Robert Woolsey


Robert Woolsey

About

Birth Place
Oakland, California
Born
August 14, 1889
Died
October 31, 2038
Cause of Death
Complications From Kidney Disease

Family & Companions

Mignone Park Reed
Wife
Dancer. Married c. 1917 until his death.

Bibliography

"Wheeler & Woolsey: The Vaudeville Comic Duo and Their Films, 1929-1937"
Edward Watz, McFarland

Biography

Life Events

Photo Collections

On Again - Off Again - Movie Poster
On Again - Off Again - Movie Poster

Videos

Movie Clip

Hips, Hips, Hooray! (1934) -- (Movie Clip) You Can Eat The Lipstick Fetching window model Daisy (Dorothy Lee) is getting no traction with cosmetic sales, with some neat shooting by director Mark Sandrich, when we meet stars Bert Wheeler and Robert Woolsey (“Dr. Dudley” and sidekick) stealing her audience, early in RKO’s Hips, Hips, Hooray!, 1934.
Hips, Hips, Hooray! (1934) -- (Movie Clip) Meet That Man And Merge Shady lipstick salesmen Dr. Dudley and Andy (the RKO comedy team, Bert Wheeler and Robert Woolsey) have hijacked an office hoping they, with ally Daisy (Dorothy Lee), can trick her better-financed boss (Thelma Todd as Miss Frisby) into a merger, in Hips, Hips, Hooray!, 1934.
Nitwits, The (1935) -- (Movie Clip) You Opened My Eyes George Stevens with a clever opening, directing his third feature and his second Wheeler & Woolsey vehicle, with a song introduced by Joey Ray, Joan Andrews also singing, the tune by Felix Bernard and L. Wolfe Gilbert, Donald Kerr the lackey, Hale Hamilton the music company boss, and the stars, Bert and Robert, running the cigar shop (Betty Grable in the photo!), in The Nitwits, 1935.
Nitwits, The (1935) -- (Movie Clip) Music In My Heart If Betty Grable looks like she’s 18 it’s because she was, in one of her earliest credited features, as Mary, secretary to the boss upstairs at the music publishing company, who needs a murder song, so she can’t wait to tell her songwriting beau Johnnie (Bert Wheeler) down at the cigar shop, launching into a Jimmy McHugh-Dorothy Fields original, in the Wheeler & Woolsey comedy The Nitwits, 1935.
Nitwits, The (1935) -- (Movie Clip) The Black Widow's Going To Get You! Having by chance written a song about the “Black Widow,” not knowing that music publishing company boss Lake (Hale Hamilton), to whom they’re pitching the song, is being tormented by a blackmailer by that very name, Bert hesitates but Robert manages to perform, in the Wheeler & Woolsey vehicle The Nitwits, 1935.
Half Shot At Sunrise (1930) -- (Movie Clip) Have You Ever Tried Perfume? Just the supporting ladies here, savvy Parisian Olga (Leni Stengel) is advising soldier-crazy Annette (Dorothy Lee), daughter of an American officer in WWI Paris, when her mother (Edna May Oliver) and sister (Roberta Robinson) happen by, in the RKO Wheeler & Woolsey comedy hit Half Shot At Sunrise, 1930.
Half Shot At Sunrise (1930) -- (Movie Clip) Nothing But Love French Olga (Leni Stengel) is actually plotting to save AWOL American soldier Gilbert (Robert Woolsey) from the firing squad, though he still thinks he’s fooling her, all of which prompts another cute original tune by Harry Tierney and Anne Caldwell, in the RKO (Bert) Wheeler & Woolsey comedy, Half Shot At Sunrise, 1930.
Half Shot At Sunrise (1930) -- (Movie Clip) Love, Honor And Oh Baby! Frustrated American MP’s in Paris (Jack Rutherford and Charles Sullivan) set up the first scene for the AWOL buck privates they can’t find, the stars Bert Wheeler and (bespectacled) Robert Woolsey as Tommy and Gilbert, scamming the cops and chasing girls, early in RKO’s Half Shot At Sunrise, 1930.
Half Shot At Sunrise (1930) -- (Movie Clip) Whistling The Blues Away Frisky daughter of an American colonel in WWI Paris, Dorothy Lee as Annette has just met AWOL private Tommy (Bert Wheeler), leading to an original, music by Harry Tierney and lyrics by Anne Caldwell, the co-screenwriter and famed librettist, in the RKO Wheeler & Woolsey comedy, Half Shot At Sunrise, 1930.
Kentucky Kernels (1934) -- (Movie Clip) Nothing But Nets George Stevens directs this unusually warm opening to a comedy-team formula picture, Paul Page as a rich guy ending it all, then the partners, dreamy Bert Wheeler and grouchy Bert Wheeler, passively fishing, in RKO's Kentucky Kernels, 1934.
Kentucky Kernels (1934) -- (Movie Clip) One Silly Little Habit Comedy teammates Bert Wheeler and Robert Woolsey (specs and cigar, playing a magician) are adopting, from Margaret Dumont, an orphan, for the depressed rich guy they've befriended, and it's troublesome Spanky McFarland, so they meet a cop (Edgar Dearing) too, early in Kentucky Kernels, 1934.
Kentucky Kernels (1934) -- (Movie Clip) One Little Kiss Safe to say they're milking this tune by screenwriters Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby, the last four of six settings, the servant chorus, then Spanky, then Robert Woolsey, last Bert Wheeler with Mary Carlisle, in the Wheeler & Woolsey vehicle Kentucky Kernels, 1934.

Trailer

Family

Thomas Woolsey
Father
Died in 1896.
Sarah Woolsey
Mother
Survived him.
Charles Woolsey
Brother
Survived him.

Companions

Mignone Park Reed
Wife
Dancer. Married c. 1917 until his death.

Bibliography

"Wheeler & Woolsey: The Vaudeville Comic Duo and Their Films, 1929-1937"
Edward Watz, McFarland