Ernest Truex
The ultimate milquetoast and ineffectual boss in comedy outings, meek character actor Ernest Truex was a small (5'3"), adenoidal, very well-dressed fellow, a popular avuncular type in later years who enjoyed a seven-decade-long career. He was born September 19, 1889, in Kansas City, Missouri, the son of a physician. Raised in Rich Hill, Missouri, he was actually trained in acting by one of his father's actor/patients (in exchange for mounting medical bills). An acting prodigy, Truex performed Shakespeare as a small child and was at one time dubbed "The Youngest Hamlet" by promoters (the five-year-old actually played the "ghost" of Hamlet). Upon his parents' separation when Ernest was nine, he and his mother toured the West in a show billed as "The Child Entertainers," in which the young talent recited everything from "Othello" to "Romeo and Juliet." Making appearances in stock and vaudeville, he took his first Broadway bow as a teenager with "Wildfire" starring Lillian Russell in 1908, and continued in the same vein with "Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm" (1910) and "Very Good Eddie" (1915), which also featured his first wife, actress Julia Mills. In 1913, he appeared on Broadway with Mary Pickford in the popular play "A Good Little Devil."
That same year Truex made his film debut with Pickford in Caprice (1913), then appeared with her in the film version of A Good Little Devil (1914). With his film career now off and running, he found a fairly comfortable niche for himself as mild-mannered, mischievous heroes in comedy capers. He played the title role in Artie, the Millionaire Kid (1916), as well as the protagonist in Come on In (1918) and Good-Bye, Bill (1918), not to mention a number of humorous shorts. His last silent film, Six Cylinder Love (1923) as Gilbert Sterling, came from an earlier Broadway success.
Truex continued to rack up a strong body of stage work in the late 1920s and early 1930s. His first wife had died around this time and he married stage actress Mary Jane Barrett, appearing with her in New York in such plays as "The Third Little Show" (1931), "The Hook-Up (1935), and "Fredericka" (1937). In 1934 Truex directed, co-produced, and starred in the play "Sing and Whistle" which co-starred Sylvia Field. She would later become his third wife upon his divorce from Ms. Barrett, and came into her own in later years as the kindly Mrs. Wilson on the Dennis the Menace (1959) sitcom.
With his first wife Julia Mills he had two children, Philip and James. With his second wife Mary Jane Barrett he had one child, Barry Truex. All three of his sons went into acting for the first decade of their adult lives. Philip and James Truex were mainly theatre actors but Barry Truex also had substantial roles in movies. Barry Truex's best known role was as the young Benny Goodman in The Benny Goodman Story (1956)
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Movies (71)
Fluffy
1965 · Claridge
Twilight for the Gods
1958 · Rev. Butterfield
All Mine to Give
1957 · Doctor Delbert
If You Knew Elizabeth
1957 · Uncle John
The Leather Saint
1956 · Father Ritchie
Our Town
1955 · Dr. Gibbs
Kraft Television Theatre: Alice in Wonderland
1954 · White Knight
The Girl from Manhattan
1948 · Homer Purdy
On an Island with You
1948 · (uncredited)
Always Together
1947 · Timothy J. Bull
Night in Paradise
1946 · Scribe
Life with Blondie
1945 · Theodor Glassby
Club Havana
1945 · Willy Kingston
Men in Her Diary
1945 · Vernon Williams
Pan-Americana
1945 · Uncle Rudy
Her Primitive Man
1944 · Uncle Hubert
Chip Off the Old Block
1944 · Henry McHugh
True to Life
1943 · Oscar Elkins
Sleepy Lagoon
1943 · Dudley Joyner
Fired Wife
1943 · Willie Wilson
This Is the Army
1943 · Soldier's Father (uncredited)
Rhythm of the Islands
1943 · Mr. Holton
The Affairs of Martha
1942 · Llewellyn Castle
Private Buckaroo
1942 · Col. Elias Weatherford
You're Telling Me
1942 · Charles Handley
Twin Beds
1942 · Larky
Star Spangled Rhythm
1942 · Murgatroyd
Don't Get Personal
1942 · Jules Kinsey
Unexpected Uncle
1941 · Wilkins
We Go Fast
1941 · Harold Bruggins
Tillie the Toiler
1941 · George Winkler
The Gay Vagabond
1941 · A.J. Wilber
Christmas in July
1940 · Mr. Baxter
Calling All Husbands
1940 · Homer Trippe
Dance, Girl, Dance
1940 · Bailey #1
Lillian Russell
1940 · Charles K. Leonard
Little Orvie
1940 · Frank Stone
Adventure in Diamonds
1940 · Toutasche
His Girl Friday
1940 · Bensinger
Slightly Honorable
1939 · P. Hemingway Collins
Little Accident
1939 · Tabby Morgan
The Under-Pup
1939 · Mr. Binns
These Glamour Girls
1939 · Alumnus
Island of Lost Men
1939 · Frobenius
Bachelor Mother
1939 · Investigator
It's a Wonderful World
1939 · Willie Heyward
Ambush
1939 · Mr. Gibbs
Swing, Sister, Swing
1938 · Prof. L. Orlando Beebee
Swing That Cheer
1938 · Professor Peabody
Freshman Year
1938 · Professor Peabody
The Adventures of Marco Polo
1938 · Binguccio
Start Cheering
1938 · Blodgett
Mama Runs Wild
1937 · Ernest Summers
Everybody Dance
1936 · Wilbur Spurgeon
Gentlemen of the Bar
1934
Dog-gone Babies
1934
His Lucky Day
1934
The Expectant Father
1934
Get That Venus
1933 · Tom Wilson
Mr. Adam
1933 · Adam
The Warrior's Husband
1933 · Sapiens
Whistling in the Dark
1933 · Wallace Porter
Six Cylinder Love
1923 · Gilbert Sterling
Oh, You Women!
1919 · Abraham Lincoln Jones
Good-Bye, Bill
1918 · Teddy Swift
Come on In
1918 · Ernest Short
Artie, the Millionaire Kid
1916 · Artie Hamilton
The Bomb Boy
1914 · Jimmie - the Messenger Boy
A Good Little Devil
1914 · Charles MacLance - a Good Little Devil
An American Citizen
1914 · Mercury
Caprice
1913 · Wally Henderson
TV shows (23)
Petticoat Junction
1963 · Oliver Fenton, Tony Allison
Grindl
1963
Hazel
1961 · Robert Dunlap
The Tom Ewell Show
1960
Pete and Gladys
1960
Dennis the Menace
1959
The Twilight Zone
1959 · Pedott, Charles Whitley
The DuPont Show with June Allyson
1959 · Daniel
The Ann Sothern Show
1958 · Jason McCauley
Matinee Theater
1955
Alfred Hitchcock Presents
1955 · Howard Rutherford, Wilkens
The Millionaire
1955 · Andrew Sterling
Climax!
1954 · Uncle William
Father Knows Best
1954 · Grampa
Inner Sanctum
1954
Jamie
1953 · Grandpa McHummer
Lux Video Theatre
1950 · Barkley Cooper, Aloysius P. McKeever
Cameo Theatre
1950
Suspense
1949 · George Thomas
Studio One
1948 · Martin Bristol
The Ford Theatre Hour
1948 · Dan Dorgan
The Philco Television Playhouse
1948
Kraft Television Theatre
1947 · White Knight