Willie Best

Acting · 1.8 popularity

Age

113

Movies

118

Born: May 27, 1913 – November 27, 1962
From: Sunflower, Mississippi, USA

Biography

William “Willie” Best (May 27, 1916 - February 27, 1962), sometimes known as “Sleep n' Eat,” was an American television and film actor. Best was one of the first African-American film actors and comedians to become well known. In the 21st century, his work, like that of Stepin Fetchit, is sometimes reviled because he was often called upon to play stereotypically lazy, illiterate, and/or simple-minded characters in films. Of the 124 films he appeared in, he received screen credit in at least 77, an unusual feat for an African-American bit player. Willie Best appeared in more than one hundred films of the 1930s and 1940s. Although several sources state that for years he was billed only as “Sleep n' Eat,” Best received credit under this moniker instead of his real name in only six movies: his first film as a bit player (Harold Lloyd's Feet First) and in Up Pops the Devil (1931), The Monster Walks (1932), Kentucky Kernels and West of the Pecos (both 1934), and Murder on a Honeymoon (1935). Best was first loved as a great clown, then later in the 20th century reviled and pitied, before being forgotten in the history of film. Hal Roach called him one of the greatest talents he had ever met. Comedian Bob Hope similarly acclaimed him as “the best actor I know,” while the two were working together in 1940 on The Ghost Breakers. As a supporting actor, Best, like many black actors of his era, was regularly cast in domestic worker or service-oriented roles (though a few times he played the role echoing his previous occupation as a private chauffeur). He was often seen making a brief comic turn as a hotel, airline or train porter, as well as an elevator operator, custodian, butler, valet, waiter, deliveryman, and at least once as a launch pilot (in the 1939 movie Mr. Moto in Danger Island). Willie Best received screen credit most of the time, which was unusual for “bit players,” most in the 1930s and '40s were not accorded due credit. This also happened to white actors in small roles, but black actors were not credited even when their roles were larger. In more than 80 of his movies, he was given a proper character name (as opposed to simple descriptions such as “room service waiter” or “shoe-shine boy”), beginning with his second film. Best played “Chattanooga Brown” in two Charlie Chan films —The Red Dragon in 1945 and Dangerous Money in 1946. He also played the character of “Hipp” in three of RKO’s six Scattergood Baines films with Guy Kibbee: Scattergood Baines (1941), Scattergood Survives a Murder (1942), and Cinderella Swings It in 1943. (Actor Paul White, who played a young version of Best’s “Hipp” in the first film, went on to play “Hipp” in the next three films. Best returned to the role in the last two.) After a drug arrest ended his film career, he worked in television for a while and became known to early TV audiences as “Charlie the Elevator Operator” on CBS's My Little Margie, from 1953 to 1955. He also played Willie, the house servant, handyman and close friend of the title character of ABC’s The Trouble with Father, for its entire run from 1950 to 1955.

Works

118 films

The Ghost Breakers

19406.5

High Sierra

19417.1

Blondie

19387.0

Ladies of Leisure

19306.2

Vivacious Lady

19387.0

Breakdowns of 1941

19417.0

Dixie

19435.0

Racing Lady

19376.0

At the Circus

19396.4

The Adventures of Mark Twain

19447.0

Beyond Tara: The Extraordinary Life of Hattie McDaniel

2001

Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?

19756.3

Bob Hope's World of Comedy

1976

The Littlest Rebel

19356.4

Nothing but the Truth

19417.3

Gold Is Where You Find It

19387.0

Cabin in the Sky

19436.5

Night Waitress

19366.4

Virtuous Husband

19318.0

TV in Black: The First Fifty Years

20045.3

Mr. Moto in Danger Island

19396.7

Hold That Blonde!

19456.3

Way Down South

19396.4

A-Haunting We Will Go

19426.2

Hot Tip

19357.0

The Shanghai Chest

19486.6

Highway West

19416.6

Thank Your Lucky Stars

19436.2

Merrily We Live

19386.9

Up Pops the Devil

19315.0

You Can't Buy Luck

19374.7

Juke Girl

19427.2

Little Miss Marker

19346.5

The Kansan

19436.0

Mummy's Boys

19365.0

Blackmail

19396.9

Busses Roar

19426.6

Super-Sleuth

19375.6

The Mark of the Whistler

19446.2

Thank You, Jeeves!

19366.4

Money and the Woman

19404.4

The Hidden Hand

19426.7

The Powers Girl

19437.0

Kentucky Kernels

19346.4

The Body Disappears

19416.1

The Red Stallion

194710.0

Nancy Drew... Trouble Shooter

19396.2

Muss 'em Up

19366.2

We Who Are About to Die

19377.0

Meet the Missus

19376.5

Everybody's Doing It

19386.0

The Bride Walks Out

19365.4

The Green Pastures

19366.3

Private Detective

19396.8

Feet First

19306.7

Murder on a Bridle Path

19365.4

The Lady from Cheyenne

19415.7

Blondie on a Budget

19406.2

Pillow to Post

19455.5

Blondie Brings Up Baby

19396.9

Horse Heir

1935

Mr. Moto Takes a Vacation

19396.6

The Saint Strikes Back

19395.8

Ellis in Freedomland

1952

Home in Indiana

19445.9

The Bride Wore Boots

19466.1

Dangerous Money

19465.9

I Take This Woman

19405.8

Saturday's Heroes

19378.0

Flight from Destiny

19415.8

Cinderella Swings It

19439.0

Silly Billies

19368.5

South of Caliente

19519.0

Scattergood Survives a Murder

19425.9

Straight, Place and Show

19387.0

The Girl Who Dared

19446.1

The Nitwits

19356.7

Meet the O'Briens

1954

Music for Millions

19446.7

Slightly Honorable

19395.1

The Guilty Generation

19316.2

Harold Lloyd's World of Comedy

19627.3

Whispering Ghosts

19426.8

The Smiling Ghost

19416.7

Kisses for Breakfast

19416.3

Maisie Gets Her Man

19426.7

The Monster and the Ape

19456.8

Murder on a Honeymoon

19356.5

The Monster Walks

19324.2

Two in Revolt

19367.0

General Spanky

19365.7

The Arizonian

19358.0

Scattergood Baines

19417.0

Half Past Midnight

19487.0

Youth Takes a Fling

19385.5

The Covered Trailer

19397.0

Goodbye Broadway

193810.0

Crashing Hollywood

19386.0

Road Show

19415.6

The Red Dragon

19456.6

Breezing Home

19376.0

The Face of Marble

19464.6

Spring Madness

19384.9

Suddenly It's Spring

19474.3

Hit and Rum

19357.0

Down the Stretch

19366.0

I'm from the City

19387.0

West of the Pecos

19347.0

Who Killed Aunt Maggie?

19405.5

Jalna

19355.1

She Wouldn't Say Yes

19456.4

Mississippi Moods

193710.0

The Lady Fights Back

19377.0

To Beat the Band

193510.0

Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy of Company "B"

19416.6

Minstrel Days

19417.0

Deep South

19377.3

Raised and Called

1935