Charlie Cantor

Charlie Cantor
Cantor on The Fred Allen Show with Minerva Pious, 1941.
Born	Charles Cantor (1898-09-04)September 4, 1898 Worcester, Massachusetts, U.S.
Died	September 11, 1966(1966-09-11) (aged 68) Hollywood, California, U.S.
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1921–1965
Spouse(s)	Reece Cantor (1902–1968)

Charles "Charlie" Cantor (September 4, 1898–September 11, 1966) was an American radio actor. Cantor was known for his frequent appearances on radio, sometimes, totaling 40 shows a week, during the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s. Cantor also appeared in nearly 30 television shows between 1951 and 1965.

Cantor's most notable roles on radio were those of Socrates Mulligan on the "Allen's Alley" segments of The Fred Allen Show, Clifton Finnegan on Duffy's Tavern and as Logan Jerkfinkel on The Jack Benny Program. Cantor also was the second of three actors to portray Abie Levy's father Solomon Levy on Abie's Irish Rose.

Contrary to popular belief, Cantor was not related to comedian Eddie Cantor. However, his brother was actor Nat Cantor.

Cantor first stepped onto the radio scene in 1921 as an actor for a local program at WHN in New York City. From there, Cantor's radio career took off. Between the 1930s and the 1950s, Cantor was a feature guest on anywhere between 20 and 40 radio programs a week, most of them comedy shows. Some of his radio guest star appearances included The Shadow, Dick Tracy, The Life of Riley, The Baby Snooks Show and The Kate Smith Hour.

Cantor became popular with radio audiences in 1940 when he joined the cast of The Fred Allen Show. Cantor, along with Alan Reed and John Brown, joined the cast of the new Texaco Star Theater. When "Allen's Alley", a segment in which star Fred Allen would stroll through an imaginary neighborhood conversing with imaginary neighbors, was first introduced in 1942, Cantor soon joined the list of Allen's "neighbors". Cantor portrayed the dim-witted Socrates Mulligan on the Alley. Mulligan's other "neighbors" included Mrs. Pansy Nussbaum (Minerva Pious), pompous poets Falstaff Openshaw (Alan Reed), Humphrey Titter and Thorndyle Swinburne, Titus Moody (Parker Fennelly), Ajax Cassidy (Peter Donald), and boisterous southern senator Beuregard Claghorn (announcer Kenny Delmar). Cantor remained with the program until its end in 1949.