Charles Cane (actor)

Born in Springfield, Missouri, Cannefax was the son of Martha (née Chambers, later Mrs. E. H. McEwen^[6][7]) and Charles Radford Cannefax.^[1] Following his parents' divorce in 1907, he was raised by his mother in St. Louis.^[8] There, he attended the Marquette School, where, in 1914, he received an award for his work as a catcher in the Post-Dispatch Public School Baseball League.^[9]

Around 1920, Cannefax - who would later be dubbed a "tasty baritone"^[6] - moved to New York to further his musical education and hone his skills as a vocalist.^[10][11] Following his 1924 Broadway debut in the revue Artists and Models, he continued working in vaudeville for over a decade, about half that time - September 1926 to February 1932 - devoted to his partnership with veteran performer Gracie Deagon, billed as Deagon & Cannefax.^[12][13] Prior to that, he had worked briefly with Florence Fair,^[14] and before that, Peggy Fears.^[15]

Following his years with Deagon, Cannefax worked in vaudeville primarily as an M.C., most notably throughout the summer of 1933, when, as the "madcap master of monkey business", he co-hosted Long Branch, New Jersey's annual Walkathon Dance Marathon.^[16][17][18]

On April 7, 1934, the Long Branch Daily Record reported that, in addition to providing pre-screening live entertainment at Long Branch's Paramount Theatre (and serving as M.C. both before and after), Cannefax would be appearing onscreen in that evening's short subject, Come to Dinner, Vitaphone's much-touted Dinner at Eight parody, in which an uncredited assortment of lesser-known talent stands in for Dinner's all-star cast.^[19] For his part, Cannefax—as Dr. Wayne Talcum—requires but three letters tweaked to send up Edmund Lowe's Dr. Talbot.^[20][21]

In the winter of 1941, following a near seven-year absence from stage or screen,^[a] the actor, now named Charles Cane, made his official stage debut as part of the touring company of William Saroyan's The Time of Your Life, a well-received performance that also served to jump-start Cane's screen acting career.^[23][24][25] It also may have sparked a friendship between Cane and his Time co-star 'Bill' Bendix,^[b] as he appeared in at least six subsequent Bendix films, most notably in the injury-riddled 1944 filming of Eugene O'Neill's The Hairy Ape.^[27][28] The others include Don Juan Quilligan (1944),^[29] as well as Duffy's Tavern (1944), The Dark Corner (1946), Kill the Umpire (1950), and Dangerous Mission (1954).^[30][31] During World War II, he participated in USO shows, alongside performers such as Albert Dekker, Adele Mara, Frank Mitchell, and Joe DeRita.^[32][33]

Cane was married at least once.^[34]

Cane was a prominent member of both the Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals and Hollywood's American Legion Post 43.^[35][36]

Cane died November 30, 1973, at age 74,^[2] at the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, where he had been brought after suffering an apparent stroke.^[37] Eight days later, his remains were interred at Hollywood Memorial Park.^[38][37]