Lionel Belmore

Stout, bushy-eyebrowed British actor Lionel Belmore capped a lengthy theatrical career with his entry into Hollywood films at the dawn of the talkie era. He was most often cast as innkeepers and burgomeisters, generally appearing in films set in England and Europe. Belmore was an off-and-on regular in Universal's Frankenstein films, appearing as the huffy-puffy mayor in the original Frankenstein (1931) and later showing up on the village council in Son of Frankenstein (1939) and Ghost of Frankenstein (1942). (He was killed off in Son, but reappeared in the same role in Ghost as though nothing had happened). The actor also came in handy in Warner Bros.' Errol Flynn swashbucklers, notably Prince and the Pauper (1936) and The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938). Belmore's oddest part was also one of his shortest. Though given good billing in Laurel and Hardy's Bonnie Scotland (1935) -- and made the subject of several lengthy write-ups in the film's promotional material -- Lionel Belmore's role as a blacksmith was cut down to a single gag, wherein he taps out the Laurel and Hardy theme song on his anvil! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide