William Demarest Trailers
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Carl William Demarest (February 27, 1892 – December 27, 1983) was an American character actor, known for playing Uncle Charley in My Three Sons. A veteran of World War I, Demarest became a prolific film and television actor, appearing in over 140 films, beginning in 1926 and ending in the 1970s. He frequently played crusty but good-hearted roles. Demarest started in show business working in vaudeville, appearing with his wife Estelle Collette (real name Esther Zychlin) as "Demarest and Colette", then moved on to Broadway. Demarest worked regularly with director Preston Sturges, becoming part of a "stock" troupe of actors that Sturges repeatedly cast in his films. He appeared in ten films written by Sturges, eight of which were under his direction, including The Lady Eve, Sullivan's Travels and The Miracle of Morgan's Creek. Demarest was such a familiar figure at the Paramount studio that just his name was used in the movie Sunset Boulevard as a potential star for William Holden's unsold baseball screenplay.
Demarest appeared with veteran western film star Roscoe Ates in the 1958 episode "And the Desert Shall Blossom" of CBS's Alfred Hitchcock Presents. In the story line, Ates and Demarest appear as old timers living in the Nevada desert. The local sheriff, played by Ben Johnson, appears with an eviction notice, but he agrees to let the pair stay on their property if they can make a dead rosebush bloom within the next month.
In 1959 Demarest was named the lead actor of the 18-week sitcom Love and Marriage on NBC in the 1959–1960 season. Demarest played William Harris, the owner of a failing music company who refuses to handle popular rock and roll music, which presumably might save the firm from bankruptcy. Joining Demarest on the series were Jeanne Bal, Murray Hamilton and Stubby Kaye.
Demarest appeared as Police Chief Aloysius of the Santa Rosita Police Department in the film It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963), as well as on a memorable episode ("What's in the Box") of Rod Serling's The Twilight Zone as a hen-pecked husband driven to the murder of his wife.
His most famous television role was in the ABC and then CBS sitcom My Three Sons from 1965 to 1972, playing Uncle Charley O'Casey. He replaced William Frawley, whose failing health had made procuring insurance impossible. Demarest had worked with Fred MacMurray previously in the films Hands Across the Table (1935), Pardon My Past (1945), On Our Merry Way (1948), and The Far Horizons (1955) and was a personal friend of MacMurray. Also, he worked with Irene Dunne in Never a Dull Moment (1950).
Most Popular William Demarest Trailers
Total trailers found: 145
26 April 1937
Agent Pete Garland is fired by society singer Monica Barrett after he got her a new radio contract, because she thinks her lawyer friend Teddy Leeds fits in better with her social status.
02 December 1965
A young woman suspects foul play when her cat comes home wearing a wristwatch. Convincing the FBI, though, and catching the bad guys is tougher than she imagined.
02 December 1938
Trouble-prone Billy Peck and his gang descend on a traveling circus that has just hit town, and before long their antics are causing the circus owner all kinds of problems.
17 February 1939
Mason is a former race-horse owner who gave up everything and started to drink after the death of one of his jockeys.
10 October 1946
At the turn of the 20th century, young Asa Yoelson decides to go against the wishes of his cantor father and pursue a career in show business.
07 November 1963
A group of strangers come across a man dying after a car crash who proceeds to tell them about the $350,000 he buried in California.
12 June 1942
The Army takes a bandleader (Kay Kyser) away from his bride (Ellen Drew) and sends him on a spy mission with a woman (Jane Wyman).
25 November 1930
The heir to a fortune will only receive his inheritance if he spends the night in a supposedly haunted house.
30 September 1945
A girl is desperate to get to Washington D.C. to be with her lonesome brother, a wounded G.I. She persuades Bing Crosby to let her join his caravan.
19 October 1939
After the death of a United States Senator, the idealistic Jefferson Smith is appointed as his replacement in Washington.
20 August 1948
When heiress Jean Courtland attempts suicide, her fiancée Elliott Carson probes her relationship with John Triton.
20 August 1927
"Specs" White owns a garage in town and is the local baseball team's #1 pitcher--but he's more interested in working on his latest invention, a new and improved gas pump, than pitching on the team.
31 December 1942
As sixteen year old Ann Winters begins a relationship with an older actor to further her career, lookalike fan Penelope Ryan is recruited by a group of former child stars to perform in a USO show.
27 December 1935
A powerful publisher John Mitchell whose pursuit of sensational headlines at the expense of all else takes a personal toll when his daughter Joan is implicated in a murder.
23 January 1940
A New York attorney defends a young man with a criminal past who has been accused of murdering a police inspector.
04 December 1942
The story takes place at a summer theater in the Berkshire Mountains, where heroine Joan Barry (Carol Bruce) is staging a Broadway-bound musical comedy.
08 February 1964
Lucky Jackson arrives in Las Vegas with his car literally in tow ready for the first Grand Prix — once he has the money for an engine.
05 September 1949
In her attempts to make a splash on Broadway, a lively would-be-actress lands herself in hot water with the mob.
30 November 1941
Successful movie director John L. Sullivan, convinced he won't be able to film his ambitious masterpiece until he has suffered, dons a hobo disguise and sets off on a journey, aiming to "know trouble" first-hand.
15 January 1928
A "love-'em-and-leave-'em" sailor hooks up with a dance-hall girl in Paris while waiting for his ship to sail.
25 February 1941
It's no accident when wealthy Charles falls for Jean. Jean is a con artist with her sights set on Charles' fortune.
15 November 1927
A police raid on a night club results in the entire cast of the club's floor show being hauled into court, where they must perform their routines for the judge.
23 September 1943
Mystery writer Barry Craig (Allyn Joslyn) and his wife Jane (Evelyn Keyes), prefer solving crimes rather than writing about them.
