Harold Peary

Harold Peary was an American actor, comedian, and singer who worked in radio, film, television, and animation. Born in San Leandro, California, he started in local radio and had his own singing show, The Spanish Serenader, in San Francisco before moving to Chicago in 1935. There he performed regularly on Fibber McGee and Molly and created the pompous Gildersleeve character in 1938. The role spun off into The Great Gildersleeve, which premiered in 1941 and became a steady hit, and led to four Gildersleeve feature films in the 1940s. In 1951, California governor Earl Warren honored him for completing his 10,000th radio broadcast. Peary appeared in Seven Days' Leave (1942) and later in Elvis Presley's Clambake (1967). In the 1970s he voiced Big Ben in Rudolph's Shiny New Year (1976) and Rudolph and Frosty's Christmas in July (1979), his final acting credit. He died in 1985.