MORONI OLSEN

June 27, 1889

Moroni Olsen was born in Ogden, Utah, to Mormon parents. During World War I, he sold war bonds for the US Navy. In 1923, Olsen organized the ‘Moroni Olsen Players’ in Ogden. He got his start on Broadway in 1920 starring as Jason (of the Argonauts) in Medea alongside “Lucy” cast member Byron Foulger.  He did nine more Broadway plays through 1935, including playing opposite Helen Hayes in Mary of Scotland, a role he would repeat in the film version with Katharine Hepburn in in 1936. His final two roles on Broadway were opposite another great, Katherine Cornell:  Romeo and Juliet and The Barretts of Wimpole Street.  

After Broadway, he made his film debut in a 1935 adaptation of The Three Musketeers.  A young RKO contract player named Lucille Ball can be glimpsed among the background players. He later played a different role in a 1939 comedy version of the story, starring Don Ameche as D’Artagnan and the Ritz Brothers. He even did a third version titled At Sword’s Point (aka Sons of the Musketeers) starring “Lucy” guest star Cornel Wilde. Olsen returned to the role of Porthos, now elderly, that he created in 1935. Alan Hale Jr. played his son, also named Porthos. 

A year later, in 1936, Lucille Ball’s name was finally among the credits (though not yet on the poster) with Olsen in The Farmer in the Dell.  

His most famous role was the voice of the Slave in the Magic Mirror in Walt Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937). He was also heard but not seen as the voice of Joseph, the senior angel in It’s a Wonderful Life (1946).

Olsen did two films with William Frawley: Rose of Washington Square (1939) and We’ve Never Been Licked (1943). 

In Kay Kyser’s That’s Right, You’re Wrong (1939) a brunette Lucille Ball was was finally on the poster, and Olsen was not!  

In 1952, Olsen appeared as the Judge on the “I Love Lucy” episode “The Courtroom” (ILL S2;E7). Olsen previously played a Judge in East of the River (1940) starring John Garfield and Off the Record (1939) with Pat O’Brien.

In 1954, he played Mr. Tewitt in Lucy and Desi’s The Long, Long Trailer.  Olsen plays the man Taci (Desi) dissuades from buying a trailer as the film begins. The film is told in flashback to justify his opinion. 

In October 1954, Olsen played a police officer on an episode of “December Bride”, a Desilu series featuring “I Love Lucy” actors Harry Cheshire, Verna Felton, and Sam McDaniel. 

A month later, Olsen died of a heart attack at age 65. He left one film and one television episode to be aired posthumously. Unmarried with no children, Olsen was survived by his nephew, Edward.