16 January 1963
Beleaguered professor Ned Brainard has already run into a pile of misfortunes with his discovery of the super-elastic substance "Flubber.
18 April 1941
The Cisco Kid is captured while keeping a rendezvous with cantina dancer Dolores but is released by his captor, the commander of a U.
17 February 1944
One of the members of a sorority is found murdered. Although the police are called in to investigate, some of the girls decide to do some sleuthing on their own to unmask the killer.
28 August 1942
A New York inventor, Tom Jeffers, needs cash to develop his big idea, so his adoring wife, Gerry, decides to raise it by divorcing him and marrying an eccentric Florida millionaire, J.
10 October 1973
A young couple inherits an old mansion inhabited by small demon-like creatures who are determined to make the wife one of their own.
31 May 1956
Selfish Chris Teller pressures his older brother, a retired climber, to accompany him on a treacherous Alpine climb to loot the bodies of plane crash victims.
16 July 1937
J.B. Ball, a rich financier, gets fed up with his free-spending family. He takes his wife's just-bought (very expensive) sable coat and throws it out the window, it lands on poor hard-working girl Mary Smith.
27 May 1927
To satisfy her controlling mother and secure both of their futures, a daughter hesitantly enters a loveless marriage to a wealthy businessman.
08 January 1927
A gang of inept crooks and even more inept lawmen search for a cache of hidden money.
02 December 1950
An orange packer (Mickey Rooney) foils robbers with magic and wins the boss's (William Demarest) daughter (Terry Moore).
22 August 1952
Two military men, Captain Flagg and Sergeant Quirt, who are rivals to begin with, grow more at odds with each other when Quirt is made Flagg's top sergeant.
18 March 1938
Rebecca's Uncle Harry leaves her with Aunt Miranda who forbids her to associate with show people. But neighbor Anthony Kent is a talent scout who secretly set it up for her to broadcast.
03 June 1938
Two young men try to wrest their father from the clutches of a gold digger but by mistake think the woman is a young nightclub singer with whom they both fall in love.
24 December 1937
West Point cadet Dick Thorpe falls in love with a girl, who turns out to be a princess from an European kingdom.
04 July 1949
A young girl is left with the notoriously cheap Sorrowful Jones as a marker for a bet. When her father doesn't return, he learns that taking care of a child interferes with his free-wheeling lifestyle.
04 December 1953
A Southern belle frees a Rebel officer and his men from a Union captain's Arizona fort.
03 February 1948
Oliver Pease gets a dose of courage from his wife Martha and tricks the editor of the paper (where he writes lost pet notices) into assigning him the day's roving question.
29 March 1953
A woman raises mink to get the coat she's always wanted.
17 February 1950
When Willie leaves home to join the war effort he is all ready to become a hero, but he is only frustrated when his posting ends up to be in his home town, and he is recruited into training, keeping him from the action.
02 June 1934
Valkyr Bradford takes the assistance of a society reporter and a journalist to investigate the disappearance of her half-sister Arlene, a wealthy socialite involved in criminal activities.
17 October 1961
Feature-length Western based on the hit TV show 'Tales of Wells Fargo,' about a Wells Fargo Company troubleshooter who becomes the target of an outlaw he helped send to prison.
27 June 1927
The transition from horses to automobiles at the turn of the century causes problems between a father and son.
18 June 1953
The health conscious, dairy-farming Higgins family begin each day with an invigorating swim. One day, traveling health-tonic salesman, Windy Weebe, comes to town and suggests they could swim the English Channel.
01 July 1956
Ben Matthews gives up the flashy life of a riverboat gambler, hoping to settle down in Galena with his girlfriend, luscious entertainer Zoe.
24 June 1937
A millionaire is found murdered in his apartment. Suspicion falls on a variety of suspects, including his fiancée and her parents, the butler, and a professional mentalist known as The Great Gambini.
26 July 1976
A would-be filmmaker and actress shake up the industry with a trick dog who gets discovered by a studio bus driver in the 1920s.
29 August 1947
Dozens of star and character-actor cameos and a message about the Variety Club (a show-business charity) are woven into a framework about two hopeful young ladies who come to Hollywood, exchange identities, and cause comic confusion (with slapstick interludes) throughout the Paramount studio.
25 October 1940
An office clerk loves entering contests in the hopes of someday winning a fortune and marrying the girl he loves.
01 August 1940
Told in flashback, Depression-era bum Dan McGinty is recruited by the city's political machine to help with vote fraud.
24 December 1943
A writer for a radio program needs some fresh ideas to juice up his show. For inspiration, he rents a room with a typical American family and begins to secretly write about their true life antics.
06 October 1927
A young Jewish man is torn between tradition and individuality when his old-fashioned family objects to his career as a jazz singer.
22 February 1935
A managing editor sends a socialite reporter to spy on her boyfriend, mixed up in murder.
05 May 1941
Johnny Campbell isa glib campaign manager for gubenatorial candidate Stogie McPhee. Having impulsively promised Johnny that she'll marry him if McPhee wins, heroine Pepper Wilson begins canvassing the voters on behalf of rival candidate Gildersleeve.
08 August 1941
A detective's wedding is postponed when gunshots are heard nearby.
21 March 1942
A wire-walker, on the run from gangsters, masquerades as a soldier at her boyfriend's Army base.
15 March 1935
After socialite Lynn Llewellyn receives an anonymous threat, he is poisoned at his uncle's casino, and although he recovers, his wife is murdered by the same killer.
18 December 1936
Nature reporter Orville Shanks retreats to the woods for material for his "Our Wild Friends" column and to volunteer for his favorite cause, the Boy Scouts.
