Fred Sanborn

Fred Sanborn (November 23, 1899 – March 9, 1961) was an American vaudeville performer, actor, and musician. He was most notable as a member of Ted Healy's comedy troupe Ted Healy and his Southern Gentlemen (a group which included the trio that became the famous Three Stooges).

Sanborn was frequently featured in the group's early vaudeville acts, as well as their 1929 Broadway show, A Night in Venice (the first of Sanborn's three Broadway musicals/revues). However, after starring with Healy, Moe Howard, Larry Fine, and Shemp Howard in the Rube Goldberg film Soup to Nuts—for which Sanborn also wrote a song—he left the group, preferring to concentrate on his music rather than become known as a "Healyite".^[1] Sanborn's character was a quasi-Chaplinesque little fellow (completely with the lopsided walk) who is never heard speaking, preferring to whisper in other characters' ears while waggling his thick eyebrows. He popped up in films sporadically throughout the 1930s-1940s- two with Olsen and Johnson- often in small, unspeaking comedy roles; a rare exception was his final film, the 1945 musical comedy Night Club Girl, in which he acts as an emcee and does have several lines (in addition to doing his xylophone routine).

His last film/TV performance was as a comedian on The Ed Wynn Show in 1950.

Filmography

References

External links

• Fred Sanborn at the Internet Movie Database
• Fred Sanborn at the Internet Broadway Database