- Born
- Died
- Birth nameWalter Leland Catlett
- Height5′ 10½″ (1.79 m)
- Walter Catlett carved out a career for himself playing excitable, officious blowhards, and few actors did it better. A San Francisco native, he started out in vaudeville - with a detour for a while in opera - before breaking into films in the mid-1920s. Two of his best remembered roles were as the stage manager driven to distraction by James Cagney in Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942) and the local constable who throws the entire cast in jail, and winds up there himself, in the classic screwball comedy Bringing Up Baby (1938). He retired after making Beau James (1957), and died of a stroke in 1960.
- IMDb mini biography by: frankfob2@yahoo.com
- SpousesKathleen Martyn(1932 - November 14, 1960) (his death)Zanetta Watrous(1908 - November 25, 1930) (divorced, 1 child)Ruth Verney
- ParentsGeorge C. CatlettMary E. Harris
- RelativesGeorge F. Catlett(Sibling)
- He is the uncredited voice of the not-so-honest Honest John in the Disney classic Pinocchio (1940).
- Was in five Oscar Best Picture nominees: The Front Page (1931), A Tale of Two Cities (1935), Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936), Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942) and Friendly Persuasion (1956).
- Introduced the Gershwin standard "Lady Be Good" in the Broadway show of the same name in 1924.
- Popular character actor, best known for playing somewhat blustery, often less-than-honest, characters.
- He has appeared in five films that have been selected for the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically" significant: The Front Page (1931), Bringing Up Baby (1938), His Girl Friday (1940), Pinocchio (1940), & Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942).
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