Charles Butterworth

Actor
Charles Butterworth

About

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Birth Place
South Bend, Indiana, USA
Born
July 26, 1896
Died
June 13, 1946
Cause of Death
Automobile Accident

Biography

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Doleful-looking, deadpan comic character actor who after earning a law degree from Notre Dame and working as a reporter went on the stage as a supporting player in several Broadway musicals. Butterworth entered films in 1930 and specialized in playing reticent, befuddled and indecisive characters--often rich bachelors--who did not get the girl, most notably as Jeanette MacDonald's nervou...

Filmography

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Follow the Boys (1944)
Louie Fairweather
Bermuda Mystery (1944)
Dr. Randolph Tilford
The Sultan's Daughter (1944)
Sultan
Dixie Jamboree (1944)
Professor
Always a Bridesmaid (1943)
Col. [Thadious] Winchester [also known as Indiana]
This Is the Army (1943)
Eddie Dibble

Photos & Videos

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Second Chorus - Lobby Card
1 Photo
Cat And The Fiddle, The (1934) -- (Movie Clip) Music In Exchange For Indigestion
The Boys from Syracuse - Title Lobby Card
1 Photo
0 Photos
Cat And The Fiddle, The (1934) -- (Movie Clip) She Didn't Say Yes

Family & Companions

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Ethel Sutherland
Wife

Biography

Doleful-looking, deadpan comic character actor who after earning a law degree from Notre Dame and working as a reporter went on the stage as a supporting player in several Broadway musicals. Butterworth entered films in 1930 and specialized in playing reticent, befuddled and indecisive characters--often rich bachelors--who did not get the girl, most notably as Jeanette MacDonald's nervous suitor in "Love Me Tonight" (1932).

Filmography

 

Cast (Feature Film)

Follow the Boys (1944)
Louie Fairweather
Bermuda Mystery (1944)
Dr. Randolph Tilford
The Sultan's Daughter (1944)
Sultan
Dixie Jamboree (1944)
Professor
Always a Bridesmaid (1943)
Col. [Thadious] Winchester [also known as Indiana]
This Is the Army (1943)
Eddie Dibble
What's Cookin'? (1942)
J. P. Courtney
Give Out, Sisters (1942)
Professor [Chester] Woolf
Night in New Orleans (1942)
Edward Wallace
Sis Hopkins (1941)
Horace Hopkins
Blonde Inspiration (1941)
"Bittsy" Conway
Road Show (1941)
Harry Whitman
The Boys from Syracuse (1940)
Duke [of Ephesus]
Second Chorus (1940)
Mr. [J. Lester] Chisolm
Let Freedom Ring (1939)
The Mackerel
Every Day's a Holiday (1938)
Larmadou Graves
Thanks for the Memory (1938)
Biney
Swing High, Swing Low (1937)
Harry
We Went to College (1936)
Glenn Harvey
Magnificent Obsession (1936)
Tommy Masterson
The Moon's Our Home (1936)
Horace Van Steedan
Half Angel (1936)
Felix
Baby Face Harrington (1935)
Willie
Orchids to You (1935)
Teddy Stuyvesant
The Night Is Young (1935)
Willy Fitch
Hollywood Party (1934)
Harvey Clemp
Student Tour (1934)
[Professor] Ethelred Lippincott
Bulldog Drummond Strikes Back (1934)
Algy
Forsaking All Others (1934)
Shep
The Cat and the Fiddle (1934)
Charles
Penthouse (1933)
Layton
My Weakness (1933)
Gerald Gregory
The Nuisance (1933)
Floppy [Phil Montague]
Love Me Tonight (1932)
Count de Savignac
Beauty and the Boss (1932)
Ludwig
Manhattan Parade (1931)
Herbert
Side Show (1931)
Sidney
Illicit (1931)
Georgie Evans
The Mad Genius (1931)
Karminsky
The Bargain (1931)
Geoffrey Nichols
Ladies of Leisure (1930)
Man at party
The Life of the Party (1930)
Colonel Joy

Cast (Short)

Hollywood Handicap (1938)
Himself

Life Events

1930

Film debut in "The Life of the Party"

Photo Collections

 
1 Photo
Second Chorus - Lobby Card
Here is a Lobby Card from Paramount Pictures' Second Chorus (1941), starring Fred Astaire and Paulette Goddard. Lobby Cards were 11" x 14" posters that came in sets of 8. As the name implies, they were most often displayed in movie theater lobbies, to advertise current or coming attractions.
1 Photo
The Boys from Syracuse - Title Lobby Card
Here is the Title Lobby Card from Universal's The Boys from Syracuse (1940). Lobby Cards were 11" x 14" posters that came in sets of 8. As the name implies, they were most often displayed in movie theater lobbies, to advertise current or coming attractions.

