Victor Potel | WatchedThis
Victor Potel
Acting
Biography
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Victor Potel (October 12, 1889 – March 8, 1947) was an American film character actor who began in the silent era and appeared in over 430 films in his 38-year career. Victor Potel was born in Lafayette, Indiana in 1889, and his acting career goes back almost to the beginning of the commercial film industry in the United States. He made his first silent film in 1910, a comedy short filmed in Chicago by Essanay Film Manufacturing Company called A Dog on Business. Potel continued to make films for Essanay, appearing in dozens of films every year, including most of the Broncho Billy series, and played a character called "Slippery Slim" in 80 movies. He also appeared in Universal Pictures' "Snakeville" series. Potel's first talking picture was Melody of Love, starring Walter Pidgeon, made for Universal in 1928. and in the sound era he continued to work continuously and constantly, playing small parts and sometimes uncredited bit parts, all primarily comic roles due to his height (6 ft 1 in or 1.85 m) and gawkiness. In addition to acting, on several occasions Potel also wrote and directed. In the 1920s he directed two silent shorts, The Rubber-Neck in 1924 and Action Craver in 1927, and contributed the story for Saxophobia in 1927. In the following decade, in the sound era, he was the dialogue director for The Big Chance (1933), and wrote the story for Inside Information in 1934). In 1935 he provided continuity and dialogue for Million Dollar Haul and the screenplay for Hot Off the Press. In the 1940s, Potel was part of Preston Sturges' unofficial "stock company" of character actors, appearing in nine films written and directed by Sturges. Potel continued to work right up until his death on 8 March 1947. The final film he worked on, Relentless finished filming on 28 February of that year.
Filmography Movies
Acting
Forward, March!
Spanish-language version of Buster Keaton's Doughboys (1930). This film is presumed to be lost.
The Sin of Harold Diddlebock
Twenty-three years after scoring the winning touchdown for his college football team mild-mannered Harold Diddlebock, who has been stuck in a dull, dead-end book-keeping job for years, is let go by his pompous boss, advertising tycoon J.E. Wagglebury, with nothing but a tiny pension. Harold, who never touches the stuff, takes a stiff drink with his new pal... and another, and another. What happened Wednesday?
The Good Fellows
The title of Grand Caesar in the Ancient Order of Noblest Romans of Wakefield, Indiana keeps Jim "Pop" Helton so involved and distracted that he forgets to pay the family's bills, nearly makes a shambles of a real estate deal his oldest daughter, Ethel is working on, almost wrecks her romance with Captain Tom Drayson, and gets involved in a game with a pool shark in an effort to raise the remaining $75 of the $6,750 needed (that they didn't have) by the Wakefield Lodge to host the national convention of the Noblest Romans.
Adventure's End
Pacific pearl diver Duke Slade escapes angry natives by joining a whaler whose dying captain persuades him to marry his daughter who is already being wooed by the first mate.
The Palm Beach Story
A New York inventor, Tom Jeffers, needs cash to develop his big idea, so his adoring wife, Gerry, decides to raise it by divorcing him and marrying an eccentric Florida millionaire, J. D. Hackensacker III.
The Tomboy on Bar Z
A romantic Western in which John saves his beloved Mary when she is about to marry a criminal.
Alkali Ike's Auto
Alkali Ike and Mustang Pete are both wooing the same woman. Ike hopes to take her for a horseback ride, but she chooses instead to go with Pete, who has a horse and carriage. Ike trades his horses for an automobile, hoping to win her over that way, but things do not work out as planned.
The Bad One
In this melodrama, a dancer works in a sleazy Marseilles portside dive that is really the front for a bordello. While dancing one night she meets a sailor and agrees to be his bride. Unfortunately, one of her former suitors suddenly shows up and a terrible fight ensues.
Broncho Billy and the Schoolmistress
"Broncho Billy and the Schoolmistress" (1912, 14 minutes) is a comedy-drama about yet another girl from the East who doesn't need to be protected from the local dangers. Broncho Billy plays a passive role, and even takes a bullet when a jealous villain tries to eliminate him from the new teacher's dance card. Filmed in the wilds of Fairfax, California and at Essanay Studios in San Rafael.
The Strange Case of Dr. Meade
In this drama, a New York physician takes a much-needed vacation down South. Unfortunately, he encounters a nurse working in the backwoods and ends up helping her to combat an epidemic that rages through the mountain communities. The doctor she works for prefers traditional herbs to modern medicine.
Production
The Broken Coin
A police chief and two security agencies work to find out who is behind a recent rash of hijackings.
Inside Information
Lloyd Wilson, trusted employee of an investment firm, is suspected of theft when $20,000 in security bonds is stolen from his office. Tarzan, the Famous Police Dog, has an intuitive dislike of an apparently respectable citizen, and this leads Wilson and the police to the gang headquarters. Tarzan wins a public citation for his leading part in breaking the case against a desperate gang of criminals.
Million Dollar Haul
Special Insurance-Investigator Dan Kennedy and his wonder dog, Tarzan the Police Dog, are called in to investigate the persistent robbing of a shipping-and-storage warehouse in Los Angeles.
Gallery
