Andy Devine

Andy Devine
Devine in the film A Star Is Born (1937)
Born	Andrew Vabre Devine (1905-10-07)October 7, 1905 Flagstaff, Arizona, U.S.
Died	February 18, 1977(1977-02-18) (aged 71) Orange, California, U.S.
Cause of death	Leukemia
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1926–77
Spouse(s)	Dorothy House (1933–77, until his death)

Andrew Vabre "Andy" Devine (October 7, 1905 – February 18, 1977) was an American character actor and comic cowboy sidekick known for his distinctive whiny voice.

Devine was born in Flagstaff, Arizona, on October 7, 1905. He grew up in Kingman, Arizona, where his family moved when he was a year old. His father was Thomas Devine Jr., born in 1869 in Kalamazoo County, Michigan. Andy's grandfather Thomas Devine Sr. was born in 1842 in County Tipperary, Ireland, and emigrated to the United States in 1852. Andy's mother was Amy Ward, a granddaughter of Commander James H. Ward, the first officer of the United States Navy killed during the Civil War.

He attended St. Mary and St. Benedict's College and Northern Arizona State Teacher's College (now Northern Arizona University) and was a star football player at Santa Clara University. He also played semiprofessional football under the pseudonym Jeremiah Schwartz. His football experience led to his first sizable film role, in The Spirit of Notre Dame, in 1931.

Devine had an ambition to act, so after college he went to Hollywood, where he worked as a lifeguard at Venice Beach, in easy distance of the studios. While filming Doctor Bull at Fox Studios in 1933, he met Dorothy House. They were married on October 28, 1933, in Las Vegas, Nevada, and remained united until his death, on February 18, 1977. They had five children: Andrew Devine, Jr. (born 1934), Patrick Gabriel Devine (born 1935), Susanna Rachel Devine (born 1937), Arthur Matthew Devine (born 1938) and Deborah Catherine Devine (born 1941). Andy Jr. and Patrick are actors; the other children have pursued other careers.

It was first thought that his peculiar wheezy voice would prevent him from moving to the talkies, but instead it became his trademark. Devine claimed that his distinctive voice resulted from a childhood accident in which he fell while running with a curtain rod in his mouth at the Beale Hotel in Kingman, causing the rod to pierce the roof of his mouth. When he was able to speak again, he had a labored, scratchy, duo-tone voice. A biographer, however, indicated that this was one of several stories Devine fabricated about his voice. His son Tad related in an interview for Encore Westerns Channel (Jim Beaver, reporting from the 2007 Newport Beach Film Festival) that there indeed had been an accident, but he was uncertain if it resulted in his father's unusual voice. When asked if he had strange nodes on his vocal cords, Devine replied, "I've got the same nodes as Bing Crosby, but his are in tune."