Willie Best
Date of Birth: 27 May 1916
Country: USA
Biography: One of the hard-working, unappreciated African-American actors of Hollywood's "Golden Era" who produced good work with what he was given. He starred alongside some of film's great comedians including the Marx Brothers, Bob Hope, Laurel and Hardy and three films with Shirley Temple. In addition to being a talented comedian and character actor, Best was also a musician/song writer. After a drug arrest ended his film career, he worked in television for a while before retiring to obscurity. He passe
Total Credits at Criticker: 62 (Actor)
Biography last updated by Dunstan-xxx, and picture by Gauntlet
Find more information about Willie Best at The Internet Movie Database
Titles you haven't rated - Actor (62)
Roy 'Mad Dog' Earle is broken out of prison by an old associate who wants him to help with an upcoming robbery... (imdb)
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Mary Carter inherits her family's ancestral home, located on a small island off Cuba, and, despite warnings and death threats, decides to take possesion of the reputedly haunted castle... (imdb)
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Shirley Temple's father, a rebel officer, sneaks back to his rundown plantation to see his family and is arrested. A Yankee takes pity and sets up an escape. Everyone is captured and the officers are to be executed. Shirley and "Bojangles" Robinson beg President Lincoln to intercede. (imdb)
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Assistant biology professor Peter Morgan falls in love with and marries nightclub singer Francey while he is in New York to fetch his wayward cousin home. On returning to the small town university run by his dictatorial and conservative father his courage fails him when he has to announce things. Some of the activities of his new bride do not make it any easier. (imdb)
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Charlie Chan and a host of suspects are close at hand for three murders. (imdb)
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Charlie Chan tries to find out who committed a murder aboard a ship. (imdb)
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A compulsive gambler dies during a shooting, but he'll receive a second chance to reform himself and to make up with his worried wife. (imdb)
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Russell plays a psychiatrist who sees no need for a man in her life. Her resolve weakens a bit when she meets Lee Bowman, a dashing combat sketch artist suffering from wartime emotional problems. Bowman falls in love with the shrink and determines to establish a beachhead, while Russell is equally determined to hold her ground. (allmovie.com)
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Totally engrossed in his project to bring the dead back to life, Dr. Randolph fails to notice his wife Elaine's interest in Randolph's young lab partner, Dr. Cochran. Ancient housekeeper Maria doesn't, however, and will do anything, including using her voodoo powers, to see to it that Elaine is happy. (imdb)
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A lad with a penchant for trouble is sent to live with his aunt and uncle in Indiana. Though he's not happy about the arrangement at first, his love of horses and his affection for a young filly that he plans to race make life bearable. He also finds romance with tomboyish Char who shares his love for horses. (imdb)
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A drifter claims the money in an old bank account. Soon he finds himself the target of two men who turn out to be the sons of the man's old partner, who is now in prison because of a conflict with him over the money in that account. (imdb)
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Six year old "Mike" joins her sister Barbara Ainsworth who plays in a classical orchestra during WW II. (imdb)
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A would-be songwriter and a would-be inventor run a cigar stand and get mixed up in the murder of a song publisher. (imdb)
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Wounded while stopping the James gang from robbing the local bank, a cowboy wakes up in the hospital to find that he's been elected town marshal. He soon comes into conflict with the town banker, who controls everything in town and is squeezing the townspeople for every penny he can get out of them. (imdb)
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Clay Tallant comes to Silver City, Arizona in the 1880s and encounters wide-spread lawlessness and disorder, unscrupulous politicians, outlaws galore and brow-beaten citizens. He accepts the position of town marshal and, with his brother and a reformed outlaw, Tex Randolph, who comes over to his side, sets out to bring law-and-order where none exists. He also wins the hand of the singer appearing at the Opera House. (imdb)
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Dizzy society matron Emily Kilbourne has a habit of hiring ex-cons and hobos as servants. Her latest find is a handsome "tramp" who shows up at her doorstep and soon ends up in a chauffeur's uniform. He also catches the eye of her pretty Geraldine.
