This is driving me nuts. Frank McHugh, who plays Jim the editor, played a much better known character somewhere. Scrolling through his filmography, nothing jumps out at me. What part am I (not) remembering him in? Maybe his best known role? (Or, at least, better known than this?) No doubt a comic turn. Maybe on TV? Help before I kill myself and end up in a wax museum!!
shareI'm a big Frank McHugh fan but don't think he ever had a starring role. He was best in comedies and musicals in the '30s but also did Westerns and dramas. He had a funny, air-y laugh. you might enjoy this video montage: www.youtube.com/watch?v=6iqG_IGk_7k
shareMcHugh was such a fixture in Warner films of the 30's - 40's, it is hard to single out particular roles. I'd guess that most might remember him for a couple films made elsewhere: GOING MY WAY (Paramount) and STATE FAIR (20th-Fox). Of his films at WB, certainly some of the most prominent were FOOTLIGHT PARADE, A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM and GOLD DIGGERS OF 1935. Of his later ones, perhaps many think of THE LAST HURRAH.
But overall, I'd guess that he's one of those reliable character actors people get to know well from so many different films, but find it difficult to single any particular ones out. Y'know: "I know that guy...but I can't remember where from." I guess the answer, for actors like McHugh, is, "Practically everywhere."
Poe! You are...avenged!
This is driving me nuts. Frank McHugh, who plays Jim the editor, played a much better known character somewhere. Scrolling through his filmography, nothing jumps out at me. What part am I (not) remembering him in? Maybe his best known role? (Or, at least, better known than this?) No doubt a comic turn. Maybe on TV? Help before I kill myself and end up in a wax museum!!
Ah Frank McHugh! He probably played more 'best friend of the hero' roles than anyone in old Hollywood with the possible exception of Allen Jenkins.
As to stand out roles? Quince in "A Midsummer Night's Dream", the husband of one of the Lane sisters (or was it Gale Page) in all those "Four Daughters" movies, and Cagney's (needless to say) best friend in "The Roaring Twenties".
cinefreak
The laugh, the curly hair, and the disarming smile are what are so memorable. Nothing like it. (Except maybe his brother.) The two roles I find most memorable are Festus Garvey in "The Last Hurrah" and (especially) Fr O'Dowd in "Going My Way". That last, barely a walk-on. But it brightens the whole film.
"All the world's a stage and most of us are desperately unrehearsed."
-Seán O'Casey
Going My Way, Last Hurrah, Roaring Twenties. I would say his roles in those three movies may be his most popular. He was the main character in at least one film; He Couldn't Say No.
He was also in Four Wives, Four Daughters, and Four Mothers as well as Daughters Courageous. Three related film and one unrelated film with roughly the same entire cast.
Personally, I liked him in Dodge City with Errol Flynn (not to be confused with Virginia City where he also is featured alongside Errol Flynn).