Arthur Lake (actor)
Encyclopedia
Arthur Lake was an American
actor known best for bringing Dagwood Bumstead
, the bumbling husband of Blondie
, to life in film
, radio
and television
.
in an aerial act
known as "The Flying Silverlakes". His mother, Edith Goodwin, was an actress. His parents later appeared in vaudeville
in a skit "Family Affair", traveling throughout the South and Southwest United States
. Arthur first appeared on stage as a baby in Uncle Tom's Cabin
and he and his sister, Florence
, became part of the act in 1910. Their mother brought the children to Hollywood
to get into films, and Arthur made his screen debut in the silent Jack and the Beanstalk (1917). Florence became a successful actress, achieving a degree of fame as one of the screen wives of comedian Edgar Kennedy
.
Universal Pictures
signed him to a contract, where he acted in westerns
as an adolescent character actor. Shortly after the formation of RKO Pictures
in 1928, he signed with that studio, where he made Dance Hall (1929) and Cheer Up and Smile
(1930). During this early sound film
era, he typically played light romantic roles, usually with a comic "Mama's Boy" tone to them, in films such as Indiscreet
(1931) with Gloria Swanson
.
comic strip
character of Dagwood Bumstead
in twenty-eight Blondie
film
s produced by Columbia Pictures
from 1938 until 1950. For the first seven of those years, a radio
version was also broadcast with Lake in the Dagwood role. He also portrayed the character in a short-lived 1957 Blondie TV series. His work in the popular Blondie radio show earned him a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
at 6646 Hollywood Blvd.
and his mistress Marion Davies
. He was a frequent guest at the beach house of Davies, where he met Patricia Lake
(née Van Cleeve) (1923–1993). They were married at San Simeon
on the 24th of July 1942. The parentage of Patricia Van Cleeve is unclear, but at the time of her death, she claimed to be the daughter of Davies
and Hearst
.
In his book about the Black Dahlia
murder case, author Donald H. Wolfe asserts that Lake was questioned by the Los Angeles Police Department
as a suspect, having been acquainted with the victim through her volunteer work at the Hollywood Canteen
. No charges were filed and Lake was one of many suspects in a case that remains unsolved.
Lake died of a heart attack
in Indian Wells, California
on January 9, 1987 and was interred in the Hollywood Forever Cemetery
, in the Douras family mausoleum, along with actress Marion Davies
and her husband, Horace G. Brown.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
actor known best for bringing Dagwood Bumstead
Dagwood Bumstead
Dagwood Bumstead is a main character in comic artist Chic Young's long-running comic strip Blondie. He first appeared sometime prior to 17 February 1933....
, the bumbling husband of Blondie
Blondie (comic strip)
Blondie is an American comic strip created by cartoonist Chic Young. Distributed by King Features Syndicate, the strip has been published in newspapers since September 8, 1930...
, to life in film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
, radio
Radio
Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...
and television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
.
Early life and career
At the time of his birth in 1905, Arthur Silverlake, Jr.'s father and uncle were touring with a circusCircus
A circus is commonly a travelling company of performers that may include clowns, acrobats, trained animals, trapeze acts, musicians, hoopers, tightrope walkers, jugglers, unicyclists and other stunt-oriented artists...
in an aerial act
Aerialist
An aerialist is an acrobat who performs in the air, on a suspended apparatus such as a trapeze, rope, cloud swing, aerial cradle, aerial silk or aerial hoop....
known as "The Flying Silverlakes". His mother, Edith Goodwin, was an actress. His parents later appeared in vaudeville
Vaudeville
Vaudeville was a theatrical genre of variety entertainment in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. Each performance was made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill...
in a skit "Family Affair", traveling throughout the South and Southwest United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. Arthur first appeared on stage as a baby in Uncle Tom's Cabin
Uncle Tom's Cabin
Uncle Tom's Cabin; or, Life Among the Lowly is an anti-slavery novel by American author Harriet Beecher Stowe. Published in 1852, the novel "helped lay the groundwork for the Civil War", according to Will Kaufman....
and he and his sister, Florence
Florence Lake
For the reservoir in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, see Florence Lake .Florence Lake was an American actress best known as the leading lady in most of the Edgar Kennedy comedy shorts.-Early life:In the early 1900s, her father and uncle toured with a circus in an aerial act known as...
