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Personal Info
Known For
Acting
Birthday
May 27, 1913
Died
November 27, 1962
Place of Birth
Sunflower, Mississippi, USA
Also Known As
- Sleep 'n' Eat
- Sleep 'n Eat
- Sleep n' Eat
Willie Best
0.5 Popularity
Biography
William “Willie” Best (May 27, 1916 - February 27, 1962), sometimes known as “Sleep n' Eat,” was an American television and film actor. Best was one of the first African-American film actors and comedians to become well known. In the 21st century, his work, like that of Stepin Fetchit, is sometimes reviled because he was often called upon to play stereotypically lazy, illiterate, and/or simple-minded characters in films. Of the 124 films he appeared in, he received screen credit in at least 77, an unusual feat for an African-American bit player. Willie Best appeared in more than one hundred films of the 1930s and 1940s. Although several sources state that for years he was billed only as “Sleep n' Eat,” Best received credit under this moniker instead of his real name in only six movies: his first film as a bit player (Harold Lloyd's Feet First) and in Up Pops the Devil (1931), The Monster Walks (1932), Kentucky Kernels and West of the Pecos (both 1934), and Murder on a Honeymoon (1935). Best was first loved as a great clown, then later in the 20th century reviled and pitied, before being forgotten in the history of film. Hal Roach called him one of the greatest talents he had ever met. Comedian Bob Hope similarly acclaimed him as “the best actor I know,” while the two were working together in 1940 on The Ghost Breakers. As a supporting actor, Best, like many black actors of his era, was regularly cast in domestic worker or service-oriented roles (though a few times he played the role echoing his previous occupation as a private chauffeur). He was often seen making a brief comic turn as a hotel, airline or train porter, as well as an elevator operator, custodian, butler, valet, waiter, deliveryman, and at least once as a launch pilot (in the 1939 movie Mr. Moto in Danger Island). Willie Best received screen credit most of the time, which was unusual for “bit players,” most in the 1930s and '40s were not accorded due credit. This also happened to white actors in small roles, but black actors were not credited even when their roles were larger. In more than 80 of his movies, he was given a proper character name (as opposed to simple descriptions such as “room service waiter” or “shoe-shine boy”), beginning with his second film. Best played “Chattanooga Brown” in two Charlie Chan films —The Red Dragon in 1945 and Dangerous Money in 1946. He also played the character of “Hipp” in three of RKO’s six Scattergood Baines films with Guy Kibbee: Scattergood Baines (1941), Scattergood Survives a Murder (1942), and Cinderella Swings It in 1943. (Actor Paul White, who played a young version of Best’s “Hipp” in the first film, went on to play “Hipp” in the next three films. Best returned to the role in the last two.) After a drug arrest ended his film career, he worked in television for a while and became known to early TV audiences as “Charlie the Elevator Operator” on CBS's My Little Margie, from 1953 to 1955. He also played Willie, the house servant, handyman and close friend of the title character of ABC’s The Trouble with Father, for its entire run from 1950 to 1955.
Known For
4.0
Self (archive footage)
TV in Black: The First Fifty Years
2004
5.7
Self (archive footage)
Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?
1975
7.3
Charlie (archive footage)
Harold Lloyd's World of Comedy
1962
7.0
Billy Slocum
Waterfront
1954
3.0
My Little Margie
1952
0.0
Male Model
Ellis in Freedomland
1952
0.0
Willie, Stable Boy
South of Caliente
1951
6.0
Racket Squad
1951
6.0
Willie
The Stu Erwin Show
1950
6.1
Willie Best
The Shanghai Chest
1948
Credits
TV in Black: The First Fifty Years
as Self (archive footage)
2004
4.0
Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?
as Self (archive footage)
1975
5.7
Harold Lloyd's World of Comedy
as Charlie (archive footage)
1962
7.3
Waterfront
as Billy Slocum
1954
7.0
My Little Margie
1952
3.0
Ellis in Freedomland
as Male Model
1952
0.0
South of Caliente
as Willie, Stable Boy
1951
0.0
Racket Squad
1951
6.0
The Stu Erwin Show
as Willie
1950
6.0
The Shanghai Chest
as Willie Best
1948
6.1
Half Past Midnight
as Andy Jones
1948
6.0
The Red Stallion
as Jackson
1947
0.0
Suddenly It's Spring
as Porter on Train
1947
4.3
Dangerous Money
as Chattanooga Brown
1946
5.7
The Bride Wore Boots
as Joe
1946
5.9
The Face of Marble
as Shadrach
1946
4.4
She Wouldn't Say Yes
as Porter (uncredited)
1945
5.9
Hold That Blonde!
