Charles Butterworth was an American actor specializing in comedy roles, often in musicals. In his obituary, he was described as "the man who could not make up his mind". Butterworth's distinct voice was the inspiration for the Cap'n Crunch

Cap'n Crunch

Cap'n Crunch is a product line of sweetened corn and oat breakfast cereals introduced in 1963 and manufactured by Quaker Oats Company. Quaker Oats has been a division of PepsiCo since 2001. The product line is heralded by a cartoon mascot named Cap'n Crunch, a sea captain .-Development:Pamela Low,...

 commercials from the Jay Ward

Jay Ward

J Troplong "Jay" Ward was an American creator and producer of animated television cartoons. He produced animated series based on such characters as Crusader Rabbit, Rocky & Bullwinkle, Dudley Do-Right, Peabody and Sherman, Hoppity Hooper, George of the Jungle, Tom Slick, and Super Chicken...

 studio. Voice actor Daws Butler

Daws Butler

Charles Dawson "Daws" Butler was a voice actor originally from Toledo, Ohio. He worked mostly for Hanna-Barbera and originated the voices of many famous animated cartoon characters, including Yogi Bear, Quick Draw McGraw, Snagglepuss, and Huckleberry Hound.Daws Butler trained many working actors...

 based Cap'n Crunch on the voice of Butterworth.

Career

He once worked on a newspaper but was fired and then rehired when it was found out that he was courting the daughter of a big local advertiser. He also worked in the legal profession before going on stage and becoming a comedian in vaudeville

Vaudeville

Vaudeville was a theatrical genre of variety entertainment in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. Each performance was made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill...

 in 1924.

Butterworth's most memorable film role was in the Irving Berlin

Irving Berlin

Irving Berlin was an American composer and lyricist of Jewish heritage, widely considered one of the greatest songwriters in American history.His first hit song, "Alexander's Ragtime Band", became world famous...

 musical This is the Army

This Is the Army

This Is the Army is a 1943 American wartime motion picture produced by Hal B. Wallis and Jack L. Warner, and directed by Michael Curtiz, and a wartime musical designed to boost morale in the U.S. during World War II, directed by Sgt. Ezra Stone...

(1943) as the bugle-playing Private Eddie Dibble. He generally was a supporting actor, e.g., to Mae West

Mae West

Mae West was an American actress, playwright, screenwriter and sex symbol whose entertainment career spanned seven decades....

 in Every Day's a Holiday; to the Andrews Sisters in What's Cookin'?

What's Cookin'?

What's Cookin'? is a 1942 American musical film starring The Andrews Sisters, Jane Frazee, Robert Paige and Gloria Jean. The film was directed by Edward F. Cline and is based on the story Wake Up and Dream written by Edgar Allan Woolf.-Plot:...

, Give out, Sisters, and Always a Bridesmaid; to Jeanette MacDonald

Jeanette MacDonald

Jeanette MacDonald was an American singer and actress best remembered for her musical films of the 1930s with Maurice Chevalier and Nelson Eddy...

 in The Cat and the Fiddle and Love Me Tonight

Love Me Tonight

Love Me Tonight is a 1932 musical comedy film produced and directed by Rouben Mamoulian, with music by Rodgers and Hart. It stars Maurice Chevalier as a tailor who poses as a nobleman and Jeanette MacDonald as a princess with whom he falls in love...

; to Myrna Loy

Myrna Loy

Myrna Loy was an American actress. Trained as a dancer, she devoted herself fully to an acting career following a few minor roles in silent films. Originally typecast in exotic roles, often as a vamp or a woman of Asian descent, her career prospects improved following her portrayal of Nora Charles...

 in Penthouse

Penthouse (film)

Penthouse is a 1933 black-and-white crime film starring Warner Baxter as a lawyer whose clients are less than upright and Myrna Loy as a call girl who helps him with a murder case....

; to Lew Ayres

Lew Ayres

Lew Ayres was an American actor, best known for starring as Paul in All Quiet on the Western Front and for playing Dr...

 in My Weakness; to Laurel and Hardy

Laurel and Hardy

Laurel and Hardy were one of the most popular and critically acclaimed comedy double acts of the early Classical Hollywood era of American cinema...

 and Jimmy Durante

Jimmy Durante

James Francis "Jimmy" Durante was an American singer, pianist, comedian and actor. His distinctive clipped gravelly speech, comic language butchery, jazz-influenced songs, and large nose helped make him one of America's most familiar and popular personalities of the 1920s through the 1970s...

 in Hollywood Party

Hollywood Party (1934 film)

Hollywood Party is a musical film starring Jimmy Durante. It was distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The film had no director credited, although it has been asserted that Richard Boleslawski, Allan Dwan, Edmund Goulding, Russell Mack, Charles Reisner, Roy Rowland, George Stevens and Sam Wood...

