Sidney Bracey on AllMovie

You'd never know it from his desiccated, crackly voiced film appearances of the 1930s, but Australian actor Sidney Bracey was once a romantic leading man. The son of actress Clara T. Bracey and lyric tenor Henry Bracey, Sidney began his own stage career at the turn of the century. By 1910, he was starring in American film productions at the old Kalem Studios. Eventually, his short, thin stature worked against his credibility as a virile lover, and Bracey became a character player in such silent features as Ruggles of Red Gap (1922), The Merry-Go-Round (1923), and Courtship of Miles Standish (1923). He was a particular favorite of director King Vidor and comedian Buster Keaton; the latter was among the first to recognize Bracey's potential in low-key "gentleman's gentleman" roles. Sidney Bracey continued playing butlers, valets, and stewards into the early '40s; he was also prominently featured in such short subjects as Our Gang's Second Childhood (1936) and Three Smart Boys (1937).