Gilford, Jack

The Oxford Companion to American Theatre | 2004 | 700+ words | Copyright

Gilford, Jack [né Jacob Gellman] (1907–90), character actor. Gilford was a small, withered‐looking comedian who rarely played a leading role but was a familiar favorite in vaudeville, on stage, screen, and television. He was born in New York, the son of a divorced mother who supported her family as a bootlegger, and began his show business career as a stand‐up comic in clubs, then went on to vaudeville and eventually started appearing in New York legit revues in 1940. He toured with the USO during World War II, then started winning interesting supporting roles on Broadway, such as the dentist Mr. Dussel in The Diary of Anne Frank (1955) and the mute King Sextimus in Once upon a Mattress (1959). Gilford's other fondly remembered performances were the worried slave Hysterium in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1962), the Jewish fruit merchant Herr Schultz in Cabaret (1966), the mousy Erwin Trowbridge in Three Men on a Horse (1969), the happy‐go‐lucky Jimmy Smith in No No Nanette (1971), and the miserly old Jethro Crouch in Sly Fox (1976).

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Gerald Bordman and Thomas S. Hischak. "Gilford, Jack." The Oxford Companion to American Theatre. 2004. Encyclopedia.com. 28 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

Gerald Bordman and Thomas S. Hischak. "Gilford, Jack." The Oxford Companion to American Theatre. 2004. Encyclopedia.com. (May 28, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O149-GilfordJack.html

Gerald Bordman and Thomas S. Hischak. "Gilford, Jack." The Oxford Companion to American Theatre. 2004. Retrieved May 28, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O149-GilfordJack.html

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