The Musicals of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Category: Bit Players

  • Leo White

    Leo Herbert White (1873-1948) was born in Germany, raised in England and emigrated to America. His stage career had begun in the UK, but he made his first screen appearance in 1911.

    White worked as an actor and occasional director in silent comedy, including many collaborations with Charles Chaplin, with whom he worked for the last time on The Great Dictator (1940).

    By the end of his career White had contributed to almost 500 films, eight of which were MGM musicals (all uncredited). He started out in The Florodora Girl, followed by Call of the Flesh, The Devil’s Brother, Broadway to Hollywood, Stage Mother and The Cat and the Fiddle. He was one of the hirsute Russian aviators in A Night at the Opera, and bowed out with Broadway Melody of 1938.

  • Mary Jane Irving

    Mary Jane Irving (1913-83) made over sixty screen appearances, despite retiring when she was 25. This was owing to the fact that she made her debut at the age of 3 and had a busy career as a child actor. In her twenties, she also worked as Janet Gaynor’s stand-in.

    Irving was 16 when she played Lawrence Gray’s sister in The Florodora Girl. A year or so later, she was one of the students in Student Tour.

  • Philip Sleeman

    Although born in Camberwell, Philip Sleeman (1891-1953) spent much of his film career playing Arabs and other eastern characters with names like Sheik Abdullah Pasha.

    Sleeman made two appearances in Metro musicals, on both occasions having a good time. He was a patron in a cantina in In Gay Madrid and partying on the zeppelin in Madam Satan.

  • Frankie Genardi

    Frankie Genardi (1922-2010) was a child actor who made his debut, aged five, in Frank Borzage’s 7th Heaven (1927). He retired at seventeen.

    Genardi’s two Metro musicals were The Rogue Song and New Moon.

  • Kewpie Morgan

    Horace Allen Morgan (1892-1956) was a studio electrician who became an actor when director Romaine Fielding decided he needed a “fat boy” for a character part in Teasing a Tornado (1915). He went on to be a regular supporting player in silent comedies, working with Buster Keaton on Three Ages (1923) and Sherlock Jr (1924). He played similar roles to Oliver Hardy in his pre-Laurel days.

    Morgan was in two Metro musicals. He was in The Rogue Song, and then actually appeared with Oliver Hardy in the uncredited role of Old King Cole in Babes in Toyland. 

  • Wallace MacDonald

    Wallace Archibald MacDonald (1891-1978) was a Canadian actor who pursued a successful career in Hollywood from 1912. The quality of his roles deteriorated after the introduction of sound, so he moved into producing in 1937. The films he made were ‘B’ pictures, but one of them was the excellent My Name is Julia Ross (1945), directed by Joseph H Lewis.

    MacDonald the actor cropped up in two MGM musicals. He was Hassan in The Rogue Song and first mate of the zeppelin in Madam Satan.

  • Herbert Prior

    British actor Herbert Prior (1867-1954) made his screen debut in 1907. He had featured roles in hundreds of silent features and shorts, including as Mr Jaggers in Great Expectations (1917), but the prominence of his parts declined after the introduction of sound.

    Prior was in Children of Pleasure, Flying High and Student Tour.

  • Hal Price

    Harry Franklin Price (1886-1964) was a stage actor who made uncredited appearances in around 300 pictures, including scores of low-budget westerns.

    Price was in two MGM musicals: Children of Pleasure and A Night at the Opera.

  • William H O’Brien

    William H O’Brien (1891-1981) made his first film in Australia in 1918, and in a Hollywood career lasting over fifty years he appeared in around 650 films, almost always without credit. These included Scarface (1931), The Thin Man (1934), Rebecca (1940), Citizen Kane (1941), The Best Years of Our Lives (1946), Ace in the Hole (1951), High Noon (1952), Some Like It Hot (1959) and, finally, Bedknobs and Brooksticks (1971).

    With a filmography that long, it is little wonder O’Brien was in thirteen Metro musicals across a 36-year period, starting with Children of Pleasure in 1930 and ending with Made in Paris in 1966. In between came New Moon, A Night at the Opera, San Francisco, Nobody’s Baby, The Firefly, Two Girls on Broadway, Thousands Cheer, Two Sisters from Boston, The Glass Slipper, It’s Always Fair Weather and Merry Andrew.

  • Maude Turner Gordon

    Maude Turner (1868-1940) was a stage actor, dramatist and occasional producer who made her first film appearance in 1915. 

    Turner Gordon became typecast as ladies of wealth and dignity, as indicated by the playing of dowagers in two of her MGM musicals, Children of Pleasure and Sweethearts. In between, she played affluent Mrs Caraway in The Florodora Girl. 

Social media & sharing icons powered by UltimatelySocial
RSS
Facebook
X (Twitter)
WhatsApp
Copy link
URL has been copied successfully!