From Wikipedia the free encyclopedia Joseph Cawthorn March 29 1868 New York City New York January 21 1949 Beverly Hills California was an American stage and film comic actor Cawthorn started out in show business as a child debuting at Robinsons Music Hall in his hometown of New York in 1872 He appeared in minstrel shows and vaudeville as a Dutch comic employing a thick German dialect He later worked in British music halls and American touring companies Cawthorn made his Broadway debut in 1895 1897 or 1898 and embarked on a long career lasting over two decades His first success was playing Boris in Victor Herberts 1898 operetta The Fortune Teller Other notable Broadway roles included the title character in Mother Goose 1903 and inventor Dr Pill in the fantasy musical Little Nemo 1908 In the latter he was called upon to ad lib to buy time during one performance As the scene called for him to describe imaginary animals he had hunted he invented the whiffenpoof on the spot Yale students in the audience appropriated it for the name of their glee club When his Broadway stardom waned Cawthorn moved to Hollywood in 1927 and started a second prolific career appearing in over 50 films the last in 1942 He played Gremio in the first sound adaptation of The Taming of the Shrew in 1929 starring Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks Schultz in Gold Diggers of 1935 and Florenz Ziegfelds father in The Great Ziegfeld 1936 Cawthorn died peacefully on January 21 1949 He was survived by his wife actress Queenie Vassar
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