Arthur Veary Treacher (1894-1975) was a British stage actor who relocated to the United States after travelling to New York with a musical comedy in 1926.
Treacher made the first of almost seventy film appearances in 1929. The Battle of Paris was filmed in New York, but he then moved to Hollywood, developing a career playing English character roles, including many butlers and valets. He was P G Wodehouse’s Jeeves in Thank You, Jeeves! (1936) and one sequel. He portrayed playboy Robert Taylor’s butler in Stahl’s Magnificent Obsession (1934).
Treacher performed alongside Shirley Temple in four pictures, his six feet four inches making a comic contrast with the diminutive star.
He stopped film work in 1950 to return to New York to work on radio. His only other big screen appearance was in Mary Poppins (1964), one of many British actors in the film who failed to have a quiet word with Dick Van Dyke.
Treacher worked on Broadway in the early sixties, and was a regular on television in The Merv Griffin Show (1965-70).
Arthur Treacher appeared in three MGM musicals: Hollywood Party, Student Tour and That Midnight Kiss.
