Wally Vernon

Wally Vernon was an American comic, character actor, and dancer who got his start in show business at the age of three, performing in vaudeville and stock theater. Born in New York City, he made his first Hollywood appearance in Mountain Music (1937) and went on to appear in more than 75 films, usually as a Brooklynese wiseguy or the assistant to the hero. In the late 1930s and early 1940s he was a regular presence in Twentieth Century Fox productions, among them Alexander's Ragtime Band (1938), in which he appeared as himself as an eccentric dancer. After leaving Fox he freelanced and became the sidekick of cowboy star Don Barry at Republic Pictures. Columbia producer Jules White teamed him with Eddie Quillan for slapstick comedies that ran through 1956, and his other credits included Charlie Chan at Treasure Island (1939), The Gorilla (1939), Tahiti Honey (1943), What Price Glory (1952), and What a Way to Go! (1964).