Grady Harwell Sutton (April 5, 1906 – September 17, 1995) was an American film and television character actor from the 1920s to the 1970s. He appeared in more than 180 films.

Early years

Sutton was born in

Chattanooga, Tennessee Chattanooga ( ) is a city in Hamilton County, Tennessee, United States, and its county seat. It is located along the Tennessee River and borders Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the south. With a population of 181,099 in 2020, it is Tennessee ...

, the son of Mr. and Mrs. W. P. Sutton. Raised in

Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

, he attended

St. Petersburg High School St. Petersburg High School, founded in 1898, is a secondary school in the Pinellas County School District in St. Petersburg, Florida. The school's current building, a historic landmark, was built in 1926. It was designed by Missouri architect W ...

, where he was a member of the swimming team.

Career

Sutton began his career during the

silent film A silent film is a film without synchronized recorded sound (or more generally, no audible dialogue). Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements (such as a setting or era) or key lines of dialogue may, w ...

era and made the transition to

sound film A sound film is a Film, motion picture with synchronization, synchronized sound, or sound technologically coupled to image, as opposed to a silent film. The first known public exhibition of projected sound films took place in Paris in 1900, bu ...

s with the college themed

shorts Shorts are a garment worn over the pelvic area, circling the waist and splitting to cover the upper part of the legs, sometimes extending down to the knees but not covering the entire length of the leg. They are called "shorts" because they ar ...

'' The Boy Friends''. He moved on to countless character roles, where he frequently played dimwitted country boys. His best-known roles were as Frank Dowling,

Katharine Hepburn Katharine Houghton Hepburn (May 12, 1907 – June 29, 2003) was an American actress whose Katharine Hepburn on screen and stage, career as a Golden Age of Hollywood, Hollywood leading lady spanned six decades. She was known for her headstrong ...

's dancing partner, in '' Alice Adams'' (1935) and as a foil to W.C. Fields in four films, '' The Pharmacist'' (1933), '' Man on the Flying Trapeze'' (1935), '' You Can't Cheat an Honest Man'' (1939), and '' The Bank Dick'' (1940). Film historian William J. Mann characterizes Sutton as a typical "Hollywood Sissy"; that is, a

homosexual Homosexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior between people of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexual attractions" exc ...

actor who ordinarily portrayed an effeminate character for comedic effect. He didn't reveal he was gay until much later in his career for fear of being blackballed back in the 1930's. He continued to work throughout the 1950s and 1960s, finally retiring from acting in 1979. The strength of his association with Fields was such that it was mentioned in the commentary for ''

My Fair Lady ''My Fair Lady'' is a musical theatre, musical with a book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner and music by Frederick Loewe. The story, based on George Bernard Shaw's 1913 play ''Pygmalion (play), Pygmalion'' and on the Pygmalion (1938 film), 1938 film ...

''. Sutton has a non-speaking role in some of the formal-dress scenes, and subtly performs some comic shtick. The commentator refers to him as "an old W. C. Fields actor". On television, Sutton appeared in an episode of '' The Odd Couple'', as well as some commercials.

Death

On September 17, 1995, Sutton died at the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital in

Woodland Hills, California Woodland Hills is a neighborhood bordering the Santa Monica Mountains in the San Fernando Valley region of Los Angeles, California, United States. History The area was inhabited for around 8,000 years by Native Americans in the United States, ...

at the age of 89.

Filmography

Film

Television

References

External links

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Literature on Grady Sutton
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sutton, Grady 1906 births 1995 deaths 20th-century American LGBTQ people 20th-century American male actors American gay actors American male film actors American male silent film actors American male television actors LGBTQ people from Florida LGBTQ people from Tennessee Male actors from Chattanooga, Tennessee