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Everybody seems to have had a good time making the overripe melodrama The Hidden Hand, especially cadaverous Milton Parsons as insane-asylum escapee John Channing. In her efforts to protect her brother from the authorities, John's sister Lorinda (Cecil Cunningham) opens the door for a series of grisly murders. Hero Peter Thorne (Craig Stevens) and heroine Mary Winfield (Elizabeth Fraser) try to stop John before he overracts-er, kills-again. (allmovie.com)
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Ogden Spencer Trulow III is a wealthy kleptomaniac who turned to stealing when he was spurned by a girl. His psychoanalyst advises him to find another girl for a cure. He fastens his interest upon Sally Martin, who happens to be engaged upon helping some crooks steal a valuable necklace. Complications include two scantily attired individuals, one of them drunk, clinging to the cornice of a skyscraper and a large band of crooks in quest of the precious jewels. (imdb)
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Dale must sell her favorite horse, Miss Glory, to save her ranch. She hires Roy to take the horse to Mexico to sell it. The bad guys, led by Dale's horse trainer, plot to steal the horse and take over the ranch. Roy saves the horse and the ranch for Dale. (imdb)
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Lorna Gray, shortly before changing her professional name to Adrian Booth, plays the title character in Republic's The Girl Who Dared. Gray is one of several vacationers who makes a side trip to a remote island in Georgia. It isn't long before one of the tourists is murdered. As an act of self-preservation (she is both a suspect and a likely future victim), Gray decides to play detective and solve the mystery. (allrovi.com)
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A man with an affinity for trouble meets a girl in distress in a nightclub. She becomes involved in the murder of a Spanish dancer and both of them become major suspects. The couple, eluding the police up, down and all around in Chinatown, succeed in capturing the dancer's partner, who confesses his guilt. (imdb)
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In this crime drama, a remake of Heat Lightning(1931), a robber kills a bank teller during a robbery and then takes his wife, who believes he is a traveling businessman, on the road with him as he flees. He is eventually captured and sentenced. Meanwhile his wife returns to running a motel and gas station with her sister. Her drab daily existence changes dramatically when her husband escapes from prison three years later and forces her to protect him. (allrovi.com)
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Horse breeder Tom Martin, in a streak of bad luck, is persuaded by his daughter Doris to enter a mare in the feature race at the county fair. There, Martin rejects a tout's proposition to throw the race, and he also meets his old friends, the "Judge" and the "Warbler". The race starts and the mare, just short of reaching the wire and winning the race, is crowded into the rail and ruined as a racer. The Martins return home, where Ruth busies herself in training a colt, Katydid.
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Fun and Frolic in Showboat Land! Humorous story keeps suspense up to the end.
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Erudite manservant Jeeves hopes to keep his frivolous employer Bertie out of new harrowing adventures, but a damsel in distress, carrying half of some mysterious plans, intrudes on their London flat one rainy night. Bertie follows her to country hotel Mooring Manor, prepared to do slapstick battle with crooks posing as Scotland Yard men. (imdb)
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Scattergood Baines, Coldriver's most popular citizen, neighborly counselor and sly old fox, entices a Broadway producer to Coldriver to see the gay musical extravaganza Baines is staging for the benefit of the U.S.O. He is also promoting the singing career of his latest local protégé, Betty Palmer. There are a few problems but the Sage of Coldriver manages to keep pulling the right strings. (imdb)
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In this entry in the comedy series the "Higgins Family," the group must cancel a cruise to South America after the check they needed does not arrive. To save face before their neighbors, the family embarks upon a wilderness fishing trip. The family made a wise decision to forego the cruise as the boat sinks and everyone is lost. This creates havoc for the Higgins family neighbors who believe they went down with the ship. (imdb)
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An ex-con, just out of prison, and his wife meet a screen writer on the train and decide that, since he's writing about crime without knowing much about it, collaborating with him would be better than starting a duck farm. Things get a bit sticky when the real gangsters show up and want to know how Hollywood knows so much about them. (imdb)