Videos

Movie Clip

Cat And The Fiddle, The (1934) -- (Movie Clip) Music In Exchange For Indigestion Clever opening, Brussels already established, Ramon Novarro is introduced as composer-performer Victor, tangling with the proprietor (Paul Porcasi) and eventually meeting co-star Jeanette MacDonald as visiting American Shirley, in MGM’s version of the Jerome Kern/Otto Harbach Broadway hit, The Cat And The Fiddle, 1934.
Cat And The Fiddle, The (1934) -- (Movie Clip) She Didn't Say Yes Daffy Brussels music patron Charles (Butterworth) caught a bouquet tossed out by American Shirley (Jeanette MacDonald), who’s both arguing and celebrating a new gig with new friend Victor (Ramon Novarro), whose friends turn up, for a Jerome Kern-Otto Harbach song, in MGM’s The Cat And The Fiddle, 1934.
Illicit (1931) -- (Movie Clip) I Believe I Was His Inspiration Wedding shower scene introducing friends including glowing Joan Blondell as Duckie, and Charles Butterworth as Georgie with another comic routine, before liberated New York socialite Anne (Barbara Stanwyck) assures betrothed Dick (James Rennie) that a telegram from her ex-lover is no biggie, early in Illicit, 1931.
Illicit (1931) -- (Movie Clip) About To Spill Cocktails New Yorker Anne (Barbara Stanwyck) has been off the social circuit so she’s pleased to receive Margie (Natalie Moorhead), who’s always had a thing for her husband, clever Georgie (Charles Butterworth) and honest chum Duckie (Joan Blondell), intense events ensuing , direction by Archie Mayo, in the pre-Code melodrama Illicit. 1931.
Illicit (1931) -- (Movie Clip) Dubious Connecticut Resorts Worth noting terrific dialogue from the underlying un-produced play by Edith Fitzgerald and Robert Riskin, boozy Georgie (Charles Butterworth) drops in on Dick (James Rennie) and his unabashed intimate girlfriend Anne (Barbara Stanwyck), in the pre-Code drama Illicit, 1932.
Mad Genius, The (1931) -- (Movie Clip) There Was A Strange Boy Freaky opening in the Warner Brothers-John Barrymore commercial follow-up to Svengali, the star operates a puppet act, assisted by Charles Butterworth, young Frankie Darro their only audience, pursued by a pre-Frankenstein Boris Karloff, Michael Curtiz directing, The Mad Genius,1931.
Let Freedom Ring (1939) -- (Movie Clip) When Irish Eyes Are Smiling We know now that Steve (Nelson Eddy) is against the railroad, pretending to be pals with drunk-again hired thug Mulligan (Victor McLaglen), using songs to tell slow-witted Mackerel (Charles Butterworth) to get out of town with the printing-press they’ve just stolen, in MGM’s Let Freedom Ring, 1939.
Let Freedom Ring (1939) -- (Movie Clip) There's No Place Like Home It’s not clear what angle Harvard-educated lawyer Steve (Nelson Eddy) is working on his first night back in his Western hometown, buddying up to the railroad labor goon Mulligan (Victor McLaglen), then meeting old pal Mackerel (Charles Butterworth), who works a sucker-punch scam, in Let Freedom Ring, 1939, from an original Ben Hecht screenplay.
Forsaking All Others (1934) -- (Movie Clip) I'm Going To A Sanitarium Clark Gable is Jeff, home from Spain to surprise his New York crowd, unaware that best bud Dillon (Robert Montgomery) is about to marry their childhood friend Mary (Joan Crawford), to whom he planned to propose, Charles Butterworth, Billie Burke and Rosalind Russell among the players, early in Forsaking All Others, 1934.
Forsaking All Others (1934) -- (Movie Clip) Can You Say That Again? Nervous Joan Crawford as Mary, about to be married, Billie Burke frantic organizing, Roz Russell in waiting, Charles Butterworth in a panic, as he learns, along with hung-over best man Jeff (Clark Gable), that the groom isn't going to show, in MGM's Forsaking All Others, 1934.
Magnificent Obsession (1936) -- (Movie Clip) Any Poor Devil Mrs. Eden (Beryl Mercer) is among witnesses helping widow Helen (Irene Dunne) and daughter Joyce (Betty Furness) piece together the mysterious finances of Dr. Hudson after his accidental death, Ralph Morgan also waiting his turn, in the first movie version of Magnificent Obsession, 1936.
Love Me Tonight (1932) -- (Movie Clip) Isn't It Romantic? The gypsies in the middle of the number, then introducing Princess Jeanette (MacDonald) finishing Rodgers & Hart's Isn't It Romantic, visited by the Count (Charles Butterworth), in Rouben Mamoulian's Love Me Tonight, 1932.

Trailer

Blonde Inspiration - (Original Trailer) A pulp-fiction writer hires a curvaceous blonde to be his muse in Blonde Inspiration (1941) directed by Busby Berkeley.
Beauty and the Boss - (Original Trailer) Bad boy Warren William is the boss who can't keep his mind on business and his hands off the secretaries in Beauty and the Boss (1932).
Baby Face Harrington - (Original Trailer) A milquetoast has to fight off cops and gangsters when he's mistaken for the notorious Baby Face Harrington (1935).
Illicit - (Original Trailer) Young free-thinkers turn conventionally jealous when they marry in the pre-code drama Illicit (1931) starring Barbara Stanwyck.
We Went To College - (Original Trailer) Three middle-aged men try to recapture the joys of their college days in the comedy We Went To College (1936).
Night Is Young, The - (Original Trailer) A European nobleman (Ramon Novarro) falls for a ballerina (Evelyn Laye) in the Romberg-Hammerstein operetta The Night Is Young (1935).
Side Show - (Original Trailer) A carnival dancer (Winnie Lightner) fills in for the show's high diver in Side Show (1931).
Mad Genius, The - (Original Trailer) John Barrymore is The Mad Genius (1931), a deranged ballet teacher.
Nuisance, The - (Original Trailer) Lee Tracy is The Nuisance (1933), an ambulance-chasing shyster and the hero of this cynical pre-code delight.
Let Freedom Ring - (Original Trailer) A crusader returns to his Western hometown to root out corruption in Let Freedom Ring (1939) starring Nelson Eddy.
Love Me Tonight - (Original Trailer) Parisian tailor Maurice Chevalier falls in love with princess Jeanette MacDonald in the musical Love Me Tonight (1932).
This Is The Army - (Original Trailer) Irving Berlin's giant Broadway revue This Is The Army (1943) featuring a galaxy of stars mixing with servicemen.

Companions

Ethel Sutherland
Wife

Bibliography

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