Ralph Sanford

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BIRTHDAY

May 21, 1899

DIED

June 20, 1963

RECENT CREDITS

Dodge City (FILM) Jan. 1, 1998

The Remarkable Mr. Pennypacker (FILM) Feb. 1, 1959

Friendly Persuasion (FILM) Nov. 1, 1956

The Lieutenant Wore Skirts (FILM) Jan. 11, 1956

To Hell and Back (FILM) Jul. 1, 1955

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BIOGRAPHY

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Hearty character actor Ralph Sanford made his first screen appearances at the Flatbush studios of Vitaphone Pictures. From 1933 to 1937, Sanford was Vitaphone's resident Edgar Kennedy type, menacing such two-reel stars as Shemp Howard, Roscoe Ates, and even Bob Hope. He moved to Hollywood in 1937, where, after playing several bit roles, he became a semi-regular with Paramount's Pine-Thomas unit with meaty supporting roles in such films as Wildcat (1942) and The Wrecking Crew (1943). He also continued playing featured roles at other studios, usually as a dimwitted gangster or flustered desk sergeant. One of his largest assignments was in Laurel and Hardy's The Bullfighters (1945), in which he plays vengeance-seeking Richard K. Muldoon, who threatens at every opportunity to (literally) skin Stan and Ollie alive; curiously, he receives no screen credit, despite the fact that his character motivates the entire plot line. Busy throughout the 1950s, Ralph Sanford was a familiar presence on TV, playing one-shot roles on such series as Superman and Leave It to Beaver and essaying the semi-regular part of Jim "Dog" Kelly on the weekly Western Wyatt Earp (1955-1961).

~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

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