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Barry Brandon, a criminal lawyer, visits the night club of Denny Larkin, his primary client, with Betty Walker, a spoiled society girl. The police raid the club and Brandon pleads that the whole group is guilty, just to get even with Larkin for a rebuke. On the same night in court, Madge Carter is on trial for disorderly conduct, and Brandon volunteers to defend her, and proves the case against her if a frame-up. (imdb)
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A jockey tries to overcome the reputation of his father, who once threw a race. (imdb)
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Radio comedian Joe Penner, of "You Naaassty Man!" fame, was very much an acquired taste in 1938, and even more so when seen today. Nevertheless, such Penner movie vehicles as I'm From the City never failed to make a tidy profit for RKO Radio Pictures. In this one, the star plays a circus bareback rider who happens to be deathly afraid of horses. In order to perform his equestrian act, Penner must be hypnotized, whereupon he turns into a fearless, ridin' fool. (allmovie.com)
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While his wife Maggie, a desperate social climber suffering from sneezing fits, rides a stationary horse in their Park Avenue, New York apartment, Jiggs, who would rather climb onto a barstool than mix with the city's socialites, listens to a radio trivia contest. The two make so much noise that their upstairs neighbor is driven to distraction and jumps out of his window. (TCM.com)
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Rodney has just married the often engaged Juliette and they are both ready to leave on their honeymoon. But Clara show up and Rodney sneaks out to talk to her. Clara is blackmailing Rodney, as he knew her before Clara, and her accomplice hits Rodney over the head when he refuses to pay. This causes amnesia and the only name Rodney can find in his pockets is Laura Anders - who is Juliette's Cousin. But Laura has never met Rodney so she does not know him. (imdb)
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Civilized wife (Anne Talbot) doesn't protest when husband (Dr. Talbot) runs off with uncivilized professional golfer pretending to be civilized (Gerry). Is he sorry! (imdb)
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A beautiful environmentalist clashes with an engineer who is building a dam. (imdb)
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A teenager plays cupid for her widowed father but picks the wrong woman. (imdb)
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Mrs. Emma Foster of Fosterboro, Ohio loves to enter contests - which she never wins - the time she spends on which is much to the chagrin of her exasperated husband, barber Otis Foster. It is ironic then that the one contest for which she becomes a finalist is the Happy Noodle company's Mrs. America contest to determine the nation's best homemaker as she never has time or the want to do any housework, that burden left to Otis. (imdb)
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The City Trust and Savings Bank sends Vice President Dave Bennett to a branch office to check on a Charles Patterson. Charlie has greatly increased the amount of money in savings and is very involved with all of his customers. When offered a chance to run a new branch in Santa Monica, Charlie declines and is taken ill. His wife, Barbara, tells Dave that Charlie needs an operation and she will fill in for him at his savings window. (imdb)
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At the Bainbridge Research Foundation, Professor Franklin Arnold, displays his creation, the Metalogen Man, a robot, to Professor Ernst and three other colleagues. Shortly afterward, the three associates are killed by Thor (Ray Corrigan, in his for-rent ape suit), a huge ape trained by Ernst, and Arnold, his daughter Babs and Ken Morgan, a representative of the company for whom the robot was made, find it has been stolen. (imdb)
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An actor who plays a detective in films soon finds himself out of his depth when he tries to investigate a real crime. (imdb)
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The marriage of an advertising man is jeopardized when he gets a chance to sell a novel he's been working on and quits his job to concentrate on writing. In order to support the family, the wife is forced to take a job as a dancer in a Broadway show. As the marriage begins to fall apart, complications ensue when she discovers that she's pregnant.
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Wheeler & Woolsey comedy about two moronic ditch diggers, recruited for an archeology expedition, getting mixed up with jewel thieves and an ancient Egyptian "curse."
