Question about Eugene Pallette as Friar Tuck in ROBIN HOOD... (1 Viewer)

[Dick]

Was that actor's voice for real? In as many films as I've seen (and especially HEARD) him, I can't help but think the voice is a put-on. I can imitate it pretty faithfully with not much effort. Was this the actor's way of being distinctive and winning notice and being remembered? I've looked at various sites on the net and no one addresses this, except to say he has a "croaky" voice. Anyone know?

 

[Mike_S]

I can't really shed any more light on this other than to say that the same actor played the role of a Spanish priest in the Tyronne Power movie, The Mark of Zorro and he certainly had the 'gravelly' voice in that one as well. My guess is that it was his natural voice. Very distinctive. It's great that you can mimic his voice. If I tried that, I'd go into a coughing fit!

-Mike

 

[Paul Bond]

I've seen him in at least two other movies (My Man Godfrey - the William Powell version, and another William Powell movie - The Kennel Murder Case). That is (or was) his real 'speaking' voice.

Note this item from IMDB.COM:

"Gargantuan-bellied, frog-voiced character actor who was a staple in forties movies."


Bond. Paul Bond.

 

[Robert Crawford]

I've seen him in a number of films and his voice is always the same.





Crawdaddy

 

[Dick]

As have I, but I still wonder if the voice was a put-on, in the same was that Harpo Marx's muteness was.

 

[LaurenceGarvey]

No, he talked that way.

 

[Steve...O]

Real voice although he wasn't always so gargantuan-bellied. His career dated from the silent era, and in his early films he sports a much trimmer figure. Makes you wonder if he spent too much time at the Warners commissary/bar.

One of the all time great character actors.

Steve

 

[Lew Crippen]

I thought he was at his best in The Lady Eve as Henry Fonda’s father--a role not unlike the one he played in My Man Godfrey. Very funny—and his voice was exactly the same.

That couch has been there 15 years and no one ever tripped over it before.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Pallette played many funny characters and his voice was unique, but evidently his real life was much different. I read in a film book on actors that he was blacklisted by the major studios in the late 1940s because of his views on facism and racism. Thus, he was reduced to working for small studios on poverty row before his death in 1954.





Crawdaddy

 

[george kaplan]

Pro or anti?

 

[Robert Crawford]

He wasn't preaching about loving thy brother.





Crawdaddy

 

[Patrick McCart]

That's apparently his real voice...

The "Breakdowns of 1938" blooper reel (found among the dozens of bonus features on the Adventures of Robin Hood 2-disc SE) has a few outtakes with Pallette. When gets out of character (in more ways in one, being that he was supposed to be a friar), his voice remains the same.

 

[george kaplan]

That's a real shame about his politics. :frowning: