Buckles Blog: #3 Clyde Beatty

Monday, September 25, 2017

Clyde Beatty and Raymond Hatton.

Roger Smith said...: For Universal's THE BIG CAGE (1933), Raymond Hatton played the role of Timothy O'Hara, an old lion trainer who at last fell to the bottle. Beatty played himself as the young man who took over for Hatton. Mickey Rooney, small for his age of 13, played Hatton's 8-year-old son, who came to hero-worship Beatty.

Hatton began in silent films in 1909, and for a time worked a comedy duo with the redoubtable Wallace Beery, then not so long off the Ringling show as an elephant man. His character career spanned nearly 500 films by one source, but closer to 521 by others. He played the colorful Rusty Joslin in the THREE MUSKETEERS series of B oaters, and was for years the sidekick of Western star Johnny Mack Brown. His well-circulated quote among the film colony was, "A good actor carries his make-up box inside his head."

Raymond William Hatton was born on July 7, 1887, in Red Oak, Iowa. Rare for a Hollywood actor, he was married once, to Frances, on April 7, 1909. They were married for 62 years, until her passing on October 16, 1971. Raymond passed only 5 days later, on October 21. He was 84. They were cremated, and their ashes are interred together at Joshua Memorial Park, in Lancaster, California, where I have paid my respects many times, at their very small marker. Our great old actors like Raymond Hatton are far too often forgotten, until, as we see, Buckles has returned their image for a time of remembrance.; 25 September, 2017 18:36

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