; to Clark Gable

Clark Gable

William Clark Gable , known as Clark Gable, was an American film actor most famous for his role as Rhett Butler in the 1939 Civil War epic film Gone with the Wind, in which he starred with Vivien Leigh...

, Robert Montgomery

Robert Montgomery (actor)

Robert Montgomery was an American actor and director.- Early life :Montgomery was born Henry Montgomery, Jr. in Beacon, New York, then known as "Fishkill Landing", the son of Mary Weed and Henry Montgomery, Sr. His early childhood was one of privilege, since his father was president of the New...

, and Joan Crawford

Joan Crawford

Joan Crawford , born Lucille Fay LeSueur, was an American actress in film, television and theatre....

 in Forsaking All Others

Forsaking All Others

Forsaking All Others is a 1934 American romantic comedy-drama film directed by W.S. Van Dyke, and starring Joan Crawford, Clark Gable and Robert Montgomery. In this "comedy of errors", three friends of long-standing are involved in a love triangle. The screenplay was written by Joseph L....

; to Irene Dunne

Irene Dunne

Irene Dunne was an American film actress and singer of the 1930s, 1940s and early 1950s. Dunne was nominated five times for the Academy Award for Best Actress, for her performances in Cimarron , Theodora Goes Wild , The Awful Truth , Love Affair and I Remember Mama...

 and Robert Taylor

Robert Taylor (actor)

Robert Taylor was an American film and television actor.-Early life:Born Spangler Arlington Brugh in Filley, Nebraska, he was the son of Ruth Adaline and Spangler Andrew Brugh, who was a farmer turned doctor...

 in Magnificent Obsession

Magnificent Obsession

Magnificent Obsession is a 1929 novel by Lloyd C. Douglas. It was one of four of his books that were eventually made into blockbuster motion pictures, the other three being The Robe, White Banners and The Big Fisherman.-Plot summary:...

; to Carole Lombard

Carole Lombard

Carole Lombard was an American actress. She was particularly noted for her comedic roles in the screwball comedies of the 1930s...

 and Fred MacMurray

Fred MacMurray

Frederick Martin "Fred" MacMurray was an American actor who appeared in more than 100 movies and a successful television series during a career that spanned nearly a half-century, from 1930 to the 1970s....

 in Swing High, Swing Low

Swing High, Swing Low (film)

Swing High, Swing Low is a 1937 American romantic musical film starring Carole Lombard and Fred MacMurray.This is the second film adaptation, after The Dance of Life and before When My Baby Smiles at Me , of the popular Broadway play Burlesque, by George Manker Watters and Arthur Hopkins.-Cast:*...

; to Bob Hope

Bob Hope

Bob Hope, KBE, KCSG, KSS was a British-born American comedian and actor who appeared in vaudeville, on Broadway, and in radio, television and movies. He was also noted for his work with the US Armed Forces and his numerous USO shows entertaining American military personnel...

 in Thanks for the Memory

Thanks for the Memory

"Thanks for the Memory" is a popular song, with music composed by Ralph Rainger and lyrics by Leo Robin. It was introduced in the 1938 film The Big Broadcast of 1938 by Shep Fields and His Orchestra with vocals by Bob Hope and Shirley Ross...

; and to Fred Astaire

Fred Astaire

Fred Astaire was an American film and Broadway stage dancer, choreographer, singer and actor. His stage and subsequent film career spanned a total of 76 years, during which he made 31 musical films. He was named the fifth Greatest Male Star of All Time by the American Film Institute...

, Paulette Goddard

Paulette Goddard

Paulette Goddard was an American film and theatre actress. A former child fashion model and in several Broadway productions as Ziegfeld Girl, she was a major star of the Paramount Studio in the 1940s. She was married to several notable men, including Charlie Chaplin, Burgess Meredith, and Erich...

, and Burgess Meredith

Burgess Meredith

Oliver Burgess Meredith , known professionally as Burgess Meredith, was an American actor in theatre, film, and television, who also worked as a director...

 in Second Chorus

Second Chorus

Second Chorus is a Hollywood musical comedy film starring Fred Astaire, Burgess Meredith, Paulette Goddard, Artie Shaw, and Charles Butterworth, with music by Artie Shaw, Bernie Hanighen, Hal Borne and lyrics by Johnny Mercer. The film was directed by H. C...

