Jay C. Flippen
| Jay C. Flippen | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
March 6, 1899 Little Rock, Arkansas, U.S. |
| Died | February 3, 1971 (aged 71) Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Cause of death | Complications from surgery to repair aneurysm |
| Resting place | Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles |
| Occupation | Actor |
| Years active | 1928-1971 |
| Spouse(s) | Ruth Brooks Flippen (1947-1971; his death) |
Jay C. Flippen (March 6, 1899 – February 3, 1971) was an American character actor who often played police officers or weary criminals in many films of the 1940s and 1950s.
Born on March 6, 1899 in Little Rock, Arkansas, Flippen was an established and respected vaudeville singer and stage actor before his film career. He had been discovered by famed African-American comedian Bert Williams in the 1920s. He called himself "The Ham What Am," and performed occasionally in blackface. Flippen attained the most coveted booking in vaudeville, headlining at the Palace Theatre in New York six times between March 1926 and February 1931.
At one time he was also a radio announcer for New York Yankees games and was one of the first game show announcers. Between 1924 and 1929, Flippen recorded more than thirty songs for Columbia, Perfect and Brunswick.
His first film, the 1928 Warner Bros. short subject "The Ham What Am", captures his vaudeville performance, and there are other shorts in the 1930s, but his film career started in earnest in 1947. Some of Flippen's most noteworthy film work came in support of James Stewart in five of the films the two made under the direction of Anthony Mann during the 1950s. He gave notable supporting performances in three John Wayne films: as a humorous, larcenous Marine air crew Line Chief in Flying Leathernecks (1951); as Wayne's commanding general in Jet Pilot (1957); and as a wheelchair-bound senior partner of Wayne's in Hellfighters (1968). He also made a fourth film which co-starred John Wayne (How the West Was Won, 1962), but played his only scene with Debbie Reynolds and Gregory Peck.
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