Biography

Andy Devine

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Overview

Born
October 7, 1905 · Flagstaff, Arizona, USA
Died
February 18, 1977 · Orange, California, USA (leukemia)
Birth name
Andrew Vabre Devine
Height
6′ (1.83 m)

Biography

Rotund comic character actor of American films. Born Andrew Vabre Devine in Flagstaff, Arizona, he was raised in nearby Kingman, Arizona, the son of an Irish-American hotel operator Thomas Devine and his wife Amy. Devine was an able athlete as a student and actually played semi-pro football under a phony name (Jeremiah Schwartz, often erroneously presumed to be his real name). Devine used the false name in order to remain eligible for college football. A successful football player at St. Mary & St. Benedict College, Arizona State Teacher's College, and Santa Clara University, Devine went to Hollywood with dreams of becoming an actor. After a number of small roles in silent films, he was given a good part in the talkie The Spirit of Notre Dame (1931) in part due to his fine record as a football player. His sound-film career seemed at risk due to his severely raspy voice, the result of a childhood injury. His voice, however, soon became his trademark, and he spent the next forty-five years becoming an increasingly popular and beloved comic figure in a wide variety of films. In the 1950s, his fame grew enormously with his co-starring role as Jingles P. Jones opposite Guy Madison's Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok (1951), on television and radio simultaneously. In 1955, before the Hickok series ended, Devine took over the hosting job on a children's show retitled Andy's Gang (1955), in which he gained new fans among the very young. He continued active in films until his death in 1977. He was survived by his wife and two sons.
- IMDb mini biography by: Jim Beaver <jumblejim@prodigy.net>

Family

Spouse
Parents

Trademark

High-pitched raspy voice
Heavy, stocky build

Trivia

Was an avid pilot and owned a flying school that trained flyers for the government during World War II.
Also had a children's television show on one of the local Los Angeles television stations called "Andy and Froggy" where his sidekick was a frog puppet.
His high-pitched gravelly voice was the result of a childhood accident. While running with a stick (some accounts say a curtain rod) in his mouth, he tripped and fell, ramming the stick through the roof of his mouth. For almost a year, he was unable to speak at all. When he did get his voice back, at length, it had the wheezing, almost duo-toned quality that would ultimately make him a star. Another account of his throat injury says he was sliding down the banister in his father's hotel and somehow damaged his throat.
Best known for his sidekick role opposite Guy Madison on the Western series Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok (1951). As Jingles P. Jones, he rode a horse named Joker. The role was originally offered to but turned down by Burl Ives.
The main street of Kingman, Arizona, near his birthplace of Flagstaff is named Andy Devine Boulevard.