Ned Sparks Trailers
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Ned Sparks (born Edward Arthur Sparkman, November 19, 1883 – April 3, 1957) was a Canadian-born character actor of the American stage and screen. Sparks was known for his deadpan expression and deep, gravelly voice.
Born in Guelph, Ontario, Sparks left home at age 16 and attempted to work as a gold prospector on the Klondike Gold Rush. After running out of money, he won a spot as a singer on a traveling musical company's tour. At age 19, he returned to Canada and briefly attended a Toronto seminary. After leaving the seminary, he worked for the railroad and worked in theater in Toronto. In 1907, he left Toronto for New York City to try his hand in the Broadway theatre, where he appeared in his first show in 1912.
While working on Broadway, Sparks developed his trademark deadpan expression while portraying the role of a desk clerk in the play Little Miss Brown. His success on the stage soon caught the attention of MGM's Louis B. Mayer who signed Sparks to a six picture deal. Sparks began appearing in numerous silent films before finally making his "talkie" debut in the 1928 film The Big Noise.
In the 1930s, Sparks became known for portraying dour-faced, sarcastic, cigar-chomping characters. He became so associated with the type that, in 1936, The New York Times reported that Sparks had his face insured for USD$100,000 with Lloyd's of London. The market agreed to pay the sum to any photographer who could capture Sparks smiling (Sparks later admitted that the story was a publicity stunt and he was only insured for $10,000). Sparks was also caricatured in cartoons including the Jack-in-the-Box character in the Disney short Broken Toys (1935), and the jester in Mother Goose Goes Hollywood (1938), a hermit crab in both Tex Avery's Fresh Fish (1939) and Bob Clampett's Goofy Groceries (1941), a chicken in Bob Clampett's Slap Happy Pappy (1940), Friz Freleng's Warner Bros. cartoon Malibu Beach Party (1940), and Tex Avery's Hollywood Steps Out (1940). Sparks also voiced the cartoon characters Heckle and Jeckle from 1947 to 1951.
Sparks appeared in ten stage productions on Broadway and over 80 films. He retired from films in 1947, saying that everyone should retire at 65
Most Popular Ned Sparks Trailers
Total trailers found: 80
15 November 1925
Tom loves Patsy, but she lives in the city while he is every bit the country bumpkin. When an invention of his sells, he decides to take the money and go to the city.
31 March 1929
On board a yacht sailing from India to Britain, the owner of the vessel is murdered by one of the passengers.
25 September 1934
Heiress Hedda Nillson certain that her family is about to lose all its money, takes a job as a maid. After the usual trials and tribulations, Hedda falls in love with humble chauffeur Eric Landstrom.
25 March 1928
John Stoval, a guard in a New York subway, thinks that Philip Hurd, who owns a concession at Coney Island, would make a good husband for his daughter Sophie.
10 May 1926
A Modest Comedy Drama
07 March 1920
Georgiana Chadbourne is a young widow. Her dead husband was such a straight arrow that it bored her, and after a proper enough mourning period, she goes out in search of adventure.
10 September 1932
A New York gossip columnist feuds with a singer and enjoys the power of the press.
08 June 1925
After a stormy six year marriage, Barnaby Powers divorces his wife Richmiel. She returns home, taking their young son Oliver with her.
12 March 1938
After being nabbed while trying to stow away on board an ocean liner en route to Hawaii, young Bobbys
20 April 1929
A young man bets $10,000 that he can go for 24 hours without lying.
05 January 1930
An American sailor comes to a seedy banana republic, and finds a fellow yank, a stranded girl, as a saloon singer.
22 January 1936
A Broadway playboy inherits an almost bankrupt girls' school and tries to save it by a big show.
25 October 1934
On the French coast, unlucky Marie Galante is abducted and forced to board an American cargo ship bound for the Panama Canal.
01 August 1920
The plot revolves around a down-on-her-luck woman named Mary whose lack of references makes it impossible for her to gain employment.
29 March 1935
A Broadway producer discovers new talent in a small Georgia town and brings them to New York for his new show.
01 July 1920
Mary Blake can charm any man, young or old, with her winning ways -- except for the one she really wants.
10 May 1926
Sam Starling (Owen Moore) is deep in debt, his wife Phoebe (Claire Windsor) is leaving him and still he is confident.
25 August 1939
This is a film about the life of Gus Edwards, a well known vaudeville composer, entertainer, and producer.
21 March 2006
Short documentary about the Great Depression's impact on film, specifically Berkeley musicals.
01 January 1920
Robert Bennett, an idle socialite, wagers $30,000 with his three friends that he can tell nothing but the truth for a period of one week.
29 April 1931
Prizefighter Mason loses his opening fight so wife Rose leaves him for Hollywood. Without her around Mason trains and starts winning.
04 October 1932
Gangsters scheme to get rid of a crusading District Attorney by blackmailing him through his daughter.
01 April 1932
A gang of crooks evade the police by moving their operations to a small town. There the gang's leader, John Madison, encounters a faith healer and uses him to scam the gullible public of funds for a supposed chapel.
22 December 1933
Sylvia is a French teacher at an all-girls school who wants to find love. When she hears Bill Williams on the radio, she decides to go visit and thank him.
22 August 1927
Michael Lanyard, aka the Lone Wolf, is sailing to America when he meets pretty Eve de Montalais. Eve wants to sneak her valuable necklace through U.
