Grady Harwell Sutton (April 5, 1906 – September 17, 1995) was an American film and television character actor from the 1920s to the 1970s. He appeared in more than 180 films.

Early years

Born in

Chattanooga, Tennessee Chattanooga ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Hamilton County, Tennessee, United States. Located along the Tennessee River bordering Georgia, it also extends into Marion County on its western end. With a population of 181,099 in 2020 ...

, Sutton was raised in

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and ...

where he attended St. Petersburg High School.

Career

Sutton began his career during the

silent film A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound (or more generally, no audible dialogue). Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements (such as a setting or era) or key lines of dialogue may, w ...

era and made the transition to

sound film A sound film is a motion picture with synchronization, 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 decad ...

s with the college themed

shorts Shorts are a garment worn over the pelvic area, circling the waist and splitting to cover the upper part of the legs, sometimes extending down to the knees but not covering the entire length of the leg. They are called "shorts" because they ...

The Boy Friends ''The Boy Friends'' is a series of American Pre-Code comedy short films released between 1930 and 1932. The series consisted of fifteen films and was spun off from the long running ''Our Gang'' film series (also known as ''The Little Rascals'' ...

''. He moved on to countless character roles, where he frequently played dimwitted country boys. His best-known roles were as Frank Dowling,

Katharine Hepburn Katharine Houghton Hepburn (May 12, 1907 – June 29, 2003) was an American actress in film, stage, and television. Her career as a Hollywood leading lady spanned over 60 years. She was known for her headstrong independence, spirited perso ...

's dancing partner, in '' Alice Adams'' (1935) and as a foil to

W.C. Fields WC or wc may refer to: * Water closet or flush toilet Arts and entertainment * ''W.C.'' (film), an Irish feature film * WC (band), a Polish punk rock band * WC (rapper), a rapper from Los Angeles, California * Westside Connection, former h ...

in four films, '' The Pharmacist'' (1933), ''

Man on the Flying Trapeze ''Man on the Flying Trapeze'' (UK title: ''The Memory Expert'') is a 1935 comedy film starring W. C. Fields as a henpecked husband who experiences a series of misadventures while taking a day off from work to attend a wrestling match. As with his ...

'' (1935), ''

You Can't Cheat an Honest Man ''You Can't Cheat an Honest Man'' is a 1939 American comedy film directed by George Marshall and Edward F. Cline and starring W. C. Fields. Fields also wrote the story on which the film is based under the name Charles Bogle. Plot Circus propr ...

'' (1939), and '' The Bank Dick'' (1940). Film historian William J. Mann characterizes Sutton as a typical "Hollywood Sissy," that is as a

homosexual Homosexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexual attractions" to pe ...

actor who ordinarily portrayed an effeminate character for comedic effect. He continued to work throughout the 1950s and 1960s, finally retiring from acting in 1979. The strength of his association with Fields was such that it was mentioned in the commentary for ''

My Fair Lady ''My Fair Lady'' is a musical based on George Bernard Shaw's 1913 play '' Pygmalion'', with a book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner and music by Frederick Loewe. The story concerns Eliza Doolittle, a Cockney flower girl who takes speech lessons ...

''. Sutton has a non-speaking role in some of the formal-dress scenes, and subtly performs some comic shtick. The commentator refers to him as "an old W. C. Fields actor". On television, Sutton appeared in an episode of '' The Odd Couple'', as well as some commercials.

Death

On September 17, 1995, Sutton died at the

Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital In physics, motion is the phenomenon in which an object changes its position with respect to time. Motion is mathematically described in terms of displacement, distance, velocity, acceleration, speed and frame of reference to an observer and me ...

Woodland Hills, California Woodland Hills is a neighborhood bordering the Santa Monica Mountains in the San Fernando Valley region of Los Angeles, California. Geography Woodland Hills is in the southwestern region of the San Fernando Valley, which is located east of Ca ...

at the age of 89.

Filmography

Film

Television

References

External links

* *
Literature on Grady Sutton
1906 births 1995 deaths American male film actors American male silent film actors American male television actors People from Chattanooga, Tennessee Male actors from Tennessee American gay actors 20th-century American male actors LGBT people from Tennessee 20th-century LGBT people {{US-film-actor-1900s-stub