Wallace Ford

Attractive, amiable character actor who specialized in charming ne'er-do-well's. After a Dickensian childhood (a London orphanage, 17 Canadian foster homes), Ford entered vaudeville as a teen and eventually appeared in more than a dozen Broadway plays. His more notable stage works were "Seventeen," the critically-derided hit "Abie's Irish Rose," "Come Back, Little Sheba" and as George in "Of Mice and Men." Ford made his film bow in 1931 and racked up an impressive resume of more than 100 films, mostly in small supporting roles. Freelancing both for major studios like MGM, Paramount and UA and Poverty Row houses like Monogram, Puritan and Republic, he labored through a good number of forgettable bombs. But Ford also turned in delightful performances in such well-regarded films as Joan Crawford's "Possessed" (1931), the horror classic "Freaks" (1932), the delightful screwballer "Three Cornered Moon" (1933), "The Informer" (1935), "Blues in the Night" (1941), "Spellbound" (1945), "Harvey" (1950), "The Rainmaker" (1956) and his last film, "A Patch of Blue" (1965).