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