Buddy Ebsen question
TTuerff
Tin Man but had to quit due to an allergy to the paint. However, I've been told
that he was given another role in the movie, namely, the guard at the end of
the movie (after the witch melts) whose first line is: "You killed her!" He
then goes on to give Dorothy the broom and says "Take it with you," etc.
It looks and sounds like Buddy Ebsen but I can't find ANYWHERE that says for
sure that it's him. Does anybody know? Ebsen apparently never mentioned it and
IMDB doesn't have him listed as uncredited.
R H Draney
says...
No, it's not him...and it's not Nikko either, if you've ever read the closing
credits and wondered who the heck that was; Nikko was the chief flying
monkey...a lot of people have assumed it was the name of the guard because he's
the only one other than the leads and the Munchkins who had a line of
dialogue...(oh wait, there were those apple trees too)....
Just about every role in that movie was at some point going to be filled by a
different actor:
WC Fields instead of Frank Morgan as the Wizard
Shirley Temple instead of Judy Garland as Dorothy
Gale Sondergaard instead of Margaret Hamilton as the Wicked Witch
Buddy Ebsen instead of Jack Haley as the Tin Man
Jack Haley instead of Ray Bolger as the Scarecrow
Lassie as Toto
I'm kidding about that last one...as far as I know, nobody else was ever
considered for the parts of Glinda (Bobbie Burke) or the Lion (Bert Lahr), and I
can't imagine anybody else ever playing either of those parts....
Gives you even more respect for my favorite actor who *did* get the role:
Meinhardt Raabe as the Munchkin Coroner...also helped the Oscar Meyer people
develop the character of "Little Oscar" for promotions...and unlike everyone who
*is* listed in the credits, he's still alive and presumably kicking at the age
of 87....r
David Samuel Barr
>
> Just about every role in that movie was at some point going to be
> filled by a different actor:
>
> WC Fields instead of Frank Morgan as the Wizard
> Shirley Temple instead of Judy Garland as Dorothy
> Gale Sondergaard instead of Margaret Hamilton as the Wicked Witch
> Buddy Ebsen instead of Jack Haley as the Tin Man
> Jack Haley instead of Ray Bolger as the Scarecrow
> Lassie as Toto
>
> I'm kidding about that last one...as far as I know, nobody else was
> ever considered for the parts of Glinda (Bobbie Burke)
Nitpick: It's BILLIE Burke. (The home and grounds on which she and her
husband, Flo Ziegfeld, lived, filled a large portion of the middle of
the two-square-mile village where I grew up. Oddly, it's always been
known as the Burke Estate rather than the Ziegfeld Estate.)
Belgarath
Buddy Ebsen. The voice just didn't seem to fit him...
After some research on the net, I found the actors name...its "Mitchell
Lewis". He was an MGM Contract actor for many years, appearing in over 180
films, many of the rolls being uncredited.
Belgarath
"TTuerff" <ttu...@aol.com> wrote in message
news:20030709143844...@mb-m27.aol.com...
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Tom Rockwell
<dsb...@mindspring.com> wrote:
> R H Draney wrote:
>
> Nitpick: It's BILLIE Burke. (The home and grounds on which she and her
> husband, Flo Ziegfeld, lived, filled a large portion of the middle of
> the two-square-mile village where I grew up. Oddly, it's always been
> known as the Burke Estate rather than the Ziegfeld Estate.)
HER name was Billie, and HIS name was Flo? I wonder who wore the pants
in that family... :)
Brian
> R H Draney wrote:
>
>>Just about every role in that movie was at some point going to be
>>filled by a different actor:
>>
>> WC Fields instead of Frank Morgan as the Wizard
>> Shirley Temple instead of Judy Garland as Dorothy
>> Gale Sondergaard instead of Margaret Hamilton as the Wicked Witch
>> Buddy Ebsen instead of Jack Haley as the Tin Man
>> Jack Haley instead of Ray Bolger as the Scarecrow
Ray Bolger was originally cast as the Tin Woodman.
Bolger wanted to play the Scarecrow and got the part
in the end. Ebsen was originally considered for the
Scarecrow. Ebsen didn't mind switching to the the Tin Man.
There are stories circulating about why Bolger wanted the part
of the Scarecrow - The "official" version is that Bolger
thought he would be better cast as the Scarecrow and that he
idolized the actor/dancer that played the part in the stage
version on Broadway.
Some of the rumors (reported by Mark Evanier) are:
"(a) it was a bigger part,
(b) it was a better showcase for a dancer, and
(c) it would involve much less painful make-up."
The actor that played the Scarecrow on Broadway in 1902 was
Fred Stone. Bolger had stated that he saw Stone in the play
Jack O'Lantern in Boston around 1919/1920. [Bolger grew up
in Dorchester, MA.]
Another fact to consider is that in the days "The Wizard of Oz" was
made, actors were under contract to the studio and had little or
no say in the parts they were assigned. Actors could ask, plead,
beg or grovel for specific parts, but they were considered
property or the studio and their opinions mostly ignored.
[Most of this info came from "The Making of The Wizard of Oz"
by Aljean Harmetz. The Mark Evanier quoted material is from
his weblog at http://www.newsfromme.com/ ]
Brian L.
David Samuel Barr
Alias Undercover
and B1 Bob was himself cast in a movie that was skewered on MST3K...just in
case someone needs this for their connection to Kevin Bacon...
AU
"Belgarath" <antrygnowi...@hotmail.com> wrote in
news:Ut9Pa.194128$Xl.32...@twister.rdc-kc.rr.com:
> Hmmm...this had me wondering too, though I was fairly certain it
> wasn't Buddy Ebsen. The voice just didn't seem to fit him...
>
> After some research on the net, I found the actors name...its
> "Mitchell Lewis". He was an MGM Contract actor for many years,
> appearing in over 180 films, many of the rolls being uncredited.
>
> Belgarath
>
>
> "TTuerff" <ttu...@aol.com> wrote in message
> news:20030709143844...@mb-m27.aol.com...
>> Can somebody clear this up for me? I know Buddy Ebsen was supposed to
>> be
> the
>> Tin Man but had to quit due to an allergy to the paint....snip