Wylie Watson(1889-1966)
- Actor
Diminutive Scottish character player with trademark neatly-trimmed
moustache, upturned at the ends, who began as a juvenile soprano
vocalist in the late 1890's with a family variety act. At one time he
performed 15 times daily at a waxworks ! Watson didn't start in films
until 1929, when 'discovered' in Hollywood while on an American
vacation. His stay in the U.S. was cut short, however, and after one
small film role he returned to England to become one of the
'versatiles', adept at playing an assortment of archetypal Britishers,
often shifty or cunning, sometimes officious, weak or hen-pecked.
Without doubt, one of his best roles was that of
'Mr.Memory' in Alfred Hitchcock's
The 39 Steps (1935), who claimed
that he stored fifty new facts in his brain every day. Though a small
part, it was acted with pathos and integral to the unfolding of the
plot. Watson also gave good value for money as a small-time crook, one
of Richard Attenborough's nasty
little razor gang, in
Brighton Rock (1948); and as the
devious, ever manipulative storekeeper, Joseph Macroon, in Ealing's
Whisky Galore! (1949). An
adroitness at comedy Watson had already shown way back in the wartime
educational short (warning against the dangers of ignoring blackout
ordinances),
Mr. Proudfoot Shows a Light (1941),
where his billiard-playing antics are rudely - and to comic effect -
interrupted by a German bomb.
Wylie Watson retired from acting in 1952 (except for a small part in
Fred Zinnemann's
The Sundowners (1960)) and
emigrated to Australia, where he died in May 1966.
moustache, upturned at the ends, who began as a juvenile soprano
vocalist in the late 1890's with a family variety act. At one time he
performed 15 times daily at a waxworks ! Watson didn't start in films
until 1929, when 'discovered' in Hollywood while on an American
vacation. His stay in the U.S. was cut short, however, and after one
small film role he returned to England to become one of the
'versatiles', adept at playing an assortment of archetypal Britishers,
often shifty or cunning, sometimes officious, weak or hen-pecked.
Without doubt, one of his best roles was that of
'Mr.Memory' in Alfred Hitchcock's
The 39 Steps (1935), who claimed
that he stored fifty new facts in his brain every day. Though a small
part, it was acted with pathos and integral to the unfolding of the
plot. Watson also gave good value for money as a small-time crook, one
of Richard Attenborough's nasty
little razor gang, in
Brighton Rock (1948); and as the
devious, ever manipulative storekeeper, Joseph Macroon, in Ealing's
Whisky Galore! (1949). An
adroitness at comedy Watson had already shown way back in the wartime
educational short (warning against the dangers of ignoring blackout
ordinances),
Mr. Proudfoot Shows a Light (1941),
where his billiard-playing antics are rudely - and to comic effect -
interrupted by a German bomb.
Wylie Watson retired from acting in 1952 (except for a small part in
Fred Zinnemann's
The Sundowners (1960)) and
emigrated to Australia, where he died in May 1966.