Edward Brophy


Edward Santree Brophy was an American character actor and comedian, as well as an assistant director and second unit director during the 1920s. Small of build, balding, and raucous-voiced, he frequently portrayed dumb cops and gangsters, both serious and comic.
He is best remembered as the sidekick to The Falcon in the Tom Conway film series of the 1940s, and for voicing Timothy Q. Mouse in Walt Disney's Dumbo.

Early life

Edward Santree Brophy was born on February 27, 1895, in New York City and attended the University of Virginia.

Career

His screen debut was in Yes or No?. In 1928, with only a few minor film roles to his credit, Brophy was working as a production manager for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer when he was on location with Buster Keaton for the feature film The Cameraman. An actor failed to show up, and rather than having to wait for the studio to send a substitute, Keaton recruited Brophy on the spot to take the actor's place. As two occupants of a bath-house, Brophy and Keaton attempt to undress and put on bathing suits while sharing a single tiny changing room. Each time Keaton attempts to hang his clothes on one hook, Brophy removes the clothes and hands them back to Keaton and gestures to the other hook. He manhandles the smaller, more slender Keaton, at one point picking him up by the feet and dumping him out of his trousers. Appearing only in this one brief scene, Brophy attracted enough attention to receive more and better roles.
Keaton used Brophy again in his military comedy Doughboys, with Brophy as a loud-mouthed drill sergeant. This defined Brophy's screen persona as a Brooklyn-accented, streetwise character. His subsequent films for MGM cast him in the same vein: comic foils in four more Keaton features; the loyal fight manager in The Champ ; a circus proprietor in Freaks ; and as a hired gun in The Thin Man.
By 1940 Brophy was so identified as a Runyonesque character with a Brooklynese speech pattern that he was cast as the voice of Timothy Q. Mouse in Dumbo, even though he was uncredited for this role. Brophy worked steadily through the 1950s, in both featured roles and uncredited bits, almost always in light film fare. Very rarely was he called upon to display dramatic ability, as in the police procedural Arson, Inc., in which he played a potentially dangerous firebug. He also made several appearances in the films of director John Ford, notably as "Ditto" Boland in The Last Hurrah, Brophy's last film.
Critic Leslie Halliwell described him thus, "American character actor, often a gangster or a very odd kind of valet; a rotund, cigar-chewing little man in a bowler hat, oddly likeable despite his pretence of toughness."
Brophy was the model for comic-book character Doiby Dickles, the cab-driving sidekick to Green Lantern in the 1940s.

Death

Brophy died on May 27, 1960, during the production of Ford's Two Rode Together. He was 65.

