Herman Bing

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BIRTHDAY

March 30, 1889

Frankfurt, Germany

DIED

January 09, 1947

RECENT CREDITS

Maytime (FILM) Jan. 1, 1937

The Great Ziegfeld (FILM) Jan. 1, 1936

The Barbary Coast (FILM) Sep. 27, 1935

Twentieth Century (FILM) May. 11, 1934

The Merry Widow (FILM) Jan. 1, 1934

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BIOGRAPHY

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Along with such immortals as Percy Helton, Franklin Pangborn and Grady Sutton, Herman Bing is a member of that Valhalla of film character actors. Educated in his native Germany for a musical career, Bing went into vaudeville at 16, and soon after found work as a circus clown. Entering films in the mid-1920s, Bing apprenticed under the great director F. W. Murnau. He accompanied Murnau to Hollywood in 1927, where he worked as a scripter and assistant director on the classic silent drama Sunrise. After several more years assisting the likes of John Ford and Frank Borzage, Bing established himself as a character actor. Nearly always cast as a comic waiter, excitable musician, apoplectic stage manager or self-important official, Bing became famous for his wild-eyed facial expressions and his thick, "R"-rolling Teutonic accent. When the sort of broad comedy for which Herman Bing was renowned became passe in the postwar era, work opportunities dried up; despondent over his fading career, Bing shot himself at the age of 67.

~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

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