. However, he had top billing in We Went to College (1936), played the title role in Baby Face Harrington (1935), and shared top billing (as the Sultan) with Ann Corio

Ann Corio

Ann Corio was a prominent American burlesque ecdysiast and actress. Unlike others in her profession, Ann Corio did not have a stage name.- Biography :...

 in The Sultan's Daughter (1944).

He is credited with the quip "Why don't you slip out of those wet clothes and into a dry martini?" from Every Day's a Holiday. In Forsaking All Others, when Clark Gable

Clark Gable

William Clark Gable , known as Clark Gable, was an American film actor most famous for his role as Rhett Butler in the 1939 Civil War epic film Gone with the Wind, in which he starred with Vivien Leigh...

, quoting Benjamin Franklin

Benjamin Franklin

Dr. Benjamin Franklin was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. A noted polymath, Franklin was a leading author, printer, political theorist, politician, postmaster, scientist, musician, inventor, satirist, civic activist, statesman, and diplomat...

, said, "Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise," Butterworth replied, "Ever take a good look at a milkman?"

Death

Butterworth was killed in an automobile accident on June 13, 1946, when he lost control of his car on Sunset Boulevard

Sunset Boulevard

Sunset Boulevard is a street in the western part of Los Angeles County, California, that stretches from Figueroa Street in downtown Los Angeles to the Pacific Coast Highway at the Pacific Ocean in the Pacific Palisades...

 in Los Angeles and crashed. For his contribution to the motion picture industry, Charles Butterworth has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame

Hollywood Walk of Fame

The Hollywood Walk of Fame consists of more than 2,400 five-pointed terrazzo and brass stars embedded in the sidewalks along fifteen blocks of Hollywood Boulevard and three blocks of Vine Street in Hollywood, California...

 at 7030 Hollywood Blvd.

