Louis Kelly (1879-1944) was one of those experienced theatre actors who found work in Hollywood after the introduction of sound.
Kelly’s first appearance was actually in one of the last of the silents, a Buck Jones western called The Branded Sombrero (1928). He followed this with Barnum Was Right (1929), a comedy made in both sound and silent versions. His first full-fledged talking picture was The Woman Racket (1930), a crime drama.
By 1944, Kelly had made around 230 films. They were mostly programmers and he was usually uncredited. The most prestigious pictures he appeared in were I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932), as the cook in a diner, and The Magnificent Ambersons (1942).
Kelly played Jake, a stagehand, in Metro’s Stage Mother.
