Allen Jenkins

From Wikipedia the free encyclopedia Allen Jenkins April 9 1900 July 20 1974 was an American character actor on stage screen and television He was born Alfred McGonegal on Staten Island New York He studied at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts In his first stage appearance he danced next to James Cagney in a chorus line for an offBroadway musical called PitterPatter He made five dollars a week He also appeared one thousand times in Broadway plays between 1924 and 1962 including The Front Page with Lee Tracy 1928 His big break came when he replaced Spencer Tracy for three weeks in the Broadway play The Last Mile He was called to Hollywood by Darryl F Zanuck and signed first to Paramount Pictures and shortly afterwards to Warner Bros He originated the character of Frankie Wells in the Broadway production of Blessed Event and reprised the role in the film adaptation both in 1932 With the advent of talking pictures he made a career out of playing comic henchmen stooges policemen and other tough guys in numerous films of the 1930s and 1940s especially for Warner Bros He was labeled the greatest scenestealer of the 1930s by the New York Times He voiced the character of Officer Dibble on the HannaBarbera television cartoon Top Cat and was a regular on the 19561957 television situation comedy Hey Jeannie 1956 starring Jeannie Carson He was also a guest star on The Red Skelton Show I Love Lucy Playhouse 90 The Ernie Kovacs Show Zane Grey Theater and The Sid Caesar Show Eleven days before his death he made his final appearance at the end of Billy Wilders 1974 film adaptation of The Front Page He went public with his alcoholism and was the first actor to speak in the US House of Representatives and the Senate about it He helped start the first Alcoholics Anonymous programs in California prisons for women Jenkins James Cagney Pat OBrien and Frank McHugh were the original members of the socalled Irish Mafia He was the seventh member of the Screen Actors Guild Description above from the Wikipedia article Allen Jenkins licensed under CCBYSA full list of contributors on Wikipedia