Bobby Watson (actor)
Bobby Watson was an American theater and film actor, playing a variety of character roles, including, after 1942, Adolf Hitler.
Life and career
Born in Springfield, Illinois, Watson, who was of German descent, began his career at age 15 performing a vaudeville act at the Olympic Theatre in Springfield. As a teenager, he toured the U.S. midwest with the "Kickapoo Remedies Show", a traveling medicine show. He then appeared on Coney Island in a Gus Edwards show. In 1918, he first played on Broadway when he was a replacement in the role of Robert Street in Going Up and then created the role of the flamboyant dressmaker "Madame Lucy" in the hit musical Irene, later repeating the role. He continued to play on Broadway through the 1920s.
Watson began to appear in films in 1925, playing various character roles. Some of them were inspired by his scene-stealing characterization from Irene -- the gag roles of fey choreographers, prissy interior decorators, and delicate couturiers fell to Bobby Watson. But he proved his versatility by playing professional men and officious types: military officers, hotel managers, detectives, carnival barkers, and manservants. Today's audiences know him as the enthusiastic diction coach in Singin' in the Rain and Fred Astaire's butler in The Band Wagon.
Watson also wrote for, and performed on, radio programs.
As Hitler
Watson bore a resemblance to Adolf Hitler, which he played for laughs in a pair of wartime Hal Roach burlesques, The Devil with Hitler and Nazty Nuisance. This typecast him as the dictator for a time; Watson would appear as Hitler in nine films altogether. He starred in one feature film, Paramount's The Hitler Gang, a serious dramatization of Nazi politics, with the actor billed as Robert Watson. Watson also impersonated Hitler in Hitler – Dead or Alive, The Miracle of Morgan's Creek, A Foreign Affair, The Story of Mankind, On the Double, and Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.
Death
Watson died in Los Angeles in 1965 at age 76. He is buried in the Oak Ridge Cemetery in Springfield, Illinois.
Selected filmography
That Royle Girl - HooferThe Song and Dance Man - Fred CarrollThe Romance of a Million Dollars - The DetectiveSyncopation - Benny DarrellFollow the Leader - George WhiteManhattan Parade - PaisleyHigh Pressure - The Baron Wine, Women and Song - LawrenceMoonlight and Pretzels - BertieGoing Hollywood - ThompsonFugitive Lovers - Eddie Hips, Hips, Hooray! - Dance director This Side of Heaven - Mr. Worthington - Interior decorator The Countess of Monte Cristo - Hotel valetGlamour - Dance director I Hate Women - DuckyHide-Out - Master of ceremonies Death on the Diamond - Game Radio Announcer The Gay Bride - Car Salesman The Band Plays On - Radio Announcer Society Doctor - AlbrightThe Flame Within - Detective Cap The Murder Man - Carey BoothChina Seas - Man on dock with McCaleb Streamline Express - Gerald WilsonSmall Town Girl - Minor role Libeled Lady - Waif All American Chump - Luke Mitchell Born to Dance - Costume designer / assistant stage manager After the Thin Man - Leader of late crowd Dangerous Number - Orchestra leader Ready, Willing, and Able - Tenant Song of the City - Waiter As Good as Married - Jewelry salesman Captains Courageous - Reporter Love in a Bungalow - BarkerBad Guy - operator of Marko game That's My Story - Barker for electric chairA Girl with Ideas - Vendor The Adventurous Blonde - MugsyHollywood Hotel - Casting assistant You're a Sweetheart - Prosecutor in production number The Kid from Texas - Announcer of polo match Lucky Night - Orchestra leader at George's Coast Guard - Desk clerk Everything's on Ice - FrenchHero for a Day - Stranger Kid Nightingale - Oscar, service station operator The Ghost Comes Home - Waldo Secrets of a Model - Stuart BannermanHarvard, Here I Come! - Horace The Devil With Hitler - Adolf HitlerHitler – Dead or Alive - Adolf HitlerIt Ain't Hay - ClerkThat Nazty Nuisance - Adolf HitlerThe Miracle of Morgan's Creek - Adolf Hitler The Hitler Gang - Adolf HitlerHenry Aldrich's Little Secret - Man from milk company Duffy's Tavern - MasseurHold That Blonde - Edwards, butlerNight and Day - Director The Big Clock - Morton SpauldingA Foreign Affair - Adolf Hitler Beyond Glory - First detective The Paleface - Toby PrestonRed, Hot and Blue - Barney Stratum Copper Canyon - BixbyG.I. Jane - ColonelSingin' in the Rain - diction coach in the "Moses Supposes" numberThe Band Wagon - Bobby, butler No Escape - Claude DuffyDeep in My Heart - Florist He Laughed Last - Nightclub choreographer The Story of Mankind - Adolf HitlerThe High Cost of Loving - Marvin Phyffe On the Double - Adolf Hitler Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse - Adolf Hitler