Pop-eyed comic actor Wally Vernon started in showbiz at the age of three. With extensive experience in minstrel shows, burlesque, vaudeville, and the legitimate stage under his belt, Vernon began appearing in films in the early '30s, showing up in two-reelers produced at Sennett, RKO, MGM, and Universal. A contract player at 20th Century Fox in the mid-'30s, Vernon displayed his salty, Runyon-esque dialogue delivery in such films as Sharpshooters (1938) and The Gorilla (1939). During the late '40s and early '50s, Vernon was the ubiquitous comedy relief in many a Republic Western. From 1948 through 1956, Vernon co-starred with Eddie Quillan in a lively series of 16 two-reel comedies, produced by Columbia Pictures. Back at Fox in the 1960s, Vernon was one of many Hollywood old-timers given good supporting roles in the 1964 Shirley MacLaine comedy What a Way to Go. Wally Vernon was killed by a hit-and-run driver near his Van Nuys home in 1970.
by Hal Erickson
biography
