Jack Oakie

For Jack Okey, American art director, and academy award nominee, see Jack Okey.

Jack Oakie
File:Jack oakie signed as benito.jpg Benzino Napaloni in The Great Dictator
Born	Lewis Delaney Offield (1903-11-12)November 12, 1903 Sedalia, Missouri, U.S.
Died	Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Resting place	Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1923–1971
Spouse(s)	Victoria Horne (1950–1978) Venita Varden (1936–1945)

Jack Oakie (November 12, 1903 – January 23, 1978) was an American actor, starring mostly in films, but also working on stage, radio and television.

Early life

Jack Oakie was born as Lewis Delaney Offield in Sedalia, Missouri at 522 w 7th Street. His father was a grain dealer and his mother a psychology teacher. When he was five years old the Offield family moved to Muskogee, Oklahoma, the source of his "Oakie" nickname. His adopted first name, Jack, was the name of the first character he played on stage. Young Lewis/Jack grew up mostly in Oklahoma but also lived for periods of time with his grandmother in Kansas City, Missouri. While there he attended Woodland Elementary and made spending money as a paperboy for The Kansas City Star. He recalled years later that he made especially good money selling "extras" in November, 1916 during the reelection of President Woodrow Wilson.

Early career

Oakie worked as a runner on Wall Street, New York, and narrowly escaped being killed in the Wall Street bombing of September 16, 1920. While in New York, he also started appearing in amateur theatre as a mimic and a comedian, finally making his professional debut on Broadway in 1923 as a chorus boy in a production of Little Nellie Kelly by George M. Cohan.

Oakie worked in various musicals and comedies on Broadway from 1923 to 1927, when he moved to Hollywood to work in movies at the end of the silent film era. Oakie appeared in five silent films during 1927 and 1928. As the age of the "talkies" began, he signed with Paramount Pictures, making his first talking film, The Dummy, in 1929.

Film career

When his contract with Paramount ended in 1934, Oakie decided to freelance. He was remarkably successful, appearing in 87 films, most made in the 1930s and 1940s. In the film Too Much Harmony (1933), the part of Oakie's on-screen mother was played by his real mother Mary Evelyn Offield. During the 1930s he was known as "The World's Oldest Freshman", as a result of appearing in numerous films with a collegiate theme. He was also known for refusing to wear screen make-up of any kind, and the frequent use of double-take in his comedy. Oakie was quoted as saying of his studio career:

The pictures I made were called the bread and butter pictures of the studio. They cost nothing and made millions, and supported the prestige productions that cost millions and made nothing.

Oakie is probably most notable for his portrayal of Benzino Napaloni, the boisterous dictator of Bacteria, in Charlie Chaplin's The Great Dictator (1940), for which he received an Oscar nomination for the Best Supporting Actor Award. This role was a broad parody of the fascist dictator of Italy, Benito Mussolini.

With Tina Louise in The New Breed TV series, 1961.

Television and radio

Not being limited by a film studio contract, Oakie branched into radio and had his own radio show between 1936 and 1938.

Late in his career he appeared in various episodes of a number of television shows, including The Real McCoys (1963, three times as Uncle Rightly), Breaking Point (Episode #22 A Child of the Center Ring,1964), Daniel Boone (1966), and Bonanza (1966).

Personal life

Oakie was married twice. His first marriage to Venita Varden in 1936 ended in 1938 when Venita got an interlocutory decree of divorce. They reconciled, but finally divorced in 1944. (She died in 1948 in the crash of United Airlines Flight 624 at Mount Carmel, Pennsylvania).

Oakie's second marriage was to actress Victoria Horne in 1950, with whom he lived at "Oakridge" until his death in 1978.

Jack Oakie died on January 23, 1978, in Los Angeles, California at the age of 74 from an aortic aneurysm. His remains were interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale (top of the hill, Whispering Pines section), in Los Angeles County.

Oakridge estate

Jack and Victoria Oakie lived their entire married life at "Oakridge", their 11-acre (45,000 m²) estate at 18650 Devonshire Street (just west of Reseda Boulevard) in Northridge, a suburb of Los Angeles in the San Fernando Valley. They acquired the former "Marwyck" estate of actress Barbara Stanwyck in 1950. Stanwyck commissioned the original residence designed by Paul Williams. Oakie planted a citrus orchard and bred Afghan Hounds, at one time having up to 100 dogs on the property.

Victoria Oakie continued to live there after her husband's death and bequeathed the estate to the University of Southern California, which sold it to developers. After two failed attempts to develop the property, Oakridge was acquired by the City of Los Angeles in December, 2009. Oakridge is considered to be one of the last remnants of the large Northridge equestrian estates, famed for former thoroughbred breeding. The city plans to use the property as a park and community event center. The Paul Williams house and the grounds are Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument #484.

Legacy

In 1981, the "Jack Oakie Lecture on Comedy in Film" was established as an annual event of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. At the inaugural presentation, Oakie was described as "a master of comic timing and a beloved figure in the industry."

Jack Oakie's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame is at 6752 Hollywood Boulevard, and his hand and footprints can be found at Grauman's Chinese Theater in Hollywood.

A small display celebrating the comedy and fame of Jack Oakie is at Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills, California. There is a plaque in the ground in front of the home where he was born in Sedalia, Missouri.

