It seemed like Edward Everett Horton appeared in just about every
Hollywood comedy made in the 1930s. He was always the perfect
counterpart to the great gentlemen and protagonists of the films.
Horton was born in Brooklyn, New York City, to Isabella S. (Diack) and Edward Everett Horton, a compositor for the NY Times. His maternal grandparents were Scottish and his father was of English and German ancestry. Like
many of his contemporaries, Horton came to the movies from the theatre,
where he debuted in 1906. He made his film debut in 1922. Unlike many
of his silent-film colleagues, however, Horton had no problems in
adapting to the sound, despite--or perhaps because of--his crackling
voice. From 1932 to 1938 he worked often with
Ernst Lubitsch, and later with
Frank Capra. He has appeared in more than
120 films, in addition to a large body of work on TV, among which was
the befuddled Hekawi medicine man Roaring Chicken on the western comedy
F Troop (1965).
