Leo Thomas Cleary (June 15, 1894 – April 11, 1955)Doyle, Billy H. (1999).
The Ultimate Directory of Silent and Sound Era Performers: A Necrology of Actors and Actresses
'. Lanham, MD: The Scarecrow Press. p. 109. . was an American character actor in radio and film, and a

vaudeville Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment which began in France in the middle of the 19th century. A ''vaudeville'' was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a drama ...

comedian and singer, perhaps best known as

Dizzy Dean Jay Hanna "Dizzy" Dean (January 16, 1910 – July 17, 1974), also known as Jerome Herman Dean (both the 1910 and the 1920 Censuses show his name as "Jay"), was an American professional baseball pitcher. During his Major League Baseball (MLB) ca ...

's minor league manager in '' The Pride of St. Louis'', as the Catholic priest in '' The Red Menace'', and as the original Old Ranger on the radio series, ''

Death Valley Days ''Death Valley Days'' is an American Western (genre), Western anthology series featuring true accounts of the American Old West, particularly the Death Valley country of southeastern California. Created in 1930 by Ruth Woodman, the program was ...

''."Rites Set for Tomorrow for Air Actor Cleary"
''Pasadena Independent''. April 13, 1955. p. 14.

Early life and career

Born and raised in

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

, Massachusetts, Cleary was the only child of Benjamin Francis Cleary and Mary Clair Lyon. In 1909, the family relocated to Southern California, settling in

Pasadena Pasadena ( ) is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States, northeast of downtown Los Angeles. It is the most populous city and the primary cultural center of the San Gabriel Valley. Old Pasadena is the city's original commercial d ...

. Noted for his expert mimicry and mastery of dialects,"Leo T. Cleary, Radio Pioneer, Rites Tomorrow"
''Valley Times''. April 13, 1955. p. 2. Cleary initially employed the standard " Jewface" portrayal of that era as his signature routine. Billed variously as "the Hebrew comedian," "the Yiddish Gazotsky," "the funniest Hebrew on the stage," and the "Ghetto kid," while also garnering kudos for his singing, Cleary began performing professionally no later than 1917. By 1919, his wife of seven years, soprano Naomi Plant, had joined the act.

Radio

In an interview conducted 14 years after his death, some measure of Cleary's contribution to ''

Lux Radio Theatre ''Lux Radio Theatre'', sometimes spelled ''Lux Radio Theater'', a old-time radio, classic radio anthology series, was broadcast on the Blue Network, NBC Blue Network (1934–35) (owned by the National Broadcasting Company, later predecessor of A ...

's'' success was provided by former ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...

'' staffer Dean Owen, who dubbed Cleary the "pillar fLux Theatre's stock company." On April 20, 1942, Cleary appeared in ''

's'' adaptation of the 1941,

Oscar Oscar, OSCAR, or The Oscar may refer to: People and fictional and mythical characters * Oscar (given name), including lists of people and fictional characters named Oscar, Óscar or Oskar * Oscar (footballer, born 1954), Brazilian footballer ...

-nominated biographical drama, ''

One Foot in Heaven ''One Foot in Heaven'' is a 1941 American biographical drama film directed by Irving Rapper and starring Fredric March, Martha Scott, Beulah Bondi, Gene Lockhart and Elisabeth Fraser. The film was adapted by Casey Robinson from the autobi ...

'', portraying Preston Thurston, the part played by

Gene Lockhart Edwin Eugene Lockhart (July 18, 1891 – March 31, 1957)"Gene Lockhart"
''The ...

in the film. Between 1935 and 1938, Cleary was part of a popular radio comedy team sometimes known as "Nuts and Bolts"—"Nuts" being Cleary and "Bolts" his fellow vaudeville alumnus, Ken Gillum. In March 1937, the pair went from being heard locally—on programs produced, respectively, in Los Angeles and New York—to being broadcast nationally over the

NBC Blue Network The Blue Network (previously known as the NBC Blue Network) was the on-air name of a now defunct American radio network, which broadcast from 1927 through 1945. Beginning as one of the two radio networks owned by the National Broadcasting Co ...

. One of Cleary's most substantial non-recurring roles was the protagonist of "My Brother Abe," an episode of the short-lived series ''Proudly We Hail'', featuring a tremendously wealthy

centenarian A centenarian is a person who has reached the age of 100. Because life expectancies at birth worldwide are well below 100, the term is invariably associated with longevity. The United Nations estimated that there were 316,600 living centenarian ...

and his impatient heirs; "Abe" refers not only to his late, lamented brother, who had died at Gettysburg, but to the like-named late President, with whom he had had the good fortune to correspond.

Film

Notwithstanding a film career confined strictly to small supporting roles, the lion's share uncredited, Cleary did manage, in at least two of the four films in which he received an onscreen credit, to elicit reviewers' acknowledgement of his good work; namely, the 1950 prison drama, '' State Penitentiary'', in which he doubles as the Warden and Narrator, and the 1952 baseball biopic, '' The Pride of St. Louis'', in which Cleary portrays Ed Monroe, Dizzy Dean's minor league manager.

Miscellany

In 1940, Cleary was invited to a gathering of 50 members of the local

Rotary Club Rotary International is one of the largest Service club, service organizations in the world. The self-declared mission of Rotary, as stated on its website, is to "provide service to others, promote integrity, and advance world understanding, go ...

Arcadia, California Arcadia is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States, located about northeast of downtown Los Angeles in the San Gabriel Valley and at the base of the San Gabriel Mountains. It contains a series of adjacent parks consisting of t ...

, convened to honor the branch's outgoing president, John Vanderbur, who, in turn, received the brunt of Cleary's "ribbing," much to the amusement of those present.

Filmography

Personal life and death

From May 18, 1912 until his death, Cleary was married to Naomi Aloha Plant. They had two sons, Jack and Richard. The latter had a brief acting career of his own during the late 1940s and early 50s, most notably with a substantial role in both the original

Broadway Broadway may refer to: Theatre * Broadway Theatre (disambiguation) * Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S. ** Broadway (Manhattan), the street ** Broadway Theatre (53rd Stre ...

run and subsequent tour of ''

Stalag 17 ''Stalag 17'' is a 1953 American war film directed by Billy Wilder. It tells the story of a group of American airmen confined with 40,000 prisoners in a World War II German prisoner-of-war camp "somewhere on the Danube". Their compound holds ...

''. As of January 1920, and continuing through at least May of that year, Cleary owned the company, Leo's Auto Painting Shop, offering "first class work" and "moderate prices". Judging from an article published by ''The Pasadena Post'' in March 1920 (dubbing him "the famous Elk comedian"), Cleary was, at the very least, a member of the Elks Lodge for very near his entire adult life. On April 11, 1955, Cleary died of kidney failure at

Van Nuys Van Nuys ( ) is a neighborhood in the central San Fernando Valley region of Los Angeles, California. Home to Van Nuys Airport and the Valley Municipal Building, it is the most populous neighborhood in the San Fernando Valley. History In 1 ...

Valley Hospital, Survived by his mother, wife, sons and four grandchildren, Cleary's cremated remains are interred at Rose Hills Memorial Park in

Whittier, California Whittier () is a city in Los Angeles County, California, and is part of the Gateway Cities. The city had 87,306 residents as of the 2020 United States census, an increase of 1,975 from the 2010 United States census, 2010 census figure. Whittier ...

Notes

References

External links

*

at OTRR.org {{DEFAULTSORT:Cleary, Leo 20th-century American actors 1894 births 1955 deaths Male actors from Boston American film actors American radio actors