- Born
- Died
- Birth nameCharles Edward Butterworth
- Charles Butterworth was, before he came to Hollywood in 1930, a stage attraction on Broadway. In the '30s, he had his big successes as the hero's no-nonsense best friend. He made a practice of ad-libbing dry quips and bons mots during shooting, and screenwriters took advantage of this by writing only fragments of his scripts, hoping that he would fill in the missing lines. He didn't like that very much, however, and his star began sinking in the late '30s. In the '40s, he worked for smaller studios; Warner's A production, This Is the Army (1943), was a notable exception. Two years after his last movie, Dixie Jamboree (1944) for PRC, he died in a car crash.
- IMDb mini biography by: Stephan Eichenberg <eichenbe@fak-cbg.tu-muenchen.de>
- SpouseEthel Kenyon(February 17, 1932 - January 23, 1939) (divorced)
- Was engaged to actress Natalie Schafer, who played Mrs. Thurston Howell III on Gilligan's Island (1964), at the time of his tragic death.
- Died of a fractured skull when he lost control of his speeding convertible on Sunset Boulevard and crashed into a lamp post.
- Although his death in a single automobile crash was listed an accident, some say that Butterworth was extremely despondent over the death of close friend Robert Benchley a few months earlier and deliberately crashed his speeding car.
- Graduated from Notre Dame's law school in 1924 and passed the bar but decided against a law career and moved into journalism.
- A one-time news reporter for the Chicago American and New York Times, his talents as a writer were instrumental in establishing solid friendships with journalist Heywood Hale Broun and humorist Frank Sullivan, who helped him find initial work on radio.
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