Jimmy Durante
2 credits on HibingeTV
American singer, pianist, comedian, and actor (1893-1980) known for his gravelly voice, mangling of the English language, and trademark large nose (which he joked about with "Ha-cha-cha-cha!"). He began in vaudeville and nightclubs before moving to films, appearing alongside Buster Keaton in Speak Easily (1932) and The Passionate Plumber (1932). He had a long career in radio, television, and film, and his recording of "Make Someone Happy" became a late-career hit.
Acted In
Comedy
A Buster Keaton sound comedy directed by Edward Sedgwick for MGM, co-starring Jimmy Durante and Thelma Todd. Keaton plays a sheltered professor who inherits a fortune and, believing he has only months to live, joins a traveling musical show to experience life. Durante plays the show's manager, and Todd is the performer who catches the professor's eye. The film pairs Keaton's deadpan physical comedy with Durante's manic energy, an MGM attempt to replicate the comedy-duo formula. While Keaton's creative control was limited under MGM, the film features some fine physical sequences and the contrast between the two comedians' styles is genuinely funny. The film is in the public domain.
Comedy
Speak Easily
1932 - as Pagggy
Family, Comedy
Jimmy Durante leads a down-on-their-luck vaudeville family whose Christmas turns around when Rupert, a trained squirrel, starts retrieving cash their miserly landlord has hidden inside a wall. Produced by George Pal — later famous for The War of the Worlds — with Rupert brought to life through Pal's signature stop-motion Puppetoon animation. Directed by Irving Pichel, the film blends holiday comedy with a gentle satire on sudden wealth. It is in the public domain through non-renewal of copyright, and later reissued in colorized form as A Christmas Wish.
Family · Comedy
The Great Rupert
1950 - as Mr. Louie Amendola