Winfield Scott Mattraw (1880-1946) weighed 362 pounds at his heaviest, and was discussed as a possible new Roscoe ‘Fatty’ Arbuckle. He never achieved that level of success, but did appear in over fifty films in sixteen years.
And Mattraw didn’t even make his first film until he was 44. Although well-known as an amateur comedian and actor in his home town, his day job was managing a local theatre, which included booking the acts and shows.
In 1922, Mattraw made a tentative move towards professionalism by accepting a three-day vaudeville engagement. Then, in 1923, he decided to try his luck in Hollywood. He made a good start, with a two-reel comedy western bringing him to the attention of Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford. This led to an uncredited comic turn as a eunuch in Fairbanks’s The Thief of Bagdad (1924).
Mattraw worked steadily thereafter, including as comic relief in a series of Universal ‘B’ westerns. He was also uncredited but noticeable (Mattraw was always noticeable) in some ‘A’ pictures, including The Invisible Man and Design for Living (both 1933), Wee Willie Winkie (1937) and The Grapes of Wrath (1940). He lives on (though uncredited) as the voice of Bashful in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937).
He was in two MGM/Hal Roach musicals with Laurel and Hardy: The Devil’s Brother and Babes in Toyland (as the town crier).
