Not every child actor goes on to a career of well over sixty years as a successful character actor and band leader, but Richard Winslow Johnson (1915-91) managed it. Along the way he made appearances in five MGM musicals and may be the only actor to have worked with both Marion Davies and Roy Orbison.
The films were Marianne (playing the accordion),Thousands Cheer,On an Island With You,Torch Song and The Fastest Guitar Alive.
Norwegian-born Henry Olaf Hansen (1887-1960) made his first film appearance in 1911 and worked regularly for almost fifty years, most notably as a long-serving member of the John Ford Stock Company.
Tenbrook was one of the many doughboys in Marianne and subsequently made appearances in Naughty Marietta, Let Freedom Ring, Easter Parade, The Belle of New York and Singin’ in the Rain.
George Magrill (1900-52) was a bit-part player and occasional stunt performer whose work spanned cute cartoon animals and a range of henchmen, hooligans and thugs. When you accumulate around 500 films on your cv, it’s inevitable that some of them will be MGM musicals; in Magrill’s case, thirteen of them.
Magrill began with Marianne in 1929 and ended with Three Little Words in 1950. In between came New Moon, The Merry Widow, The Bohemian Girl, San Francisco, Rosalie, The Great Waltz, New Moon (again), Meet the People, Music for Millions, Yolanda and the Thief and Good News.
Sherry Hall (1892-1984) appeared in more than 250 features, almost always without credit.
His Metro musicals were Marianne, Hollywood Party, Student Tour, Here Comes the Band, San Francisco, Born to Dance, Hullabaloo, Words and Music, The Barkeleys of Broadway, Three Little Words and The Strip.
The actor born Julian La Faye (1906-79) became a successful second-tier star, notably alongside John Wayne in Flying Tigers (1942). He started his film career playing bits in MGM musicals: Marianne (doughboy), Devil-May-Care (Bonapartist), The Rogue Song (Bandit) and New Moon Russian soldier).
After developing his career, Carroll returned as straight man to the Marx Brothers in Go West, and went on to feature prominently in Lady Be Good, Rio Rita and Fiesta.
Carroll’s last appearance was in Orson Welles’s film maudit The Other Side of the Wind (1975, released 2018).
Alice Weaver was a genuine New York show girl who had featured in the Ziegfeld Follies before making brief appearances as chorus girls in The Broadway Melody and Reckless.
Dorothea Christine Arens (1875-1970) was a hard-working small-part actor who made four Metro musical appearances: The Broadway Melody, Madam Satan, Bitter Sweet and Presenting Lily Mars.
Blanche Payson (1881-1964) was a bit-part player who started out in silents in 1916. Her two roles in Metro musicals were satisfyingly distinct: a wardrobe lady in The Broadway Melody and a jail matron in Dancing Lady.
Joyce Murray (1911?-68) was just 17 (possibly younger) when she filmed her speciality dance for The Broadway Melody. She provided the same service in The Hollywood Revue of 1929 . After a gap, she reappeared in Du Barry Was a Lady and, finally, Ziegfeld Follies.
The Mawby Triplets were famous triplets who were not really triplets. Claudette (1922-42) and Claudine (1922-2012) were twins, but their sister Angella (1921-2000) was born a year earlier. They were British child actors who were marketed as triplets by MGM and made brief appearances in The Broadway Melody and The Hollywood Revue of 1929.
