Percy Helton

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Percy Helton bigraphy, stories - Film

Percy Helton : biography

January 31, 1894 – September 11, 1971

Percy Helton (January 31, 1894 – September 11, 1971) was an American film and television actor.

One of his most memorable supporting roles was playing a drunken Santa Claus in Miracle on 34th Street. He also appeared in small but memorable roles in Criss Cross (1949), The Set-Up (1949), Kiss Me Deadly (1955) and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969). Percy Helton began acting as a young child at the age of two, appearing in his father’s vaudeville act. He appeared in many Broadway plays as a child actor before joining the US Army to serve in World War I with the American Expeditionary Forces. The short actor with a hoarse, raspy voice and breathy delivery was a fixture in a wide range of films and TV programs in the 1950s and 1960s.

Partial filmography

  • The Offenders (1921)
  • Silver Wings (1922)
  • Miracle on 34th Street (1947) (uncredited drunken Santa Claus)
  • Call Northside 777 (1948) (uncredited)
  • Abbott & Costello Meet The Killer, Boris Karloff (1949)
  • Criss Cross (1949)
  • Lust for Gold (1949) (uncredited)
  • My Friend Irma (1949)
  • Red, Hot and Blue (1949)
  • The Crooked Way (1949)
  • The Set-Up (1949)
  • Thieves’ Highway (1949)
  • Cyrano de Bergerac (1950)
  • Three Guys Named Mike (1951)
  • A Girl in Every Port (1952)
  • Call Me Madam (1953)
  • How to Marry a Millionaire (1953) (uncredited)
  • Wicked Woman (1953)
  • A Star is Born (1954) (uncredited)
  • White Christmas (1954) (uncredited)
  • 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954)
  • Kiss Me Deadly (1955)
  • Jailhouse Rock (1957) (uncredited)
  • Where the Boys Are (1960) (uncredited)
  • Ride the High Country (1962) (uncredited)
  • The Music Man (1962) (uncredited)
  • 4 for Texas (1963)
  • Hush…Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964)
  • Zebra in the Kitchen (1965)
  • The Sons of Katie Elder (1965)
  • Head (1968)
  • Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)

Notable television appearances

  • The Life of Riley
  • The Wild Wild West
  • Alfred Hitchcock Presents
  • The Beverly Hillbillies
  • Batman
  • Adventures of Superman
  • Mission: Impossible
  • Land of the Giants
  • Love American Style
  • The Twilight Zone
  • Mister Ed
  • The Mothers-In-Law
  • The Fugitive
  • Gunsmoke
  • Green Acres
  • Get Smart
  • Perry Mason
  • Lawman
  • The Jerry Lewis Show