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TürkçeEddie Bracken (Edward Vincent Bracken)
Photos with Eddie Bracken
Biography
Astoria, New York, USA
This owl-faced comic actor enjoyed his first featured film role in the RKO production Too Many Girls (1940), in which he reprised the role of "JoJo Jordan" that he had played in the Broadway stage version of that musical. (Into the pantheon of pop-music standards came one that Bracken had introduced in "Too Many Girls", the melancholy "I Didn't Know What Time It Was"). But the then 20-year-old Eddie Bracken was by no means new to show business in general or Hollywood in particular. Read more... later appeared on screen in four of the Hal Roach "Our Gang" comedy two-reeler film shorts. It was on account of his appearances in musicals and comedies as a shy, giggling, clumsy, stammering, sentimental, self-effacing, would-be hero that Bracken achieved popularity, not to say star status, among movie audiences of the 1940s. The director Preston Sturges served up those attributes of Eddie Bracken particularly well in two of Sturges's more memorable comedies. As "Norval Jones" in The Miracle of Morgan's Creek (1944) (filmed in 1942; released 1944), Bracken portrays a man whose destiny others have foisted upon him. A certain "Trudy Kockenlocker" (played by Betty Hutton), having attended a party for military servicemen, later finds herself to be pregnant but has no recollection of who the father might be. So she persuades the always-befuddled Norval to take credit for the child and marry her. Somehow, Norval emerges a true hero in the end, but you'll have to see the film to discover why. As Norval Jones was physically unfit for military service, so also was "Woodrow Lafayette Pershing Truesmith", with Eddie Bracken in the role, in Preston Sturges's Hail the Conquering Hero (1944). Solely on the basis of his father's reputation as a World War I U.S. Marine hero, a group of saloon-hopping World War II-era U.S. Marines, led by a crusty senior-level sergeant (played to a tee by William Demarest), elevate the physical reject Truesmith into a modern, combat-decorated veteran, and then usher him into an election campaign for Truesmith's hometown mayoralty. The complications, including a love interest (in the person of actress Ella Raines, are by now well under way. As Eddie Bracken's age increased his popularity -- or perhaps that of the genre of film vehicles that was his forte -- decreased, and in 1953 he essentially retired from the screen, moving on to pursue theatrical ventures. But he would return to Hollywood eventually, and we have been fortunate to see him in character roles in theatrical and TV films through the 80's and 90's.
Actor
Character:
Jojo Jordan
Too Many Girls 1940
9
Character:
Bert Sparks
Caught in the Draft 1941
1
Character:
Johnny Webster
Star Spangled Rhythm 1942
7
Character:
Barney Waters
The Fleet's In 1942
12
Character:
Wally Case
Happy Go Lucky 1943
7
Character:
Norval Jones
The Miracle of Morgan's Creek 1944
2
Character:
Woodrow Truesmith
Hail the Conquering Hero 1944
8
Character:
Toby Smith
Rainbow Island 1944
1
Character:
Eddie Bracken
Duffy's Tavern 1945
4
Character:
Chuck Donovan
The Girl from Jones Beach 1949
13
Character:
Lew Conway
Two Tickets to Broadway 1951
11
Character:
Wilson Boswell 'Willie' Fisher
We're Not Married! 1952
9
Character:
Biff Roberts
About Face 1952
7
Character:
Old Timer
Baby's Day Out 1994
1
Character:
Maj. Charles T. Alexander
Assault at West Point: The Court-Martial of Johnson Whittaker 1994
0
Character:
Bob Carson
Rookie of the Year 1993
6
Character:
Grandpa
The American Clock 1993
0
Character:
E.F. Duncan
Home Alone 2: Lost in New York 1992
31
Character:
Five Spot Charlie
Oscar 1991
16
Character:
Vitamix
Astérix et le coup du menhir 1989
2
Character:
Moley
The Wind in the Willows 1987
7
Character:
Roy Walley
Vacation 1983
8
Character:
Bob Ryan
The Ryan Interview 2000
0
6
Character:
Mr. Simpson
ABC Weekend Specials 1977
0
Character:
Ghost
Amazing Stories 1985
0
Character:
Eddie
The New Dick Van Dyke Show 1971
0
Character:
Himself
Judy Garland: Beyond the Rainbow 1997
0
Character:
Himself
The 75th Annual Academy Awards 2003
7
Character:
Himself - Comic Actor
Texaco Star Theatre 1948
0
Character:
Junior officer
Pacific Liner 1939
0
Character:
Freddy Mallory
The Ford Television Theatre 1952
0
Character:
Charlie Joyce
The Alcoa Hour 1955
0
Character:
Himself - Comic Actor
The Colgate Comedy Hour 1950
0
Character:
Himself
Over Easy 1977
0
Character:
Harry King
The 20th Century-Fox Hour 1955
0
Character:
Ira
Climax! 1954
0
Character:
Orville Wingait
Summer Stock 1950
10
Character:
Himself
General Motors 50th Anniversary Show 1957
0
Character:
'Evil Eye' Hatton
Burke's Law 1963
0
Character:
Grandpa Titus Tolliver
Tales from the Darkside 1983
0
Character:
Himself
Betty White's 90th Birthday: A Tribute to America's Golden Girl 2012
0
Character:
Himself
The Dinah Shore Chevy Show 1956
0
Character:
Joseph
Blacke's Magic 1986
0
Character:
Himself - Nominee: Best Actor in a Musical
The 32nd Annual Tony Awards 1978
10
Character:
Himself
The Patrice Munsel Show 1956
0