Frank Faylen

 Frank Faylen, born Frank Ruf (December 8, 1905 – August 2, 1985

After traveling with his showbusiness parents through his childhood, Faylen became a stage actor at 18, and eventually began working in films in the 1930s. He began playing a number of unmemorable bit parts for Warner Bros., then freelanced for other studios in gradually larger character roles. He appeared as Walt Disney's musical conductor in The Reluctant Dragon, and as a stern railroad official in the Laurel and Hardy comedy A-Haunting We Will Go. Faylen and Laurel and Hardy supporting player Charlie Hall were teamed briefly by Monogram Pictures. Faylen's breakthrough came in 1945, where he was cast as Bim, the cynical male nurse at Bellevue's alcoholic ward in The Lost Weekend. In the following year, he played Ernie Bishop, the friendly taxi driver in Frank Capra's 1946 film It's a Wonderful Life. Faylen's career also stretched to television, where he appeared in a number of western series, like Maverick and Zane Grey Theater, as well as playing series regular long-suffering grocer Herbert T. Gillis, on The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis. In 1968, he had a small part in the Barbra Streisand film Funny Girl. Faylen appeared in almost 200 films. Faylen died from pneumonia in Burbank, California, in 1985, he was 79. He is buried at San Fernando Mission Cemetery in Mission Hills, California, in an unmarked grave.