Frank McHugh(1898-1981)
- Actor
- Soundtrack
The parents of Frank McHugh ran their own stock company and he was on
the stage as a child. When he was 10 he was part of an act that include
his brother Matt McHugh and sister Kitty McHugh. After vaudeville and other
stock companies, Frank debuted on Broadway "The Fall Guy" (1925). In
1930 he was hired at Warner Brothers as a contract player. Frank would
usually play the sidekick to the lead actor and would provide the
comedy relief in tense situations - if it were called for. With his
nervous laugh and hangdog look, he appeared in over 90 movies in the
first dozen years he worked at Warners. He would also appear with
another very busy character actor, Allen Jenkins, in a dozen or so films.
McHugh would be a mechanic, a song plugger, a pilot, a baseball player
or a newspaperman, and would either be married or get the girl only if
the girl was not the one the hero was interested in. Over the years he
would work with most of the stars that Warners employed. By the early
1950s his film career started winding down. From 1964 to 1965 he played
the role of Willis Walter on The Bing Crosby Show (1964).
