Willie Best

This article is about the actor. For other uses, see William Best.

Willie Best
William Best
Born	William Best (1916-05-27)May 27, 1916 Sunflower, Mississippi, U.S.
Died	February 27, 1962(1962-02-27) (aged 45) Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Other names	Sleep 'n' Eat
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1930–1955

William "Willie" Best (May 27, 1916 – February 27, 1962) was an American television and film actor.

Best was one of the first well-known African American film actors and comedians, although his work, like that of Stepin Fetchit, is today sometimes reviled because he was often called upon to play stereotypically lazy, illiterate, and/or simple-minded characters in films. For this, he is usually derogatorily referred to as Sleep n’ Eat. Of the 124 films he appeared in, he received screen credit in at least 77 of them, an unusual feat for a bit player.

Career as an actor

Stage

A native of Sunflower, Mississippi, Best had arrived in Hollywood as chauffeur for a vacationing couple, and began his performing career with a traveling show in southern California. He became a regular character actor in Hollywood films after a talent scout discovered him on stage.

Film

Best appeared in more than one hundred films of the 1930s and 1940s. Although several sources state that for years he was only billed as “Sleep n’ Eat,” Best received credit under this moniker instead of his real name in only five movies: his first film as a bit player (Harold Lloyd’s Feet First) and his next four films that followed (The Monster Walks (1932); Kentucky Kernels and West of the Pecos (both 1934) and Murder on a Honeymoon (1935)). He thereafter usually received credit as “Willie Best” or “William Best.”

Best was alternately loved as a great clown, then reviled, then pitied, finally virtually forgotten. Hal Roach called him one of the greatest talents he had ever met. In a similar gesture, Bob Hope acclaimed him as, "the best actor I know," as the two worked together on The Ghost Breakers in 1940.

As a bit player, Best, like many black actors of his era, was regularly cast in domestic worker or service-oriented roles (a few times he played the role that echoed his previous occupation – that of a private chauffeur), and was usually seen making a brief comedic appearance as a hotel, airline or train porter; but also as elevator operators, custodians, butlers, valets, waiters, deliverymen – and at least once as a launch pilot (in 1939’s Mr. Moto in Danger Island).

Best’s work as a bit player was unusual in that he received screen credit most of the time. The largest part of bit players in 1930s and '40s did not. Walter Brennan, for example, made 125 movies between 1930 and 1939, but was credited on only 57 of them.

Best’s career was also unusual because he was regularly – in over 80 of his movies – given a proper character name (as opposed to simple descriptions like ‘room service waiter’ or ‘shoe shine boy’), starting with his second film . By comparison, Lucille Ball wasn’t billed with a proper character name until her 14th film, and some bit players like Robert Dudley and Ethelreda Leopold were only rarely billed with anything more than a character description.

Best played “Chattanooga Brown” in two Charlie Chan films, 1945’s The Red Dragon and 1946’s Dangerous Money. He also played the character of “Hipp” in three of RKO’s six Scattergood Baines films with Guy Kibbee: 1941’s Scattergood Baines, 1942’s Scattergood Survives a Murder, and 1943’s Cinderella Swings It. (Actor Paul White, who played a young version of Best’s “Hipp” in the first film, went on to play “Hipp” in the next three films. Best returned to the role in the last two).

Television

Best became known to early TV audiences as Charlie, the elevator operator on CBS's My Little Margie from 1953 to 1955.

He also played Willie, the house servant/handyman and close friend of the title character of ABC’s The Trouble with Father, for its entire run from 1950 to 1955.

Death

Best died on February 27, 1962 at the Motion Picture Country Home in Woodland Hills, California, of cancer, at age forty-five. He was buried (by the Motion Picture Fund) on March 5, 1962 at Valhalla Memorial Park Cemetery.

Selected filmography

Film
Year	Film	Role	Notes
1930	Deep South
	Feet First	Janitor	Credited as Sleep 'n' Eat
1931	The Virtuous Husband	Luftus	Alternative title: What Wives Don't Want
	Up Pops the Devil	Laundryman	Uncredited
1932	The Monster Walks	Exodus	Credited as Sleep 'n' Eat
1934	Little Miss Marker	Dizzy Memphis	Uncredited
	West of the Pecos	Jonah	Credited as Sleep 'n' Eat
1935	Murder on a Honeymoon	Willie, the Porter	Credited as Sleep 'n' Eat
	Annie Oakley	Second Cook	Uncredited
	The Littlest Rebel	James Henry, a Cary slave
1936	The Bride Walks Out	Smokie - at marriage bureau
	Mummy's Boys	Catfish
	Thank You, Jeeves	Drowsy
1937	Breezing Home	Speed	Credited as William Best
	The Lady Fights Back	McTavish
	Deep South		short film
1938	Merrily We Live	George W. Jones
	Youth Takes a Fling	George
	Vivacious Lady	Train Porter
1939	Nancy Drew... Trouble Shooter	Apollo Johnson
	Miracle on Main Street	Duke
1940	The Ghost Breakers	Alex
	Who Killed Aunt Maggie?	Andrew
1941	High Sierra	Algernon
	Scattergood Baines	Hipp
	Nothing But the Truth	Samuel
	The Smiling Ghost	Clarence
1942	Whispering Ghosts	Euclid White Brown
	The Hidden Hand	Eustis the Chauffeur
1943	Cabin in the Sky	Second Idea Man
	Thank Your Lucky Stars	Soldier	Uncredited
1944	The Adventures of Mark Twain	George, Twain's Butler	Uncredited
	The Girl Who Dared	Woodrow
1945	Hold That Blonde	Willie Shelley
	The Red Dragon	Chattanooga Brown
1946	The Bride Wore Boots	Joe
	Dangerous Money	Chattanooga Brown	Alternative title: Charlie Chan in Dangerous Money
1947	Suddenly, It's Spring	Porter on train
	The Red Stallion	Jackson
1948	Smart Woman	Train Porter	Uncredited
1949	Jiggs and Maggie in Jackpot Jitters	Willie	Uncredited
1950	High and Dizzy	Wesley
1951	South of Caliente	Willie
Television
Year	Title	Role	Notes
1950–1955	The Stu Erwin Show	Willie, The Handyman	30 episodes
1951–1952	Racket Squad	Janitor Cleaning Man	2 episodes
1952–1955	My Little Margie	Charlie	Unknown/unclear
1954–1955	Waterfront	Billy Slocum/Willie Slocum	18 episodes

See also

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• Stepin Fetchit
• Mantan Moreland
• Fred Toones
• Blackface
• Uncle Tom
• Jar Jar Binks

External links

• Willie Best at IMDb
• Willie Best at AllMovie
• Willie Best at Find a Grave