Ian Wolfe(1896-1992)
- Actor
- Soundtrack
Respected character actor whose on-screen work included everything from
Shakespeare to Dick Tracy (1990) (his last film). After a long apprenticeship in
the theatre, the 38-year-old Wolfe finally debuted in films in The Barretts of Wimpole Street (1934),
recreating his Broadway role. He then toiled away steadily in Hollywood
for the next several decades, working as a supporting player in
literally hundreds of film and TV productions well into his 90s. Though
capable of a wide range of parts, Wolfe's gentle, patrician manner
found him most often cast as a butler, a minister or a kindly doctor.
He finally gained his greatest fame at the age of 85, effortlessly
stealing scenes as Mama Carlson's doddering yet feisty butler "Hirsch"
in several episodes of the MTM sitcom WKRP in Cincinnati (1978).