, became part of the act in 1910. Their mother brought the children to Hollywood
Hollywood, Los Angeles, California
Hollywood is a famous district in Los Angeles, California, United States situated west-northwest of downtown Los Angeles. Due to its fame and cultural identity as the historical center of movie studios and movie stars, the word Hollywood is often used as a metonym of American cinema...
to get into films, and Arthur made his screen debut in the silent Jack and the Beanstalk (1917). Florence became a successful actress, achieving a degree of fame as one of the screen wives of comedian Edgar Kennedy
Edgar Kennedy
Edgar Livingston Kennedy was an American comedic film actor, known as "the king of the slow burn". A slow burn is an exasperated facial expression, performed very deliberately; Kennedy embellished this by rubbing his hand over his bald head and across his face, in an attempt to hold his temper...
.
Universal Pictures
Universal Studios
Universal Pictures , a subsidiary of NBCUniversal, is one of the six major movie studios....
signed him to a contract, where he acted in westerns
Western (genre)
The Western is a genre of various visual arts, such as film, television, radio, literature, painting and others. Westerns are devoted to telling stories set primarily in the latter half of the 19th century in the American Old West, hence the name. Some Westerns are set as early as the Battle of...
as an adolescent character actor. Shortly after the formation of RKO Pictures
RKO Pictures
RKO Pictures is an American film production and distribution company. As RKO Radio Pictures Inc., it was one of the Big Five studios of Hollywood's Golden Age. The business was formed after the Keith-Albee-Orpheum theater chains and Joseph P...
in 1928, he signed with that studio, where he made Dance Hall (1929) and Cheer Up and Smile
Cheer Up and Smile
Cheer Up and Smile is a 1930 American musical film directed by Sidney Lanfield. The film starred Arthur Lake, Dixie Lee and Olga Baclanova and a 23-year old John Wayne had a minor uncredited role.-Cast:*Arthur Lake as Eddie Fripp*Dixie Lee as Margie...
(1930). During this early sound film
Sound film
A sound film is a motion picture with synchronized sound, or sound technologically coupled to image, as opposed to a silent film. The first known public exhibition of projected sound films took place in Paris in 1900, but decades would pass before sound motion pictures were made commercially...
era, he typically played light romantic roles, usually with a comic "Mama's Boy" tone to them, in films such as Indiscreet
Indiscreet (1931 film)
Indiscreet is an American comedy film directed by Leo McCarey and starring Gloria Swanson and Ben Lyon. The screenplay by Buddy G. DeSylva, Lew Brown, and Ray Henderson, based on their story Obey That Impulse, originally was written as a full-fledged musical, but only two songs - "If You Haven't...
(1931) with Gloria Swanson
Gloria Swanson
Gloria Swanson was an American actress, singer and producer. She was one of the most prominent stars during the silent film era as both an actress and a fashion icon, especially under the direction of Cecil B. DeMille, made dozens of silents and was nominated for the first Academy Award in the...
.
Dagwood in Blondie
Arthur Lake is best known for portraying the BlondieBlondie (comic strip)
Blondie is an American comic strip created by cartoonist Chic Young. Distributed by King Features Syndicate, the strip has been published in newspapers since September 8, 1930...
comic strip
Comic strip
A comic strip is a sequence of drawings arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions....
character of Dagwood Bumstead
Dagwood Bumstead
Dagwood Bumstead is a main character in comic artist Chic Young's long-running comic strip Blondie. He first appeared sometime prior to 17 February 1933....
in twenty-eight Blondie
Blondie (film)
Blondie is a 1938 movie directed by Frank Strayer, based on the comic strip of the same name. The screenplay was written by Chic Young and Richard Flournoy....
film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
s produced by Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production and distribution company. Columbia Pictures now forms part of the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group, owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment, a subsidiary of the Japanese conglomerate Sony. It is one of the leading film companies...
from 1938 until 1950. For the first seven of those years, a radio
Radio
Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...
version was also broadcast with Lake in the Dagwood role. He also portrayed the character in a short-lived 1957 Blondie TV series. His work in the popular Blondie radio show earned him a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
Hollywood Walk of Fame
The Hollywood Walk of Fame consists of more than 2,400 five-pointed terrazzo and brass stars embedded in the sidewalks along fifteen blocks of Hollywood Boulevard and three blocks of Vine Street in Hollywood, California...
at 6646 Hollywood Blvd.
