From the most recognized face of Captain Hook to perhaps the least recognized face of...well maybe even his own!...Hans Conried has done both villain and straight man alike. Here are just a few pictures I've collected throughout the internet and from movies and things I own with a picture of him on it. Can you spot him before reading the captions?
Here we see one of the most remembered characters Hans Conried has done. Ok, so it isn't HIM, but he was the inspiration for the character of Captain Hook. If you look for a while at his normal pictures and then look at this one again, I'm sure you can see the resemblence.
Here with Deanna Derbin, Franchot Tone, Alan Mowbray, Akim Tamiroff, Frank Jenks & Sig Arno from the movie "His Butler's Sister" in 1943, I think you can see where he stands. Granted, the picture isn't full size (for full size click here) but I think in both pictures it's obvious which one he is. Still can't figure it out? Dead center, ladies and gentlemen, with the receeding hairline.
In the same year as the release of Peter Pan, there were two other films of his that audiences were being introduced to, one of which young audiences remember most. The 5,000 fingers of Dr. T. starred Hans with Tommy Rettig (of Lassie fame) as the young Bart Collins, Mary Healy as his mother Mrs. Collins, and Peter Lind Hayes as August Zabladowski the plumber (pictured with him to the left in their duel scene). Word of advice~enjoy the evil grin Dr. Terwilliker offers to the right here, but try to avoid the pickle juice.
While some audiences were able to enjoy him at the local moviehouse in both Dr. Seuss and Disney movies, other Broadway audiences could applaud him in Cole Porter's Can-Can (also in 1953) as Boris Adzinidzinadze (try pronouncing that without help). Here shown with Gwen Verdon-who played his girlfriend Claudine, his character dubbed himself "The greatest sculptor of them all!" up there with Proxiteles and Michaelangelo. The CD soundtrack is available, pictures that I know of are hard to come by.
I apologize for the slogan across the middle of this one, but it was a poster I was bidding on at eBay and lost. Well, I lost the posters, but I won the DVD to "The Monster that Challenged The World." You win some, you lose some, like this monster who obviously lost its challenge. Apparently this is one of those B movies from 1957, and he is the one without a hat or the pink outfit. Was it too obvious?
Cut down from the big Mexican poster of this movie is this little scene. If you wanted to see where I got it from, click here to see "Musica Y Amor" or as it's more commonly known in The United States "The Big Beat" from 1958. I haven't seen the movie personally, but I like the look on his face. He does look the most comfortable in that chair, doesn't he?
Here he is again as a voice. Don't get smart with me and say, "But I don't see a man in that picture." Can you guess which is Uncle Waldo Wigglesworth? Someone once told me the nose gives him away every time, but personally I think it just shows up accidentally. Here he is in Hoppity Hooper as the wolf. Anyone want to figure out how a wolf can be uncle to a frog? FINALLY someone emails me with the answer. So without further ado, here's the explination courtesy of Paul W. Brekis:
In the first episode of Hoppity Hooper, Waldo and Filmore are running from the law and pull up to Hoppity's house. To gain entrance, Waldo states that he's Hoppity's long lost uncle. Hoppity is skeptical, but is eventually convinced. The law comes and goes, and Hoppity joins the adventures.
Thanks Paul!
Giving credit where credit is due, this cast shot of the Hobbit voices is from the Rankin Bass website, and is the only picture I have found of all these men together. Who is with him? (left-right)Arthur Rankin, Jr., Don Messick, John Stephenson, Paul Frees, Jack DeLeon, Orson Bean, and Jules Bass. I like to think he's smiling warmly over there in the white, or else he's in character as Thorin.