Jack Oakie is mentioned in the Coen Brothers film Barton Fink, which is set in Hollywood during the 1940s.

Filmography

Year	Film	Role	Notes
1923	His Children's Children
	Big Brother	Bit Part (uncredited)
1924	Classmates	Bit Part (uncredited)
	His Darker Self	Minor Role (uncredited)
1928	Road House	Sam
	Someone to Love	Michael Casey
	Finders Keepers	B.B.Brown
	The Fleet's In	Searchlight Doyle
1929	Chinatown Nights	The Reporter
	Fast Company	Elmer Kane
	Sweetie	Tap-Tap Thompson
	Hard to Get	Marty Martin
	Street Girl	Joe Spring	(USA title: Barber John's Boy)
	The Man I Love	Lew Layton
	Close Harmony	Ben Barney
	The Wild Party	Al
	The Dummy	Dopey Hart
	Sin Town	"Chicken" O'Toole
1930	Sea Legs	Searchlight Doyle
	Let's Go Native	Voltaire McGinnis
	The Sap from Syracuse	Littleton Looney	(aka The Sap from Abroad from Abroad)
	Paramount on Parade	Himself	(as one of the MC's of the film)
	The Social Lion	Marco Perkins
	Hit the Deck	Bilge
1931	Touchdown	Babe Barton	(UK title: Playing the Game)
	Dude Ranch	Jennifer
	June Moon	Frederick Martin Stevens
	The Gang Buster	"Cyclone" Case
1932	If I Had a Million	Pvt. Mulligan
	Uptown New York	Eddie Doyle
	Madison Square Garden	Eddie Burke
	Once in a Lifetime	George Lewis
	Million Dollar Legs	Migg Tweeny
	Sky Bride	Alec Dugan
	Dancers in the Dark	Duke Taylor
1933	Alice in Wonderland	Tweedledum
	Sitting Pretty	Chick Parker
	Too Much Harmony	Benny Day
	College Humor	Barney Shirrel
	The Eagle and the Hawk	Mike Richards
	Sailor Be Good	Kelsey Jones
	From Hell to Heaven	Charlie Bayne
1934	College Rhythm	Francis J. Finnegan
	Shoot the Works	Nicky Nelson	(UK title: Thank Your Stars)
	Murder at the Vanities	Jack Ellery
	Looking for Trouble	Casey
1935	King of Burlesque	Joe Cooney
	The Big Broadcast of 1936	Spud Miller
	The Call of the Wild	Shorty Hoolihan
1936	That Girl from Paris	Whammo Lonsdale
	The Texas Rangers	Henry B. "Wahoo" Jones
	Florida Special	Bangs Carter
	Colleen	Joe Cork
	Collegiate (UK title: Charm School)	Jerry Craig
1937	Hitting a New High	Corny Davis
	Fight for Your Lady	Ham Hamilton
	The Toast of New York	Luke
	Super-Sleuth	Willard "Bill" Martin
	Champagne Waltz	Happy Gallagher
1938	Thanks for Everything	Brady
	Annabel Takes a Tour	Lanny Morgan	(aka Annabel Takes a Trip)
	The Affairs of Annabel	Lanny Morgan
	Radio City Revels	Harry Miller
1940	Little Men	Willie the Fox
	Tin Pan Alley	Harry Calhoun
	The Great Dictator	Benzino Napaloni	Nominated — Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor
	Young People	Joe Ballantine
1941	Rise and Shine	Boley Bolenciecwcz
	Navy Blues	Cake O'Hara
	The Great American Broadcast	Chuck Hadley
1942	Iceland	Slip Riggs	(UK title: Katina)
	Song of the Islands	Rusty Smith
1943	Wintertime	Skip Hutton
	Hello Frisco, Hello	Dan Daley
	Something to Shout About	Larry Martin
1944	Bowery to Broadway	Michael O'Rourke
	The Merry Monahans	Pete Monahan
	Sweet and Low-Down	Popsy
	It Happened Tomorrow	Uncle Oscar Smith aka Gigolini
1945	On Stage Everybody	Michael Sullivan
	That's the Spirit	Steve "Slim" Gogarty
1946	She Wrote the Book	Jerry Marlowe
1948	When My Baby Smiles at Me	Bozo
	Northwest Stampede	Mike Kirby (Clem)
1949	Thieves' Highway	Slob
1950	Last of the Buccaneers	Sgt. Dominick
1951	Tomahawk	Sol Beckworth	(UK title: Battle of Powder River)
1956	Around the World in 80 Days	Captain of the SS Henrietta
1959	The Wonderful Country	Travis Hyte
1960	The Rat Race	Mac, Owner of Macs Bar
1961	Lover Come Back	J. Paxton Miller

Bibliography

• Autobiography published posthumously by Oakie's widow on January 1, 1980. 240 pages.
• Letters of congratulation and reminiscence sent from almost 150 celebrities to Jack Oakie in celebration of his 70th birthday. Compiled & edited by Mrs Oakie to commemorate his 90th birthday. 140 pages.

External links

• Jack Oakie at the Internet Movie Database
• Jack Oakie at the Internet Broadway Database
• Jack Oakie Lecture on Comedy in Film (official website)
• Biography of Jack Oakie
• NY Times Biography of Jack Oakie
• Jack Oakie at Find a Grave
• Photographs of Jack Oakie