as Willie Shelley
1945
6.4
The Red Dragon
as Chattanooga Brown
1945
6.5
Pillow to Post
as Lucille, Colonial Auto Court Porter
1945
5.5
The Monster and the Ape
as Flash
1945
6.1
Music for Millions
as Red Cap (uncredited)
1944
6.0
The Mark of the Whistler
as Men's Room Attendant (uncredited)
1944
5.9
The Girl Who Dared
as Woodrow
1944
5.7
The Adventures of Mark Twain
as Butler
1944
6.6
Home in Indiana
as Mo' Rum (uncredited)
1944
5.5
Thank Your Lucky Stars
as Soldier in "Ice Cold Katie" Number (uncredited)
1943
6.1
The Kansan
as Bones
1943
5.3
Dixie
as Steward (uncredited)
1943
3.0
Cabin in the Sky
as Second Idea Man
1943
6.5
Cinderella Swings It
as Hipp
1943
0.0
The Powers Girl
as Men's Room Attendant (uncredited)
1943
6.5
The Hidden Hand
as Eustis, the chauffeur
1942
6.3
Scattergood Survives a Murder
as Hipp
1942
4.5
Busses Roar
as Sunshine
1942
6.6
A-Haunting We Will Go
as Waiter
1942
6.0
Maisie Gets Her Man
as Sam (Uncredited)
1942
6.5
Juke Girl
as Jo-Mo
1942
6.5
Whispering Ghosts
as Euclid White Brown
1942
6.4
The Body Disappears
as Willie
1941
5.2
Breakdowns of 1941
as Self (archive footage) (uncredited)
1941
7.0
Nothing But the Truth
as Samuel
1941
7.1
The Smiling Ghost
as Clarence
1941
6.5
🎬
Minstrel Days
as Singer
1941
0.0
Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy of Company "B"
as Hot-Breath Harry (voice) (uncredited)
1941
6.3
Highway West
as Bub Wellington
1941
5.8
Kisses for Breakfast
as Arnold
1941
5.5
The Lady from Cheyenne
as George
1941
5.2
Scattergood Baines
as Hipp
1941
6.0
Road Show
as Willie
1941
5.3
Flight from Destiny
as George
1941
5.2
High Sierra
as Algernon
1941
7.1
Who Killed Aunt Maggie?
as Andrew
1940
4.3
Money and the Woman
as George Washington Jones
1940
4.3
The Ghost Breakers
as Alex
1940
6.5
Blondie on a Budget
as Newsboy (uncredited)
1940
6.0
I Take This Woman
as Sambo
1940
6.2
Slightly Honorable
as Art, Elevator Operator
1939
4.7
Private Detective
as Norton's Valet
1939
6.0
The Covered Trailer
as Baltimore
1939
0.0
Blondie Brings Up Baby
as Hotel Janitor (uncredited)
1939
6.5
At the Circus
as Redcap (uncredited)
1939
6.3
Blackmail
as Bunny - the Janitor (uncredited)
1939
6.4
Way Down South
as Chimney Sweep
1939
5.8
Mr. Moto Takes a Vacation
as Driver (uncredited)
1939
6.6
Nancy Drew... Trouble Shooter
as Apollo Johnson
1939
6.0
Mr. Moto in Danger Island
as Launch Pilot
1939
6.7
The Saint Strikes Back
as Algernon, Simon's Butler (Uncredited)
1939
5.6
Blondie
as Porter
1938
7.1
Spring Madness
as Porter on Train
1938
3.9
Straight, Place and Show
as Hannibal
1938
6.0
Youth Takes a Fling
as George
1938
1.0
I'm from the City
as Train Porter
1938
5.0
Vivacious Lady
as Porter
1938
6.8
Goodbye Broadway
as Jughead
1938
0.0
Merrily We Live
as George
1938
7.1
Gold Is Where You Find It
as Joshua
1938
6.9
Everybody's Doing It
as Jasper - Elevator Operator
1938
5.0
Crashing Hollywood
as Train Porter (uncredited)
1938
5.8
Saturday's Heroes
as Sam
1937
7.0
🎬
The Lady Fights Back
as McTavish
1937
6.0
🎬
Mississippi Moods
1937
0.0
Super-Sleuth
as Warts, Martin's manservant
1937
5.0
Meet the Missus
as Bootblack
1937
4.0
You Can't Buy Luck
as Airline Porter (uncredited)
1937
4.5
Breezing Home
as Speed
1937
0.0
Racing Lady
as Brass
1937
5.3
We Who Are About to Die
as Airport Porter (uncredited)
1937
6.8
Deep South
1937
6.0
Night Waitress
as Black Pedestrian
1936
5.8
General Spanky
as Henry
1936
5.4
Thank You, Jeeves!
as Drowsy
1936
6.0
Mummy's Boys
as Catfish
1936
4.7
Down the Stretch
as Noah
1936
5.5
The Green Pastures
as Henry - the Angel (uncredited)
1936
6.3
The Bride Walks Out
as Smokie
1936
5.3
Murder on a Bridle Path
as 'High-Pockets'
1936
5.3
Two in Revolt
as Eph
1936
6.0
Silly Billies
as Excitement
1936
8.0
Muss 'em Up
as Janitor at Spivali's Bar (uncredited)
1936
5.5
The Littlest Rebel
as James Henry
1935
6.2
To Beat the Band
as Elevator Operator
1935
0.0
Hot Tip
as Apollo
1935
5.0
Jalna
as Sam
1935
4.8
The Arizonian
as Pompey
1935
0.0
The Nitwits
as Sleepy
1935
6.1
🎬
Hit and Rum
as Shoe Shine Man (uncredited)
1935
0.0
🎬
Raised and Called
1935
0.0
Murder on a Honeymoon
as Willie (as Sleep 'n' Eat)
1935
6.2
🎬
Horse Heir
1935
0.0
West of the Pecos
as Jonah (as Sleep 'n' Eat)
1934
0.0
Kentucky Kernels
as Buckshot (as Sleep 'n' Eat)
1934
6.1
Little Miss Marker
as Dizzy Memphis (uncredited)
1934
6.4
The Monster Walks
as Exodus
1932
4.1
The Guilty Generation
as Club Merlin Doorman (uncredited)
1931
6.1
Up Pops the Devil
as Laundryman
1931
4.2
Virtuous Husband
as Luftus
1931
0.0
Feet First
as Janitor
1930
6.6
Ladies of Leisure
as George (uncredited)
1930
6.1