Personal life
Lake became very friendly with newspaper tycoon William Randolph HearstWilliam Randolph Hearst
William Randolph Hearst was an American business magnate and leading newspaper publisher. Hearst entered the publishing business in 1887, after taking control of The San Francisco Examiner from his father...
and his mistress Marion Davies
Marion Davies
Marion Davies was an American film actress. Davies is best remembered for her relationship with newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst, as her high-profile social life often obscured her professional career....
. He was a frequent guest at the beach house of Davies, where he met Patricia Lake
Patricia Lake
Patricia Van Cleeve Lake , known as Patricia Lake, was an American socialite, actress, and radio comedienne, who was suspected of being and, just before she died, claimed to be the illegitimate daughter of actress Marion Davies and publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst.-Parentage:In the 1920s,...
(née Van Cleeve) (1923–1993). They were married at San Simeon
Hearst Castle
Hearst Castle is a National Historic Landmark mansion located on the Central Coast of California, United States. It was designed by architect Julia Morgan between 1919 and 1947 for newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst, who died in 1951. In 1957, the Hearst Corporation donated the property to...
on the 24th of July 1942. The parentage of Patricia Van Cleeve is unclear, but at the time of her death, she claimed to be the daughter of Davies
Marion Davies
Marion Davies was an American film actress. Davies is best remembered for her relationship with newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst, as her high-profile social life often obscured her professional career....
and Hearst
William Randolph Hearst
William Randolph Hearst was an American business magnate and leading newspaper publisher. Hearst entered the publishing business in 1887, after taking control of The San Francisco Examiner from his father...
.
In his book about the Black Dahlia
Black Dahlia
"The Black Dahlia" was a nickname given to Elizabeth Short is an American woman and the victim of a gruesome and much-publicized murder. She acquired the moniker posthumously by newspapers in the habit of nicknaming crimes they found particularly colorful...
murder case, author Donald H. Wolfe asserts that Lake was questioned by the Los Angeles Police Department
Los Angeles Police Department
The Los Angeles Police Department is the police department of the city of Los Angeles, California. With just under 10,000 officers and more than 3,000 civilian staff, covering an area of with a population of more than 4.1 million people, it is the third largest local law enforcement agency in...
as a suspect, having been acquainted with the victim through her volunteer work at the Hollywood Canteen
Hollywood Canteen
The Hollywood Canteen operated at 1451 Cahuenga Boulevard in Hollywood, California between October 3, 1942 and November 22, 1945 as a club offering food, dancing and entertainment for servicemen, usually on their way overseas...
. No charges were filed and Lake was one of many suspects in a case that remains unsolved.
Lake died of a heart attack
Myocardial infarction
Myocardial infarction or acute myocardial infarction , commonly known as a heart attack, results from the interruption of blood supply to a part of the heart, causing heart cells to die...
in Indian Wells, California
Indian Wells, California
Indian Wells is a city in Riverside County, California, in the Coachella Valley , in between Palm Desert and La Quinta. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 4,958....
on January 9, 1987 and was interred in the Hollywood Forever Cemetery
Hollywood Forever Cemetery
Hollywood Forever Cemetery, originally called Hollywood Memorial Park Cemetery, is one of the oldest cemeteries in Los Angeles, California. It is located at 6000 Santa Monica Boulevard in the Hollywood...
, in the Douras family mausoleum, along with actress Marion Davies
Marion Davies
Marion Davies was an American film actress. Davies is best remembered for her relationship with newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst, as her high-profile social life often obscured her professional career....
and her husband, Horace G. Brown.