Actors - Harold Peary

Home > Listing Index > Actors > Harold Peary

	Actors - Harold Peary

Harold (Hal) Peary (born Harrold Jese Pereira de Faria, July 25, 1908 - March 30, 1985), an American actor, comedian and singer in radio, film, television, and animation, with an unmistakeable and booming voice, and best remembered as the title character of legendary radio comedy The Great Gildersleeve.

Born in San Leandro, California to Portuguese parents, Peary (pronounced Perry) began working in local radio as early as 1923, according to his own memory, and had his own show as a singer, The Spanisher Sernader, in San Francisco, but moved to Chicago, Illinois in 1937. In Chicago his radio work included Fibber McGee and Molly, where he originated the Gildersleeve character as a Fibber McGee neighbour and nemesis in 1938 (and went through several first names and occupations, apparently, before settling on Throckmorton P.), and also worked on the horror show Lights Out, and many others.

Peary's Gildersleeve proved popular enough that it was thought to try the character in his own show. But Gildersleeve was transplanted from Wistful Vista to Summerfield, situated as slightly less pompous and cantankerous ("You're a haaa-aa-aard man, McGee" was a famous catch-phrase), and considerably more domesticated: he was now raising the orphaned children, Marjorie and Leroy, of his late brother, while tending first his manufacturing company and later Summerfield's water supply (as commissioner). The Great Gildersleeve premiered in 1942 and became a steady hit for the rest of the decade, Peary's booming voice and flustered character catch phrases ("You're a brii-iii-iight boy, Leroy!") becoming one of the most familiar American radio presences. And, thanks to four films during the 1940s, a pleasant big-screen presence as well.

In 1950, however, the magic ride ended. It's only partly true that Peary and the show's producer and sponsor fenced over his desire to have more singing spots on the show. (He was a fine singer in the prewar crooning style, but the show's producers didn't think it melded with his comic character and presence.) In actuality, Peary was one of those to whom CBS reached out during that network's late-1940s talent raids (which lured Jack Benny and others away from NBC)--he was more than willing to move The Great Gildersleeve to CBS, but sponsor Kraft Foods wasn't willing to make the move.

That left Peary out in the cold: he'd actually signed a new CBS deal, but Kraft owned the show. Longtime friend and fellow radio actor William Waterman was engaged to replace Peary; to his credit, Waterman refused to incorporate the famous Gildersleeve laugh, believing Peary alone should have the title to that trademark. While Gildersleeve struggled on a few more years (by its final season, listeners heard only repeat broadcasts of earlier episodes), Peary took on a new situation comedy, The Harold Peary Show (aka Honest Harold), but the show failed to go over with the public.

Peary had played Gildersleeve in four films in the 1940s, and also appeared in films such as the Walt Disney movie A Tiger Walks (1964) and the Elvis Presley entry Clambake (1965). He also worked in television situation comedies, playing Herb Woodley on the TV version of Blondie, Mayor LaTrivia in the TV version of Fibber McGee and Molly, and periodic guest slots on The Dick Van Dyke Show, Petticoat Junction, and even The Brady Bunch, but he never became even half the star on television that he had been in radio. As it turned out, his radio stardom telegraphed his future: Peary's true post-Gildersleeve living proved to be his magnificent voice talent; he spent most of the rest of his life voice-acting in animated work by Rankin-Bass and Hanna-Barbera and others.

Harold Peary died of a heart attack at the age of 76. But thanks to numerous in-network recordings at their original time of broadcast, The Great Gildersleeve has proven one of the most popular finds among those who become old-time radio fans, even among those who weren't even born when Peary made his last appearance in the role he made a legend.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Harold Peary ]

This page is based on the copyrighted Wikipedia article Harold Peary; it is used under the GNU Free Documentation License. You may redistribute it, verbatim or modified, providing that you comply with the terms of the GFDL.

Searches on eBay