William Demarest
| William Demarest | ||
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| Background information | ||
| Born as: | Carl William Demarest | |
| Born | Feb 27, 1892 Saint Paul, Minnesota, U.S. | |
| Died | Dec 27, 1983 - age 90 Palm Springs, California, U.S. Cancer | |
| Spouse(s): | Estelle Collette (1923 - 1941) divorced Lucille Thayer (1942 - ) | |
| Occupation: | Actor | |
| Years active: | 1906–1978 | |
Carl William Demarest (✦February 27, 1892 – †December 27, 1983) was an American character actor, known especially for his roles in screwball comedies by Preston Sturges and for playing Uncle Charley in the sitcom My Three Sons Demarest, who frequently played crusty but good-hearted roles, was a prolific film and television actor, appearing in over 140 films, beginning in 1926 and ending in the late 1970s. Before his career in motion pictures, he performed in vaudeville for two decades.
Early life
Carl William Demarest was born in Saint Paul, Minnesota, the youngest of three sons of Wilhelmina (née Lindgren) and Samuel Demarest. During William's infancy, the family moved to New Bridge, a hamlet in Bergen County, New Jersey.
Demarest served in the United States Army during World War I.
Career
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 (real name Esther Zychlin) as "Demarest and Colette". He then moved to work in the "legitimate theatre" on Broadway. Demarest by 1926 also began working in films, often in productions directed by Preston Sturges and as a member of a "stock" troupe of actors whom Sturges repeatedly cast in his screen projects. He appeared in ten films written by Sturges, eight of which were under his direction, including The Lady Eve, Sullivan's Travels and The Miracle of Morgan's Creek. Demarest was such a familiar figure at the Paramount studio that just his name was used in the movie Sunset Boulevard as a potential star for William Holden's unsold baseball screenplay.
Demarest appeared with veteran Western film star Roscoe Ates in the 1958 episode And the Desert Shall Blossom of CBS's Alfred Hitchcock Presents.
In 1959, Demarest was named the lead actor of the 18-week sitcom "Love and Marriage" on NBC in the 1959–1960 season. Demarest played William Harris, the owner of a failing music company who refuses to handle popular rock and roll music, which presumably might save the firm from bankruptcy.
He played folksy Jeb Gaine, an occasional sidekick to the main character, in the 1961–62 season of the Western series "Tales of Wells Fargo".
Demarest appeared as Police Chief Aloysius of the Santa Rosita Police Department in the film It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963), as well as on a memorable episode ("What's in the Box") of Rod Serling's "The Twilight Zone", portraying a hen-pecked husband who murders his wife.
His most famous television role was in the ABC and then CBS sitcom "My Three Sons" from 1965 to 1972, playing Uncle Charley O'Casey. He replaced William Frawley, whose failing health had made procuring insurance impossible. Demarest had worked with Fred MacMurray previously in the films Hands Across the Table (1935), Pardon My Past (1945), On Our Merry Way (1948), and The Far Horizons (1955) and was a personal friend of MacMurray.
Personal life and later years
Demarest was married twice. His first wife was his vaudeville partner Estelle Collette, born Esther Zichlin. Demarest helped raise her daughter, author Phyllis Gordon Demarest, from her earlier marriage, in 1907, to English poet and novelist Samuel Gordon, who had divorced Zichlin before his death. Demarest's second wife was Lucille Thayer, born Lucille Theurer, whom he married in Prescott, Arizona on August 31, 1942. Thayer, who later became an activist on health issues in the motion picture industry, was in October 1960 appointed California's lay-chairman of the ANA fundraising campaign.
Demarest's favorite recreations were hunting, fishing, golf, and playing the cello.
According to "Hollywood Be Thy Name", the 1993 memoir of Jack Warner, Jr. and Cass Warner Sperling, Demarest claimed that Sam Warner was murdered by his own brothers. This allegation, leveled in 1977, was never corroborated and Demarest's reliability was questioned because of his long dependence on alcohol.
Death
Demarest died at his home in Palm Springs, California, on December 27, 1983, and his body was interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California. At the time of his death, he was suffering from prostate cancer and pneumonia.
Filmography
- Wikipedia article: William Demarest filmography
- Wikipedia article: William Demarest
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Note: William Demarest was a volunteer at the Hollywood Canteen |
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