Fred Sanborn

FRED SANBORN d1961. 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). He was frequently featured in the group's early vaudeville acts, as well as their 1929 Broadway show (A Night in Venice). However, after starring with Healy, Moe Howard, Larry Fine and Shemp Howard in the Rube Goldberg film Soup to Nuts (for which he also wrote a song) he left the group, preferring to concentrate on his music rather than become known as a "Healyite". His character was a quasi-Chaplinesque little fellow (complete 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 1930-40s (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. He died in California aged 61 on March 9th 1961