Jack Oakie

 "America's Joyboy," beefy, plump-faced comedian Jack Oakie, was one of the funniest top and second banana jokesters of stage, radio and especially film's "Golden Age." He would accomplish so much despite the fact that he was functionally deaf throughout his career and performed primarily with the aid of lip reading or vibrations.

The stories vary on how he became deaf -- scarlet fever at age 9, a Wall Street building explosion where he worked -- but, whatever the case, it seems a minor miracle that he managed to become a performing success not only for his famous "triple take" comedy but also for his work in Broadway and Hollywood musicals, which could not have been an easy task! A slapstick inspiration to future comedians like Jackie Gleason, Oakie's lightweight foolery and participation in films was pretty much standard cornball with a lot of mugging to boot, but then he surprised audiences by topping it all off in the hands of the legendary Charles Chaplin with a scene-stealing Oscar-nominated support role in a political satire masterpiece.

Born Lewis Delaney Offield in Sedalia, Missouri, he eventually moved to New York and worked as a runner for a brokerage firm on Wall Street, and nearly lost his life when a nearby Wall Street building was bombed on September 16, 1920. Interested in comedy and mime by this point, he began building up confidence on the amateur stage and giving himself a new name, Jack Oakie, which was comprised of the first character he ever played on stage and his mother's maiden name.

When a shocked Jack told Chaplin that maybe he should find an Italian actor to play Napolini in "The Great Dictator" (1940), Chaplin supposedly told him, "What's funny about an Italian playing Mussolini?" Chaplin, in a Hitler parody, and Oakie were both nominated for acting Oscars. The pair enjoyed their roles so much, they often stayed in character after shooting finished for the day. They even attended a party, thrown by Mary Pickford, in full costume.

Oakie had been on a diet before filming started. To make him large enough to contrast effectively with Chaplin, the director ordered his cook to fatten Oakie up.

Happy Birthday, Jack Oakie!