by Hal Erickson
biography
Slight, wizened British character-actor Edgar Norton entered films in 1914. Norton played a variety of aristocratic and authoritative roles during the silent era, notably Lutz in Ernst Lubitsch's Student Prince (1926). His best-remembered talkie appearance was as Henry Jekyll's faithful butler Poole in 1931's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, a role he'd previously played on-stage in London and New York. Edgar Norton remained active until the early '40s, usually in bit roles but occasionally enjoying such juicy assignments as Basil Rathbone's family retainer in Son of Frankenstein (1939) and Phineas Weed in House of the Seven Gables (1940).