Filmography

Year	Title	Role	Other notes
1929	Vital Subjects		Short subject
1930	Ladies of Leisure	Party Guest	Uncredited
	The Life of the Party The Life of the Party (1930 film) The Life of the Party is a 1930 American musical comedy film photographed entirely in Technicolor. The musical numbers of this film were cut out before general release in the United States because the public had grown tired of musicals by late 1930. Only one song was left in the picture...	Col. Joy
1931	Illicit	George Evans
	The Bargain	Geoffrey
	Side Show Side Show (film) Side Show is a 1931 all-talking musical comedy film starring Winnie Lightner and Charles Butterworth and released by Warner Bros.-Production:...	Sidney
	The Mad Genius The Mad Genius The Mad Genius is a drama film directed by Michael Curtiz and starring John Barrymore, Marian Marsh, Donald Cook, Charles Butterworth, and in small roles, Boris Karloff and Frankie Darro. The film is based on the play The Idol by Martin Brown, which opened in Great Neck, New York but never opened...	Karimsky
	Manhattan Parade Manhattan Parade (film) Manhattan Parade is a 1931 musical comedy film photographed entirely in Technicolor. It was originally intended to be released, in the United States, early in 1931, but was shelved due to public apathy towards musicals. Despite waiting a number of months, the public proved obstinate and the Warner...	Herbert T. Herbert
1932	Beauty and the Boss	Ludwig Pfeffer, Jr.
	Love Me Tonight Love Me Tonight Love Me Tonight is a 1932 musical comedy film produced and directed by Rouben Mamoulian, with music by Rodgers and Hart. It stars Maurice Chevalier as a tailor who poses as a nobleman and Jeanette MacDonald as a princess with whom he falls in love...	Count de Savignac
1933	The Nuisance	Floppy Phil Montague
	Penthouse Penthouse (film) Penthouse is a 1933 black-and-white crime film starring Warner Baxter as a lawyer whose clients are less than upright and Myrna Loy as a call girl who helps him with a murder case....	Layton	Alternative title: Crooks in Clover
	My Weakness	Gerald Gregory
1934	The Cat and the Fiddle	Charles
	Hollywood Party Hollywood Party (1934 film) Hollywood Party is a musical film starring Jimmy Durante. It was distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The film had no director credited, although it has been asserted that Richard Boleslawski, Allan Dwan, Edmund Goulding, Russell Mack, Charles Reisner, Roy Rowland, George Stevens and Sam Wood...	Harvey Clemp
	Bulldog Drummond Strikes Back Bulldog Drummond Strikes Back Bulldog Drummond Strikes Back is a 1934 American comedy-mystery-adventure film directed by Roy Del Ruth. The film stars Ronald Colman and Loretta Young.-Plot:...	Algy Longworth/Mousey
	Student Tour	Professor Lippincott
	Forsaking All Others Forsaking All Others Forsaking All Others is a 1934 American romantic comedy-drama film directed by W.S. Van Dyke, and starring Joan Crawford, Clark Gable and Robert Montgomery. In this "comedy of errors", three friends of long-standing are involved in a love triangle. The screenplay was written by Joseph L....	Shemp "Shempy"
1935	The Night Is Young	Willy Fitch
	Baby Face Harrington	Willie Harrington
	Orchids to You	Teddy Stuyvesant
	Magnificent Obsession Magnificent Obsession (1935 film) Magnificent Obsession is a 1935 drama film based on a book of the same name by Lloyd C. Douglas. It was adapted by Sarah Y. Mason, Victor Heerman, and George O'Neil, and directed by John M. Stahl...	Tommy Masterson
1936	The Moon's Our Home The Moon's Our Home -Plot summary:A comedy about marriage and everything relating to it. A New York novelist Henry Fonda meets up with an actress, Margaret Sullavan, and the two date and later marry, though neither knows of the other's fame...	Horace Van Steedan
	Half Angel	Felix
	We Went to College	Glenn Harvey	Alternative title: The Old School Tie
	Rainbow on the River	Barrett	Alternative title: It Happened In New Orleans
1937	Swing High, Swing Low Swing High, Swing Low (film) Swing High, Swing Low is a 1937 American romantic musical film starring Carole Lombard and Fred MacMurray.This is the second film adaptation, after The Dance of Life and before When My Baby Smiles at Me , of the popular Broadway play Burlesque, by George Manker Watters and Arthur Hopkins.-Cast:*...	Harry
	Every Day's a Holiday	Larmadou Graves
1938	Thanks for the Memory Thanks for the Memory (1938 film) Thanks for the Memory is a 1938 film starring Bob Hope and Shirley Ross, and directed by George Archainbaud. The title is from the song that later became Hope's theme, which first appeared in The Big Broadcast of 1938 earlier the same year...	Biney
1939	Let Freedom Ring	The Mackerel	Alternative title: Song of the Plains
1940	The Boys from Syracuse The Boys from Syracuse (film) The Boys from Syracuse is a 1940 musical film directed by A. Edward Sutherland, based on a stage musical by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart, which in turn was based on the play The Comedy of Errors by William Shakespeare...	Duke of Ephesus
	1940	Second Chorus Second Chorus Second Chorus is a Hollywood musical comedy film starring Fred Astaire, Burgess Meredith, Paulette Goddard, Artie Shaw, and Charles Butterworth, with music by Artie Shaw, Bernie Hanighen, Hal Borne and lyrics by Johnny Mercer. The film was directed by H. C...	J. Lester Chisholm
1941	There's Nothing to It
	Blonde Inspiration	"Bittsy" Conway
	Road Show	Harry Whitman
	Sis Hopkins	Horace Hopkins
1942	What's Cookin'? What's Cookin'? What's Cookin'? is a 1942 American musical film starring The Andrews Sisters, Jane Frazee, Robert Paige and Gloria Jean. The film was directed by Edward F. Cline and is based on the story Wake Up and Dream written by Edgar Allan Woolf.-Plot:...	J. P. Courtney	Alternative title: Wake Up and Dream
	Night in New Orleans	Edward Wallace
	Give Out, Sisters	Professor Woof
1943	This Is the Army This Is the Army This Is the Army is a 1943 American wartime motion picture produced by Hal B. Wallis and Jack L. Warner, and directed by Michael Curtiz, and a wartime musical designed to boost morale in the U.S. during World War II, directed by Sgt. Ezra Stone...	Eddie Dibble
	Always a Bridesmaid	Colonel Winchester
1944	The Sultan's Daughter	Sultan
	Follow the Boys Follow the Boys Follow the Boys , also known as Three Cheers for the Boys, is a musical film made by Universal Pictures as an all-star cast morale booster to entertain the troops abroad and the civilians at home. The film was directed by A. Edward "Eddie" Sutherland and produced by Charles K. Feldman...	Louie Fairweather
	Bermuda Mystery	Dr. Tilford
	Dixie Jamboree	Professor

External links