Background
Victor Moore was born on February 24, 1876, in Hammonton, New Jersey, the son of Orville E. Moore and Sarah A. Davis.
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Victor Moore was born on February 24, 1876, in Hammonton, New Jersey, the son of Orville E. Moore and Sarah A. Davis.
He gravitated early to the theater; at the age of ten he was carrying a banner for the Minstrel Brothers.
At sixteen, after his family moved to Boston, he made his professional debut in Babes in the Woods. After playing bit parts in New York and Philadelphia as well as in road shows, he paid another actor $125 for the use of a skit involving a vaudeville team, "Change Your Act, or Back to the Woods. " It became Moore's own vehicle to stardom. The act was seen and its star recommended to George M. Cohan, who put Moore into two of his plays, Forty-Five Minutes from Broadway (1906) and The Talk of New York (1907).
Moore's first starring role was as a crook in Owen Davis' farce, Easy Come, Easy Go (1925). His flair for appearing both wistful and pathetic caught the attention of George S. Kaufman, who cast Moore as Alexander Throttlebottom, the ineffectual but lovable vice-president in Ira and George Gershwin's Of Thee I Sing (1931). In this show, which instilled fresh sophistication into the American musical theater, Moore received his greatest acclaim. At once wide-eyed and self-effacing, bumbling and apologetic, his portrayal not only provoked laughter but also added warmth to the political satire. Moore's comic timing had been perfected in vaudeville and, enriched with the air of innocent charm, endowed the part with such fullness that Throttlebottom became better known than many actual vice-presidents. When Moore visited the Senate after his theatrical triumph, he passed himself off as Vice-President Throttlebottom to lawmakers who relished the joke. None of Moore's later roles equaled the impact of this performance, but he continued to appear with distinction - especially in musical comedies.
His special gift was for playing politicians, returning to the stage as Throttlebottom in a sequel to Of Thee I Sing entitled Let 'Em Eat Cake (1933). With the Great Depression cutting deeper, the sequel's satire was sharper; but Moore's bewildered and unsteady character continued to receive delighted notices.
In Cole Porter's Anything Goes (1934), he played Public Enemy Number 13, disguised as a parson aboard an ocean liner bound for Europe. In Porter's Leave It to Me (1938), Moore played the American ambassador to Russia, Alonzo P. ("Stinky") Goodhue, whose only desire is to return home to Topeka. This inept innocent kicks the Nazi ambassador and shoots a Soviet counterrevolutionary in an undiplomatic attempt to get recalled from his post. Only after his transparently noble deed - proposing a united Europe - is there sufficient provocation for dismissal.
In Louisiana Purchase (1940), a musical comedy about political corruption, Moore's performance as Senator Loganberry led John Mason Brown of the New York Post to observe that, while Moore tended to confine himself to the same kind of roles, a change in the American form of government would almost be preferable to a change in Moore's comic persona. Moore in fact extended his range somewhat more fully than Brown's whimsical praise indicated.
His subsidiary career in Hollywood, which began in 1915, was more varied than the depiction of politicians. He made five films for Samuel Goldwyn in the 1930's. But in Hollywood too his specialty remained comedy, including his final two films, We're Not Married (1952) and The Seven Year Itch (1955). Moore gave one of his most droll and memorable performances as Gramps in Paul Osborn's Broadway drama, On Borrowed Time (1938). Moore also appeared in Hollywood Pinafore (1945) and Nelly Bly (1946).
Moore's last stage appearance was in a revival of Carousel at New York's City Center in 1957. In a musical pervaded with the presence of death, he played the heavenly Starkeeper, an eerie figure graced, in his interpretation, with gentleness and benevolence. The aged vaudeville clown had proved himself to be a very respectable character actor. Moore relied on economy of means to achieve his comic effects, getting attention by seeming not to seek it. His girth, popeyed naïveté, and constant awareness of misery were the theatrical attributes he chose to emphasize in generating laughter--although they prevented him from expanding his repertoire to include romance or tragedy. But within his range, Moore achieved unusual believability. Too ill to play Throttlebottom in a revival of Of Thee I Sing, Moore died in an actors' home on July 23, 1962, in East Islip, New York.
On June 23, 1903, Victor Moore married Emma N. Littlefield. They had three children.
Emma Moore died in 1934 and on January 16, 1942, Moore married a ballerina, Shirley Paige. They had no children.