Filmography

Yes or No? as Tom MartinThe Sign on the Door as Newspaper Photographer Spring Fever as Golf Game Spectator West Point as Team Manager The Cameraman as Man in Bath-House Free and Easy as Benny - The Stage Manager Estrellados as assistant director Our Blushing Brides as Joe MunseyDoughboys as Sergeant BrophyThose Three French Girls as YankRemote Control as AlPaid as Burglar Parlor, Bedroom and Bath as DetectiveA Free Soul as Slouch Sporting Blood as Newsreel Cameraman A Dangerous Affair as NelsonThe Champ as TimThe Big Shot as Minor Role The Passionate Plumber as Man Outside Beauty Parlor Freaks as Rollo BrotherThe Beast of the City as Police Dispatcher Skyscraper Souls as Man in Elevator Speak Easily as RenoProsperity as Ice Cream Salesman Flesh as Dolan - a RefereeWhat! No Beer? as Spike MoranBeer and Pretzels as Theater Manager Broadway to Hollywood as Joe Mannion Hello Pop! as Brophy The Poor Rich as FlanniganThe Thin Man as MorelliParis Interlude as HamHide-Out as Detective BrittHave a Heart as Mac Death on the Diamond as GroganEvelyn Prentice as Eddie DelaneyI'll Fix It as Tilly TilsonSequoia as Forest Ranger Pete Forsaking All Others Devil Dogs of the Air as Minor Role Shadow of Doubt as Fred WilcoxThe Whole Town's Talking as 'Slugs' MartinNaughty Marietta as ZekePeople Will Talk as Pete RanseMad Love as RolloShe Gets Her Man as FlashChina Seas as Wilbur TimmonsI Live My Life as Pete 1,000 Dollars a Minute as Benny DolanRemember Last Night? as MaxieShow Them No Mercy! as BuzzStrike Me Pink as KillerHere Comes Trouble as CrowleyWoman Trap as George MeadeThe Case Against Mrs. Ames as SidKelly the Second as Ike ArnoldSpendthrift as Bill McGuireWedding Present as SquintyAll American Chump as Pudgy MurphyMr. Cinderella as Detective McNuttHideaway Girl as Bugs MurphyCareer Woman as Doc CurleyGreat Guy as Pete ReillyOh, Doctor as Meg SmithJim Hanvey, Detective as RomoThe Soldier and the Lady as PackerThe Hit Parade as MulrooneyThe Great Gambini as 'Butch'Varsity Show as Mike BarclayTrapped by G-Men as LeftyThe Girl Said No as PickThe Last Gangster as 'Fats' GarveyBlossoms on Broadway as Mr. PrussicA Slight Case of Murder as LeftyRomance on the Run as Whitey WhitehouseHold That Kiss as AlGold Diggers in Paris as Mike CooganPassport Husband as SpikeCome On, Leathernecks! as Max 'Curly' MaxwellVacation from Love as Barney Keenan, Band LeaderGambling Ship as Cuthbert InnocentYou Can't Cheat an Honest Man as CorbettPardon Our Nerve as Nosey NelsonSociety Lawyer as MaxFor Love or Money as SleeperThe Kid from Kokomo as Eddie BlackGolden Boy as Roxy LewisMr. Smith Goes to Washington as Newspaper employee Kid Nightingale as Mike JordonThe Amazing Mr. Williams as Buck MosebyThe Big Guy as DippyCalling Philo Vance as RyanAlias the Deacon as StuffyGolden Gloves as Potsy BrillThe Great Profile as SylvesterDance, Girl, Dance as Dwarfie HumblewingerSandy Gets Her Man as Fireman JuniorThe Invisible Woman as BillSleepers West as George TrautweinThieves Fall Out as RorkThe Bride Came C.O.D. as HinkleA Dangerous Game as Bugsy Nine Lives Are Not Enough as Officer SlatteryBuy Me That Town as ZiggyDumbo as Timothy Q. Mouse The Gay Falcon as Detective BatesSteel Against the Sky as Pete EvansAll Through the Night as Joe DenningBroadway as PorkyLarceny, Inc. as Weepy DavisMadame Spy as Mike ReeseLady Bodyguard as Harry GarganAir Force as Marine Sgt. J.J. CallahanDestroyer as CaseyA Scream in the Dark as Eddie ToughCover Girl as Joe - Cafe Owner It Happened Tomorrow as Jake ShombergA Night of Adventure as SteveThe Thin Man Goes Home as BroganSee My Lawyer as Otis FillmoreI'll Remember April as ShadowWonder Man as TorsoPenthouse Rhythm as BaileyThe Falcon in San Francisco as Goldie LockeGirl on the Spot as Fingers FoleySwing Parade of 1946 as MooseSweetheart of Sigma Chi as ArtyThe Falcon's Adventure as Goldie LockeRenegade Girl as Bob CrandallIt Happened on 5th Avenue as Cecil FeltonArson, Inc. as Pete PurdyDanger Zone as Prof. Frederick Simpson SchickerRoaring City as 'Professor' Frederick Simpson SchickerPier 23 as Prof. ShickerBundle of Joy as Dance Contest JudgeThe Last Hurrah as 'Ditto' BolandThe Slowest Gun in the West as The Bartender