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The horse and a dog Lightning share the same birthday. Both are born in captivity, but end up escaping to the wilderness where they become close friends. When wolves attack a herd of wild horses, Lightning and Warrior team up to save them. When they return to domesticity, Warrior is trained to race by the Bentons. George Mason, a wicked gambler, attempts to stop Warrior from winning. However, Lightning tries to prevent the activities of Mason and his henchman Crane. (imdb)
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A mare dies while foaling the Red Stallion. He is reared by a boy and is entered in a big race - something like the Kentucky Derby.
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Molly and Pat Malloy, a married couple of famed vaudeville performers on the verge of retirement, arrive in a small Connecticut town to play a show, When they're insulted by the clerk of the shabby local hotel, the Malloys buy the hotel just for the satisfaction of firing him. But this aggravates the local realtor who's had his eye on the property. (Wikipedia)
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Dooley's Not Dooby (2018) - Short Film
In 2004, historian, writer and musician Scott Allen Nollen, incensed at someone's foolish reference to the great Dooley Wilson as "Dooby," composed this tribute to the African American performers of Hollywood's "Golden Age," and recorded all the instruments for the song under his band name of Jimmie Dynamite.
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College football player is expelled for ticket scalping, and teams up with reporter to expose his school's hypocrisy.
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An actor who plays a detective on a radio show and his sidekick get it into their heads to try to solve a murder that had been committed several years previously.
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On Christmas Eve in the Spanish quarter of L.A. police try to arrest a couple running a shady floor show. Hiding in a church, the girl finds an abandoned baby and uses it as cover to escape capture. Thus she finds herself with a baby she is becoming ever more fond of, a helpful doctor himself too fond of the bottle, and a husband who has disappeared. Dare she try and change her ways and keep the child?
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Jane McGill has fallen in love with Ben Johnson and would like to marry him. But her mother Belle has set certain conditions for that to happen. Father Jimmy decides that betting on the horses will help the kids out.
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A folksy wanderer settles in a New England town and opens a hardware store.
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Rural sage Scattergood Baines shows big-city newsman how to solve a mystery.
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Radio mystery script writer Sally Ambler is about to be married, then gets into a quarrel with her intended Kirk Pierce after he finds the story she wrote too contrived. The wedding is put off when a telegram from her Aunt Maggie arrives from Atlanta to let Sally know that her Uncle Charlie has died. Sally is followed to Atlanta after a phone call from a Dr. Benedict warns Kirk of danger lurking for Sally when she gets there. Sally discovers that her uncle's corpse is missing.
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Minstrel Days (1941) - Short Film
This Vitaphone musical featurette features a minstrel show, with traditional interlocutor and Mr. Bones, doing many old time songs (mostly Stephen Foster) with Al Jolson and Eddie Cantor in blackface, via stock footage from earlier Warners films, inserted doing some of their trademark songs. This short was reissued November of 1946 and again in September of 1953.
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Raised and Called (1935) - Short Film
Chandler induces Kennedy to ask the boss for a raise, and to pretend he is married, because the chief has a soft spot for his married employees. So Tom gets a $10 raise, and then the boss invites himself out to his house for dinner and to meet the missus, whereupon it becomes necessary for the boys to produce a wife in a hurry, and a dizzy blonde cutie from next door is elected.
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Deep South (1937) - Short Film
Slaves in the field are making ready to celebrate a wedding that evening of two of their number.
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Short subject from Pathe based on the writings of Grantland Rice, primarily remembered for his elegant approach to sportswriting. This was one of the last of the Van Beuren Corporation's "Song Sketches," along with another "The Voice of the Sea."
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Horse Heir (1935) - Short Film
Chick is trying to sell his cheap horse to a lady with a grating and annoying voice...sort of like Betty Boop. Jeanie is married to Tom and apparently she got the money from him. However, the pair accidentally take the wrong horse...instead of a broken down nag, it's a top racehorse. When they find out, they do their best to hide it by painting the horse. Hilarity ensues...or should have ensued.
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