Otis Harlan: The Voice of Happy

Well may you think you’ve never crossed cinematic paths with Otis Harlan (1865-1940) but you’d almost certainly be incorrect. Harlan’s most widely witnessed performance is undoubtedly the character of Happy in Walt Disney’sSnow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1938), whose voice he supplied. His 137 screen credits stretch back to 1915 and include such other turns as Cap’n Andy in the original screen version of Show Boat (1929), and performances in Lubitsch’sThe Student Prince in Old Heidelberg (1927), Broadway (1929), King of Jazz (1930, with Paul Whiteman), Doctor Bull (1933, with Will Rogers), The Old Fashioned Way (1934, with W.C. Fields), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1935), and The Singing Kid (1936) with Al Jolson. Prior to his screen career, the Ohio native had performed in vaudeville and with stock companies, and then on Broadway, where he appeared in 15 shows between 1894 and 1915, most notably Victor Herbert’sThe Magic Knight (1906). He was the uncle of matinee idol Kenneth Harlan. 

To learn more about vaudeville, please see No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous, and for more on silent and early film please read Chain of Fools: Silent Comedy and Its Legacies from Nickelodeons to Youtube.