15 October 1937
A famous singer and matinée idol helps a pretty young theater usher in her dreams of becoming a singer, but when her career begins to take off and she becomes engaged to a wealthy young man, he realizes he's fallen for her and plots to break up her impending marriage.
15 June 1930
Johnny Quinlan is so desperate for a job that he takes a gig as a "bag man" for the mob. Meanwhile, his beleaguered wife has to deal with her bizarre, unemployed, wise-cracking brother and various neighbors while keeping house in their Brooklyn tenement.
20 June 1927
A hillbilly deacon, who is actually a cardsharp in disguise, becomes involved in a small-town fight game.
28 December 1931
A Wild West spoof by The Masquers Comedy Club of Hollywood.
09 May 1930
Beautiful manicurist Hallie Hobart sets her sights on handsome David Stone, the son of wealthy wheat farmer Ezra Stone.
22 February 1931
A former All-American football star, now working as a steel mill supervisor in New Jersey, falls in love with the mill owner's wealthy, very spoiled daughter.
31 August 1934
Left only with their yacht after going broke in the Great Depression, a high-society family sets sail for the South Seas.
07 October 1947
Rip Smith's opinion-poll business is a failure...until he discovers that the small town of Grandview is statistically identical to the entire country.
10 August 1930
Margaret Holt and her brother Victor set out to smash a narcotics ring responsible for their father's death.
18 December 1933
In Victorian England, a bored young girl dreams that she has entered a fantasy world called Wonderland, populated by even more fantastic characters.
24 July 1931
The Secret Call is adapted from The Woman, a play by William C. DeMille (brother of Cecil B.) Peggy Shannon plays Wanda Kelly, the daughter of a disgraced politician.
27 May 1933
When all Broadway shows are shut down during the Depression, a trio of desperate showgirls scheme to bilk a repugnant high society man of his money to keep their show going.
12 September 1930
Chick Evans is a Marine private in Honolulu, Hawaii. He falls for society girl Delphine Witherspoon, and begins to scheme as to how to win her over.
16 March 1933
In the 1860s, Mary Marlowe defies her father's wishes to marry a British lord and runs away with clerk John Carlton as he heads West to make his fortune.
11 March 1933
Broadway director Julian Marsh needs just one more hit show so he can retire and recover his health. It looks like he just may pull it off until temperamental star Dorthy Brock breaks her ankle on the eve of the show's premiere and has to be replaced by her understudy Peggy.
23 February 1935
A midwest band leader and his lead singer share a love-hate relationship as they try for success in New York.
13 September 1933
Apple Annie is an aging New York City fruit seller whose daughter Louise has been raised in a Spanish convent since she was an infant.
23 May 1923
For the sake of his impoverished mother, Joe Newbolt bonds himself to harsh Isom Chase. Ollie Chase tires of the difficult life her husband has forced on her and plans to elope with Cyrus Morgan, but Joe's sense of honor forces him to intervene.
15 January 1932
A drunken husband tries to sneak in but his wife catches him... and that means trouble!
06 June 1941
A woman-hater who inherits a beauty salon gets a new perspective on females after capturing a gang of thieves.
18 September 1932
An Indiana boy comes into an inheritance and moves to New York City, living it up with his girlfriend until he gets in over his head and someone gets killed.
24 June 1943
A young soldier on a pass in New York City visits the famed Stage Door Canteen, where famous stars of theatre and film appear and host a recreational center for servicemen during the war.
12 December 1936
The son of a stodgy British earl falls in love with the daughter of an American millionaire businessman.
20 October 1926
Mistaken identity and female impersonation take place when indigents Billy Winthrop (George K. Arthur) and Ethel Winthrop (Dorothy Reviere) rent a fashionable apartment for a few days in order to impress rich uncle Hiram (Tom Ricketts.
23 November 1934
A struggling widow and her daughter take in a black housekeeper and her fair-skinned daughter. The two women start a successful business but face familial, identity, and racial issues along the way.
20 January 1934
Managing Editor Brad Bradshaw refuses to run a story linking the disappearance of Frank Canfield with embezzlement of the bank.
22 November 1925
Thyra arrives in Chekia to wed its old and ugly king. The Duke falls in love with her. A revolution erupts and the king is assassinated.
29 December 1934
In 1898, composer Sid Barnett manages to get his sweetheart, Adeline the beer-garden singer, to sing the lead in his new Broadway operetta; this infuriates Elysia, the erstwhile star.
26 July 1926
The film tells the tale of three ex-cons who finally go straight, through the redemptive power of love.
12 April 1925
John Douglas, a down-on-his-luck engineer, takes his sweetheart, Sara Deeping, to a play starring Carla King, and he falls in love with the actress.
01 January 1937
American theatrical manager discovers Greta Muller preparing for the Olympics in Switzerland and brings her to Madison Square Garden.
16 February 1929
A beautiful showgirl, name "the Canary" is a scheming nightclub singer. Blackmailing is her game and with that she ends up dead.
28 November 1926
"Twinkletoes" Minasi wants to be a great dancer like her deceased mother. Twink meets Chuck Lightfoot, a noted prizefighter, who falls in love with her at first sight.
04 December 1926
A British nobleman, heavily in debut to a moneylender, agrees to marry the man's daughter in exchange for his debt being cleared.
