Roscoe Ates
Roscoe Ates
Mississippi-born Roscoe Ates spent a good portion of his childhood overcoming a severe stammer. Entering show business as a concert violinist, the shriveled, pop-eyed Ates found the money was better as a vaudeville comedian, reviving his long-gone stutter for humorous effect. In films from 1929, Ates appeared in sizeable roles in such films as The Champ (1931), Freaks (1932) and Alice in Wonderland (1933), and also starred in his own short subject series with RKO and Vitaphone. Though his trademarked stammer is something of an endurance test when seen today, it paid off in big laughs in the 1930s, when speech impediments were considered the ne plus ultra of hilarity. By the late 1930s Ates's popularity waned, and he was reduced to unbilled bits in such films as Gone with the Wind (1939) and Dixie (1942). His best showing during the 1940s was as comic sidekick to singing cowboy Eddie Dean in a series of 15 low-budget westerns. Remaining busy in films and on TV into the 1960s, Roscoe Ates made his last appearance in the 1961 Jerry Lewis comedy The Errand Boy. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Filmography of Roscoe Ates:
- The Stranger Wore a Gun with Randolph Scott , Claire Trevor , George MacReady , Alfonso Bedoya , Lee Marvin , Ernest Borgnine , Paul Maxey , Frank Scannell , Reed Howes , Edward Earle , Rayford Barnes , Franklin Farnum , Frank S. Hagney , Al Hill , Herbert Rawlinson , Harry Seymour , Richard Benjamin
- The Palm Beach Story with Claudette Colbert , Joel D. McCrea , Mary Astor , Rudy Vallee , William Demarest , Robert Warwick , Franklin Pangborn , Monte Blue , Dewey Robinson , Frank Faylen , John Holland , John Farrell MacDonald , Howard M. Mitchell , Charles Moore , Mantan Moreland , Fred "Snowflake" Toones , Max Wagner
- Gone With the Wind with Si Jenks , Leslie Howard , Vivien Leigh , Eddie "Rochester" Anderson , Hattie R. McDaniel , Thomas Mitchell , Victor Jory , Evelyn Keyes , George Reeves , Ann Rutherford , Butterfly McQueen , Laura Hope Crewes , Harry Davenport , Jane Darwell , Alberto Morin , Mary Anderson , Cliff Edwards , Ona Munson , Tom Tyler , Isabel Jewell , Adrian Morris , Yakima Canutt , Ward Bond , Clark Gable , Frank Jr. Coghlan , Olivia DeHavilland , Frank Faylen , Marjorie Reynolds , William Stack
- Ziegfeld Girl with James Stewart , Judy Garland , Hedy Lamarr , Lana Turner , Jackie Cooper , Ian Hunter , Charles Winninger , Edward Everett Horton , Paul Kelly , Eve Arden , Dan Dailey , Al Shean , Felix Bressart , Mae Busch , Josephine Whittell , James Flavin , Bess Flowers , Reed Hadley , Al Hill , Armand Kaliz , Elliott Sullivan , Ray Teal , Jean Wallace
- Sullivan's Travels with Joel D. McCrea , Veronica Lake , William Demarest , Franklin Pangborn , Porter Hall , Robert Warwick , Eric Blore , Margaret Hayes , Richard Webb , Charles Moore , Monte Blue , Edgar Dearing , Elsa Lanchester , Perc Launders , John Farrell MacDonald , Howard M. Mitchell , Paul "Tiny" Newlan , Georges Renavent , Dewey Robinson , Harry Seymour , Pat West , Frank Mills , Preston Sturges
- Inner Sanctum with Lee Patrick
- The Errand Boy with Jerry Lewis , Brian Donlevy , Howard McNear , Renee Taylor , Kathleen Freeman , Isobel Elsom , Sig Rumann , Doodles Weaver , Fritz Feld , Kenneth MacDonald , Don "Red" Barry , Lorne Greene , Mike Mazurki , Harry "Snub" Pollard , Michael Ross , Frank Scannell , Herb Vigran , Dick Winslow , Richard Bakalyan , Michael Landon , Benny Rubin
Roscoe Ates Trivia
