Leon Errol

Background

He was born in Sydney, Australia, the son of Joseph Sims-Errol and Elizabeth Adams.

Education

Intended by his family for the medical profession, Errol was educated at St. Joseph's College and Sydney University.

His clowning, singing, and eccentric dancing in smokers at Sydney clubs won such applause that he soon abandoned his education to join an Australian vaudeville act at the Standard Theater in 1896.

Career

For a few years, Errol toured Australia and New Zealand in vaudeville, light opera, musical comedy, and revues. Around the turn of the century Errol came to San Francisco, where beer-hall patrons found his accent unintelligible but were charmed by the knockabout dancing that became his trademark.

His best-known impersonation was of an inebriated "swell" who rolled and tottered on legs seemingly made of rubber, his ankles always threatening to give way beneath him.

This classic creation took hold of the public's imagination and lingered as Errol's stock-in-trade throughout his career. Errol appeared in Salt Lake City with John Court's musical comedy stock company.

He then drifted into burlesque. Florenz Ziegfeld paid $15, 000 for his release from burlesque, and Errol first appeared as a star in the Ziegfeld Follies of 1911. He remained in the Follies annually until 1915, becoming partners with the black comedian Bert Williams.

In a variety of skits, Errol played a drunken aristocrat to Williams' servant. "Errol veered onto the stage, " Mabel Rowland recalled, "immaculately attired in evening clothes with a smart overcoat and opera hat and described convolutions which seemed likely to dislocate his spine. "

Errol appeared in A Winsome Widow (1912) at the Moulin Rouge in Paris and made his London debut in Joy Bells at the Hippodrome in 1919. He returned to the Broadway stage in Ziegfeld's production of Sally (1920).

Errol's other New York stage appearances included the Ziegfeld Midnight Frolic (1921), Louie the 14th (1925), Yours Truly (1927), Partners (1927), and Fioretta (1929). A devoted member of the Lambs Club, he appeared in their Gambols of 1925 and 1933. Errol was allegedly one of the first established stage personalities to appear in motion pictures.

Errol's film career began in earnest in 1924. Between 1930 and his death he appeared in about 100 films, most of them "two-reeler" short subjects.

His screen credits include Yolanda (1924), Sally (1925), Clothes Make the Pirate (1925), Only Saps Work (1930), One Heavenly Night (1931), We're Not Dressing (1934), The Notorious Sophie Lang (1934), Never Give a Sucker an Even Break (1941), Higher and Higher (1944), and The Noose Hangs High (1948).

In the Mexican Spitfire series (1940 - 1943) Errol played Lord Epping, "a beetle-browed, beefeating old duffer, with legs as brittle as peppermint sticks and a way of blowing his vowels through his fluffy mustache in a terrifying manner. "

Errol's film career was spent largely at R. K. O. , where he continued the slapstick art of which he had become an acknowledged master.

His buffo portrayals were marked by scowls or wide-eyed grimaces that stretched his long forehead, arching eyebrows, and bald pate. Errol continued to work until shortly before his death, in Hollywood, Calif.

The representative of a popular theatrical tradition, he illuminated the final days of American vaudeville and lent his unique touch to the forthright new art of the movies.

Achievements

• Leon Errol is well remembered for his energetic performances in the Mexican Spitfire movies opposite Lupe Vélez (1939–43), in which Errol had the recurring dual role of affable Uncle Matt and foggy British nobleman Lord Epping. Monogram signed Errol to appear as fight manager Knobby Walsh in the eight entries of their "Joe Palooka" sports comedies (1946–50). Leon Errol's most famous non-series appearance is in the nonsensical comedy feature Never Give a Sucker an Even Break (1941), starring fellow vaudeville and Ziegfeld alumnus W. C. Fields. On February 4, 1950, Errol appeared on television as a guest on The Ed Wynn Show, broadcast live to the West Coast on CBS (seen on kinescope film to the East and Midwest on February 18, 1950). Errol's next-to-last film, Lord Epping Returns in 1951, reprised his famous characterization (and some of the gags) from Mexican Spitfire.

Membership

He was a devoted member of the Lambs Club, he appeared in their Gambols of 1925 and 1933.

Personality

Quotes from others about the person

• Alexander Woollcott wrote, "It unleashes Leon Errol in his most comical mood. all last evening [his right leg] kept refusing to support him in the manner in which he had been accustomed. Naturally it hampers him in his earnest effort to dance a Russian ballet. . "

Connections

Around this time, he married Stella Chatelaine, a vaudeville dancer; they had no children.

Wife:

Stella Chatelaine

Friend:

Lionel Barrymore

At the urging of his friend Lionel Barrymore he made his debut in a 1915 film shot in a New Jersey warehouse--certain that he would be blackballed by stage producers if word of his defection to the movies leaked out.