1. Carl William Demarest was born in Saint Paul, Minnesota, the youngest of three sons of Wilhelmina and Samuel Demarest.
15 Facts About William Demarest
1. 2.
William Demarest started in show business working in vaudeville, performing initially in his youth with his two older brothers and later with his wife Estelle Collette as "William Demarest and Colette".
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William Demarest then moved to work on Broadway, and by 1926 began working in films.
4.
In 1951 William Demarest had a featured role in The Strip opposite Mickey Rooney as a philosophic nightclub owner and pianist fronting for a band composed of Louis Armstrong, Jack Teagarden, Barney Bigard, Earl "Fatha" Hines, and Rooney himself on drums.
5.
William Demarest appeared as Police Chief Aloysius of the Santa Rosita Police Department in the film It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World and in 1964 he co-starred in an episode originally aired in the final season of The Twilight Zone, portraying a hen-pecked husband who murders his wife, played by Joan Blondell.
6.
Several years later, Blondell and William Demarest reunited on an episode of My Three Sons.
7.
William Demarest replaced William Frawley, who was in failing health.
8.
William Demarest had worked with Fred MacMurray previously in the films Hands Across the Table, Pardon My Past, On Our Merry Way, and The Far Horizons and was a personal friend.
9.
William Demarest received a single Academy Award nomination for his supporting role in The Jolson Story, playing Al Jolson's fictional mentor.
10.
William Demarest shared the screen with the real Al Jolson in The Jazz Singer.
11.
William Demarest has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his contributions to motion pictures, bestowed upon him on August 8,1979 by the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce.
12.
William Demarest's first wife was his vaudeville partner Estelle Collette, born Esther Zichlin.
13.
William Demarest helped raise her daughter, author Phyllis Gordon William Demarest, from her earlier marriage, in 1907, to English poet and novelist Samuel Gordon, who had divorced Zichlin before his death.
14.
William Demarest's second wife was Lucille Thayer, born Lucille Theurer, whom he married in Prescott, Arizona, on August 31,1942.
15.
William Demarest died at his home in Palm Springs, California on December 28,1983, and his body was interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California.