Johnny Arthur

Born in Scottdale, Pennsylvania to John William Long and Matilda (née Hertzog) Long, Arthur was a veteran of 25 years on stage before he made his screen debut in 1923's The Unknown Purple. Arthur's screen personality was neutral enough to allow him to play the romantic lead in the Lon Chaney vehicle The Monster (1925).

With the coming of sound, Arthur developed his first comic persona -- a "pansy", or effeminate character -- in films such as The Desert Song (1929), She Couldn't Say No (1930), Penrod and Sam (1931) and The Ghost Walks (1934). When the Production Code took effect on July 1, 1934, the overtly homosexual characters played by Arthur were toned down in Hollywood movies. He spent the rest of the 1930s playing timid, worried, or fussy characters. This served him well in low-budget films like Ellis Island and Danger on the Air, as well as big-budget pictures like Crime and Punishment and Road to Singapore. Most of his later roles were unbilled bits.

Arthur is perhaps most remembered for his appearances as Darla Hood's father in Hal Roach's Our Gang shorts. He is also noted for his featured appearance in one of Roach's wartime burlesques of the Axis powers, That Nazty Nuisance (1942); Arthur was the Japanese caricature "Suki Yaki". Arthur's broad villainy was noticed by Republic Pictures, then casting a serial that required a Japanese antagonist. Johnny Arthur took the role and played it menacingly in The Masked Marvel (1943).

Johnny Arthur suffered periods of ill health, which slowed his acting career. His steady film work stalled in 1945, and he took a job with the kitchen staff of the Gilbert Hotel in downtown Los Angeles. He also took living quarters there. In December 1946 the 63-year-old Arthur slipped into a coma and was found in his hotel room by a fellow employee; the intervention saved his life. Days later he was "slightly better" while convalescing at the Cedars of Lebanon hospital.^[1]

Johnny Arthur's generosity toward other actors was exemplary. While he led his own life in reduced circumstances, according to Variety, "he spent thousands of dollars buying meals for the hungry and actors in dire straits. Reportedly, most of a considerable savings account was thus spent, which left him without funds for himself."^[2]

Columnist Louella Parsons noted the actor's plight: "Johnny Arthur, fine screen comedian, has been unable to get a screen job and has been working in the kitchen of a local hotel."^[3] The Parsons appeal resulted in an immediate job offer from radio producer Larry Finley. He signed Arthur to a 52-week contract, to appear on the transcribed Diary of Fate radio series.^[4]

After that engagement Arthur returned to the stage, and appeared in the Norman Krasna-Groucho Marx comedy play April Fool^[5] (later revised as Time for Elizabeth). Mike Connolly of Variety reported that Johnny Arthur was still active in 1950, doing "bits and radio".^[6] He performed in one final film, I Want You, released in 1951.

Johnny Arthur died on December 31, 1951, at age 68, at the Motion Picture Country Hospital.^[7] He was buried at the charitable expense of the Motion Picture Fund in Valhalla Memorial Park Cemetery, but left in an unmarked grave for 60 years until November 2012, when the Friends of Dearly Departed Tours and Findadeath.com raised the funds for a gravestone.