Herbert Mundin

Born into a Lancashire farming family, actor Herbert Mundin served in the first World War as a wireless operator. After the armistice, Mundin joined a traveling troupe of British music hall performers. His biggest professional boost came when he was signed for the popular Charlot's Revue in the early '20s. Though only in his early twenties, Mundin was always cast in older character parts on stage due to his bulbous nose and short, penguin-like frame. On Broadway from 1928, Mundin signed a contract with Hollywood's Fox studios in 1931. He was seen to excellent advantage in such Fox productions as Chandu the Magician (1932) and Cavalcade (1933). Mundin's popularity at this period was such that, when it was decided that the 1932 Fox production Sherlock Holmes needed some comedy relief, Mundin was hastily shoehorned in as a cockney pubkeeper -- and was billed ahead of that film's Doctor Watson(Reginald Owen). Two of Mundin's better film roles were in a classical vein: He was Barkis in 1934's David Copperfield, and was Much the Miller in 1938's Adventures of Robin Hood; in the latter film he was given a rugged fight sequence with one of Prince John's guards, and also a romantic interest in the form of Una O'Connor (his costar in Cavalcade). Shortly after completing his assignment in the MGM programmer Society Lawyer, Herbert Mundin was killed in a car accident in Van Nuys, California; he was 40 years old.

~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide