Ninnian Joseph Ewell was a Scottish 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...

 comedian who starred in many films as a character actor

Character actor

A character actor is one who predominantly plays unusual or eccentric characters. The Oxford English Dictionary defines a character actor as "an actor who specializes in character parts", defining character part in turn as "an acting role displaying pronounced or unusual characteristics or...

. He was noted for his role in the "Jiggs and Maggie

Bringing up Father

Bringing Up Father was an influential American comic strip created by cartoonist George McManus . Distributed by King Features Syndicate, it ran for 87 years, from January 12, 1913 to May 28, 2000....

" film series.

Yule was born in the Polmadie

Polmadie

Polmadie is a district of Glasgow, a city in Scotland. Polmadie is situated south of the River Clyde, and adjacent to the Gorbals....

 district of Glasgow. As a child, he emigrated with his parents to the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 (circa 1900). He married Nellie W. Carter, who was from Kansas City, Missouri

Kansas City, Missouri

Kansas City, Missouri is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri and is the anchor city of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area, the second largest metropolitan area in Missouri. It encompasses in parts of Jackson, Clay, Cass, and Platte counties...

. Both were vaudeville actors, and were appearing together in a Brooklyn production of A Gaiety Girl

A Gaiety Girl

A Gaiety Girl is an English musical comedy in two acts by a team of musical comedy neophytes: Owen Hall , Harry Greenbank and Sidney Jones . It opened at Prince of Wales Theatre in London, produced by George Edwardes, on 14 October 1893 and ran for 413 performances. The show starred C...

when their son Joseph Yule, Jr., was born. Their son would later adopt the professional name Mickey Rooney

Mickey Rooney

Mickey Rooney is an American film actor and entertainer whose film, television, and stage appearances span nearly his entire lifetime. He has won multiple awards, including an Honorary Academy Award, a Golden Globe and an Emmy Award...

.

The Yules separated in 1924 during a slump in vaudeville, and in 1925, Nell Yule moved with her son to Hollywood. Yule died 25 years later from a heart attack

Myocardial infarction

Myocardial infarction or acute myocardial infarction , commonly known as a heart attack, results from the interruption of blood supply to a part of the heart, causing heart cells to die...

, aged 57.

Filmography

• Idiot's Delight (1939)
• Fast and Furious (1939)
• The Secret of Dr. Kildare
  Dr. Kildare
  Dr. James Kildare is a fictional character, the primary character in a series of American theatrical films in the late 1930s and early 1940s, an early 1950s radio series, a 1960s television series of the same name and a comic book based on the TV show, and a short-lived 1970s television series...
  
  (1939)
• Judge Hardy and Son (1939)
• New Moon (1940)
• Strike Up the Band (1940)
• Broadway Melody of 1940 (1940)
• Boom Town (1940)
• Florian (1940)
• Go West (1940)
• Forty Little Mothers (1940)
• The Wild Man of Borneo (1941)
• Sucker List (short, 1941)
• Come Live with Me (1941)
• The Trial of Mary Dugan (1941)
• Married Bachelor (1941)
• Maisie Was a Lady (1941)
• Kathleen (1941)
• I'll Wait for You (1941)
• Billy the Kid (1941)
• Babes on Broadway (1941)
• Woman of the Year (1942)
• Nazi Agent (1942)
• Calling Dr. Gillespie (1942)
• Mighty Lak a Goat (short, 1942)
• Famous Boners (short, 1942)
• Panama Hattie (1942)
• The Omaha Trail (1942)
• Jackass Mail
  Jackass Mail
  Jackass Mail is a 1942 Western comedy film starring Wallace Beery and Marjorie Main. The movie was directed by Norman Z. McLeod.-Cast:*Wallace Beery as Just Baggot*Marjorie Main as Tina Tucker*J...
  
  (1942)
• Born to Sing (1942)
• Presenting Lily Mars (1943)
• Swing Shift Maisie (1943)
• Lost Angel (1943)
• I Dood It (1943)
• Harrigan's Kid (1943)
• Air Raid Wardens (1943)
• Meet the People (1944)
• Radio Bugs
  Radio Bugs
  Radio Bugs is a 1944 Our Gang short comedy film directed by Cyril Endfield. It was the 218th Our Gang short to be released, and the third to last film in the series.-Plot:...
  
  (short, 1944)
• Kismet (1944)
• Nothing But Trouble (1944)
• Bringing Up Father
  Bringing up Father
  Bringing Up Father was an influential American comic strip created by cartoonist George McManus . Distributed by King Features Syndicate, it ran for 87 years, from January 12, 1913 to May 28, 2000....
  
  (1946)
• Murder in the Music Hall (1946)
• The Mighty McGurk
  The Mighty McGurk
  The Mighty McGurk is a 1947 film starring Wallace Beery as a boozing ex-boxer working as a bouncer in a Bowery saloon. The movie was directed by John Waters, although not the same John Waters who directed Pink Flamingos and Hairspray .-Cast:*Wallace Beery as Slag McGurk*Dean Stockwell as...
  
  (1946)
• Jiggs and Maggie in Court (1948)
• Jiggs and Maggie in Jackpot Jitters (1949)
• Jiggs and Maggie Out West (1950)

External links