Jack Oakie
Jack Oakie ( born November 12, 1903 in Sedalia, Missouri; † 23 January 1978 Northridge, California, Lewis Delaney Offield actually ) was an American actor.
He grew up in Muskogee, Oklahoma, on. His touching therefore nicknamed " O ( a) kie " he associated with the name of the role he first played in the theater, to his well-known pseudonym. Oakie was married twice. The first, in 1936 contracted marriage with Venita Varden in 1945 divorced. In 1950 he married a second time, this time the actor colleague Victoria Horne, with whom he remained together until his death.
The working life led Oakie to New York, where he worked as a telephone operator at a stockbroker on Wall Street. The same time he became involved in amateur theater. After 1922, he then suggested a professional artistic career, initially as a member of the choir on Broadway. In 1927 he came to the film and acted in several silent films. In the sound era, he initially worked in many films that played in college milieu, giving him the name "the world's oldest freshman " earned ( " the oldest young fox in the world" ). Often the slightly rounded performer was cast in roles in which he was " nice, friendly, mentally a little underexposed to dumb guy with the mind of a butcher's dog " ( Kay Less ) mimed.
A single roll eventually made him world famous. In Charlie Chaplin's comedy The Great Dictator parodied Oakie Italy's fascist dictator Benito Mussolini. The role earned him an Oscar nomination. He had broken out here from a rigid role stereotypes, embodied on the one hand a funny, at the same time but also a character role.
At the end of his career in the 1960s had Oakie in several well-known television series such as Daniel Boone or with Bonanza.
Jack Oakie died in 1978 at aortic regurgitation.