William Gilbert Barron, known professionally as Billy Gilbert, was an American actor and comedian.
24 Facts About Billy Gilbert
2.
Billy Gilbert appeared in over 200 feature films, short subjects and television shows beginning in 1929.
3.
Billy Gilbert was spotted by Stan Laurel, who was in the audience of Billy Gilbert's show Sensations of 1929.
4.
Laurel went backstage to meet Billy Gilbert and was so impressed by him he introduced him to comedy producer Hal Roach.
5.
Billy Gilbert was employed as a gag writer, actor and director, and at the age of 35 he appeared in his first film for the Fox Film Corporation in 1929.
6.
Billy Gilbert appeared in support of Roach's comedy stars Laurel and Hardy, Charley Chase, Thelma Todd, and Our Gang.
7.
Billy Gilbert generally played blustery tough guys in the Roach comedies, but could play other comic characters, from fey couturiers to pompous radio announcers to roaring drunks.
8.
Gilbert regularly starred in Roach's short-comedy series The Taxi Boys, opposite comedians Clyde Cook, Billy Bevan, Franklin Pangborn, and finally Ben Blue.
9.
Billy Gilbert appears in the early comedies of the Three Stooges at Columbia Pictures, as well as in RKO short subjects.
10.
In 1944, Billy Gilbert signed with the prestigious William Morris Agency, which led to starring roles and prominent supporting roles in numerous films.
11.
One of his standard routines had Billy Gilbert progressively getting excited or nervous about something, and his speech would break down into facial spasms, culminating in a big, loud sneeze.
12.
Billy Gilbert used this bit so frequently that Walt Disney thought of him immediately when casting the voice of Sneezy in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
13.
Billy Gilbert is prominent in most of the movies he appeared in, and he often used dialects.
14.
Billy Gilbert danced with Alice Faye and Betty Grable in Tin Pan Alley; he stole scenes as a dim-witted process server in the fast-paced comedy His Girl Friday; playing an Italian character, he played opposite singer Gloria Jean in The Under-Pup and A Little Bit of Heaven.
15.
Billy Gilbert was the soda server to Freddie Bartholomew in Captains Courageous.
16.
Billy Gilbert was featured in the John Wayne and Marlene Dietrich film Seven Sinners.
17.
Billy Gilbert seldom starred in movies but did have occasional opportunities to play leads.
18.
Billy Gilbert asked his closest friend, vaudeville veteran Shemp Howard, to replace him.
19.
Billy Gilbert appeared regularly on the children's program Andy's Gang with Andy Devine, and starred as the giant in the Producers' Showcase TV episode of Jack and the Beanstalk, along with Celeste Holm and Joel Grey as Jack.
20.
Billy Gilbert retired from the screen following his appearance in the feature Five Weeks in a Balloon.
21.
Billy Gilbert had appeared as an ingenue in short-subject comedies.
22.
In late 1943, Billy Gilbert appeared with Ella in a USO show, entertaining the US Marines stationed in Derry, Northern Ireland.
23.
Ella and Billy Gilbert visited Ballymena in 1943; an account of their visit is reported in the Larne Times of December 9,1943.
24.
Billy Gilbert died on September 23,1971, in North Hollywood at the age of 77, after suffering a stroke.