Duke of Bridgewater | Norman Taurog | |
| 1931 | Girls About Town | Benjamin Thomas | George Cukor | |
| 1932 | Shanghai Express | Sam Salt | Josef von Sternberg | |
| 1932 | Dancers in the Dark | Gus | David Burton | |
| 1932 | Strangers of the Evening | Detective Brubacher | H. Bruce Humberstone | |
| 1932 | Thunder Below | Bill Horner | Richard Wallace | |
| 1932 | Tom Brown of Culver | Deaf Diner | William Wyler | uncredited |
| 1932 | The Night Mayor | Hymie Shane | Benjamin Stoloff | |
| 1932 | Wild Girl | Yuba Bill | Raoul Walsh | |
| 1932 | The Half-Naked Truth | Achilles | Gregory La Cava | |
| 1933 | Hell Below | Chief Torpedo Man | Jack Conway | |
| 1933 | Made on Broadway | Mike Terwilliger | Harry Beaumont | |
| 1933 | Storm at Daybreak | Janos | Richard Boleslawski | |
| 1933 | Shanghai Madness | Lobo Lonergan | John G. Blystone | |
| 1933 | The Kennel Murder Case | Detective Heath | Michael Curtiz | |
| 1933 | From Headquarters | Sgt. Boggs | William Dieterle | |
| 1933 | Mr. Skitch | Cliff Merriweather | James Cruze | |
| 1934 | Cross Country Cruise | Willy Bronson | Edward Buzzell | |
| 1934 | Caravan | Gypsy Chief | Erik Charell | |
| 1934 | I've Got Your Number | Joe Flood | Ray Enright | |
| 1934 | Strictly Dynamite | Sourwood | Elliott_Nugent| (unbilled) | |
| 1934 | Friends of Mr. Sweeney | Wynn Rixey | Edward Ludwig | |
| 1934 | The Dragon Murder Case | Sgt. Heath | H. Bruce Humberstone | |
| 1934 | One Exciting Adventure | Kleinsilber | Ernst L. Frank | |
| 1934 | Something Simple | Conventionaire | | Short; uncredited |
| 1935 | Bordertown | Charlie Roark | Archie Mayo | |
| 1935 | All the King's Horses | Conrad Q. Conley | Frank Tuttle | |
| 1935 | Baby Face Harrington | Uncle Henry | Raoul Walsh | |
| 1935 | Black Sheep | Col. Upton Calhoun Belcher | Allan Dwan | |
| 1935 | Steamboat Round the Bend | Sheriff Rufe Jeffers | John Ford | |
| 1935 | The Ghost Goes West | Mr. Joe Martin | René Clair | |
| 1936 | The Golden Arrow | Mr. Meyers | Alfred E. Green | |
| 1936 | My Man Godfrey | Alexander Bullock | Gregory La Cava | |
| 1936 | Dishonour Bright | Busby | Tom Walls | |
| 1936 | The Luckiest Girl in the World | Campbell Duncan | Edward Buzzell | |
| 1936 | Easy to Take | Dr. Reginald Kraft aka Doc | Glenn Tryon | |
| 1936 | Stowaway | The Colonel | William A. Seiter | |
| 1937 | Clarence | Mr. Wheeler | George Archainbaud | |
| 1937 | The Crime Nobody Saw | 'Babe' Lawton | Charles Barton | |
| 1937 | She Had to Eat | Raymond Q. Nash | Malcolm St. Clair | |
| 1937 | Topper | Casey | Norman Z. McLeod | |
| 1937 | One Hundred Men and a Girl | John R. Frost | Henry Koster | |
| 1938 | The Adventures of Robin Hood | Friar Tuck | Michael Curtiz and William Keighley | |
| 1938 | There Goes My Heart | Editor | Norman Z. McLeod | |
| 1939 | Wife, Husband and Friend | Mike Craig | Gregory Ratoff | |
| 1939 | Mr. Smith Goes to Washington | Chick McGann | Frank Capra | |
| 1940 | First Love | James Clinton | Henry Koster | |
| 1940 | Young Tom Edison | Mr. Nelson | Norman Taurog | |
| 1940 | It's a Date | Gov. Allen | William A. Seiter | |
| 1940 | Sandy Is a Lady | P.J. Barnett | Charles Lamont | |
| 1940 | He Stayed for Breakfast | Maurice Duval | Alexander Hall | |
| 1940 | A Little Bit of Heaven | Herrington | Andrew Marton | |
| 1940 | The Mark of Zorro | Fray Felipe | Rouben Mamoulian | |
| 1941 | Ride, Kelly, Ride | Duke Martin | Norman Foster | |
| 1941 | The Lady Eve | Mr. Pike | Preston Sturges | |
| 1941 | The Bride Came C.O.D. | Lucius K. Winfield | William Keighley | |
| 1941 | World Premiere | Gregory Martin | Ted Tetzlaff | |
| 1941 | Unfinished Business | Elmer | Gregory La Cava | |
| 1941 | Swamp Water | Sheriff Jeb McKane | Jean Renoir | |
| 1941 | Appointment for Love | George Hastings | William A. Seiter | |
| 1942 | The Male Animal | Ed Keller | Elliott Nugent | |
| 1942 | Almost Married | Doctor Dobson | Charles Lamont | |
| 1942 | Are Husbands Necessary? | Bunker | Norman Taurog | |
| 1942 | Lady in a Jam | Mr. John Billingsley | Gregory La Cava | |
| 1942 | Tales of Manhattan | Luther | Julien Duvivier | |
| 1942 | The Big Street | Nicely Nicely Johnson | Irving Reis | |
| 1942 | The Forest Rangers | Howard Huston | George Marshall | |
| 1942 | Silver Queen | Steve Adams | Lloyd Bacon | |
| 1943 | It Ain't Hay | Gregory Warner | Erle C. Kenton | |
| 1943 | Slightly Dangerous | Durstin | Buster Keaton | |
| 1943 | Heaven Can Wait | E.F. Strabel | Ernst Lubitsch | |
| 1943 | The Kansan | Tom Waggoner | George Archainbaud | |
| 1943 | The Gang's All Here | Andrew Mason Sr. | Busby Berkeley | |
| 1944 | Pin Up Girl | Barney Briggs | H. Bruce Humberstone | |
| 1944 | Sensations of 1945 | Gus Crane | Andrew Stone | |
| 1944 | Step Lively | Simon Jenkins | Tim Whelan | |
| 1944 | In the Meantime, Darling | Henry B. Preston | Otto Preminger | |
| 1944 | Heavenly Days | Senator Bigbee | Howard Estabrook | |
| 1944 | Lake Placid Serenade | Carl Cermak | Steve Sekely | |
| 1945 | The Cheaters | James C. Pidgeon | Joseph Kane | |
| 1946 | Deadline at Dawn | Man In Crowd | Harold Clurman | uncredited |
| 1946 | In Old Sacramento | Sheriff Jim Wales | Joseph Kane | |
| 1946 | Suspense | Harry Wheeler | Frank Tuttle | |