Biography for
Charles Butterworth More at IMDbPro »

Date of Birth

26 July 1896, South Bend, Indiana, USA

Date of Death

14 June 1946, Los Angeles, California, USA (road accident)

Mini Biography

Popular supporting actor in 1930's Hollywood, often portraying effete, waffling types, even though he was not a professional politician in real life.

IMDb Mini Biography By: Bill Takacs

Mini Biography

Charles Butterworth was, before he came to Hollywood in 1930, a stage attraction on Broadway. In the '30s he had his big successes as the hero's no-nonsense best friend. He made a practice of ad-libbing dry quips and bons mots during shooting, and screenwriters took advantage of this by writing only fragments of his scripts, hoping that he would fill in the missing lines. He didn't like that very much, however, and his star began sinking in the late '30s. In the '40s he worked for smaller studios; Warner's A production This Is the Army (1943) was a notable exception. Two years after his last movie, "Dixie Jamboree" for PRC, he died in a car crash.

IMDb Mini Biography By: Stephan Eichenberg

Spouse

Ethel Kenyon

(February 1932 - 1939) (divorced)

Trivia

Twenty years later, became the inspiration for cereal icon Cap'n Crunch.

Although his death in a single automobile crash was listed an accident, some say that Butterworth was extremely despondent over the death of close friend Robert Benchley a few months earlier and deliberately crashed his speeding car.

Buried in St. Joseph Valley cemetery in his hometown of South Bend, Indiana.

Was engaged to actress Natalie Schafer, who played Mrs. Thurston Howell III on "Gilligan's Island" (1964), at the time of his tragic death.

Close friends included fellow humorist Robert Benchley and Corey Ford.

Died of a fractured skull when he lost control of his speeding convertible on Sunset Boulevard and crashed into a lamp post.

Appeared in several jazz-age Broadway musicals, including "Allez Oop (1927), "Good Boy" (1928) and "Sweet Adeline" (1929), before making films.

A one-time news reporter for the Chicago American and New York Times, his talents as a writer were instrumental in establishing solid friendships with journalist Heywood Broun and humorist Frank Sullivan, who helped him find initial work on radio.

Graduated from Notre Dame's law school in 1924 and passed the bar but decided against a law career and moved into journalism.

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