Eric Blore
Born in London, Eric Blore began his career as an insurance agent, but his passion for the stage led him to pursue acting. He started his career in traditional British comedy, starring in many shows and revues, and eventually made his way to Broadway in 1923.
Blore's breakthrough came in the 1930s, when he played comic roles in musical comedies and revues, and also received billing as a lyricist. He made his film debut in 1920 in British cinema, and later appeared in the US silent version of The Great Gatsby in 1926.
Blore's iconic role as a head waiter began with his first film, Flying Down to Rio in 1933, and he reprised the role in the stage version of The Gay Divorcee and the film version with Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers.
He perfected his basic comic characters, including a leering English gentleman, brusque/wise-acre butler or waiter, and other service provider, with a lockjawed British accent. These characters accompanied by Blore's flawlessly timed delivery were thoroughly applicable and effective as he moved permanently to Hollywood character acting.
Blore was very busy with movies from 1934 to the 1940s, appearing in five of the nine Fred and Ginger dance musicals, and also cast as valet/butler Jamison in the screen adaptations of the Wolfe Kaufman Lone Wolf mystery novel series.
He was also invited into the company of stock players ruled over by zany comedy director Preston Sturges, and appeared in two films for Sturges, including The Lady Eve in 1941.
Blore's parts started to become less frequent in the 1950s, but he enjoyed a variety of roles, including the opportunity of animation immortality when Disney chose him for the voice of Mr. Toad in the classic short The Wind in the Willows in 1949.
Blore essentially retired by 1955, but his death was prematurely announced by the New Yorker journalist Kenneth Tynan. His lawyer raised a flurry, as did the editor of the New Yorker, who claimed the periodical had never had to print a retraction. The night before the highly profiled retraction appeared, Blore indeed passed away.
