Erik Visits an American Grave, Part 1,624
By This is the grave of Eddie Collins.
Born in 1883 in Atlantic City, New Jersey, Collins started working in vaudeville by his early 20s. He was just a guy doing the vaudeville thing. Not much money in it, but he was a showbiz type and wasn’t going to give it up. There really isn’t too much to say about him until the 30s. By this point and ever since about 1925, Collins was working burlesque shows, I think out in Los Angeles. So to say the least, at best he was making a living but was no star. However, while working in these shows, a Disney animator saw him. Walt Disney was creating what became Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. Collins evidently had a bit where he would act real dumb and slow. The animator thought this was great stuff, so he had Disney bring him on as the model for Dopey. Even though Dopey didn’t speak, he did make sounds and so they hired Collins for that too. Now, if you remember, Dopey is not only supposed to be stupid, he also doesn’t actually speak in words. So all those sounds? Those are Collins. He also did the sneezing sounds for the squirrels and chipmunks.
Disney thought Collins was great and so they got him a studio contract with Twentieth-Century Fox and so he did minor roles for the next several years. He worked pretty consistently, both in voice-over work and in minor roles in major films. He’s probably best known, outside of Snow White of course, as Tylo, the dog transformed into a human, in the 1940 Shirley Temple vehicle, The Blue Bird. He also appeared in such higher end movies as Young Mr. Lincoln, Drums Along the Mohawk, and The Return of Frank James. He had a truly amazing face that could do almost anything. The guy was like an old dude dredged up from the past and turned into a really useful actor in late 30s Hollywood, when directors still knew what to do with guys like that.
Alas, in 1940, Collins had a massive heart attack and died. He was 57 years old.
Eddie Collins is buried in Calvary Cemetery, East Los Angeles, California.
If you would like this series to visit other people associated with Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, you can donate to cover the required expenses here. Lucille La Verne, who was the voice of the Queen, is in Inglewood, California, and Roy Atwell, who was the voice of Doc, is in Cazenovia, New York. Previous posts in this series are archived here and here.