DON BRODIE

May 29, 1904

Donald L. Brodie was bon in Cincinnati, Ohio.  He attended Hughes High School in Cincinnati and the University of Cincinnati. Before becoming a professional actor, he worked in the offices of Procter & Gamble.  His first recorded stage experience was in 1928. He worked on stage in Cincinnati before heading for Hollywood. 

Brodie signed his first film contract with Universal in 1931. He appeared in the Universal short Out-Stepping before being loaned to MGM for Victor Fleming’s The Wet Parade (1932). Brodie and Lucy were busy contract players in the 1930s, both appearing un-billed in The Whole Town’s Talking (1935) at Columbia.  His television debut came in 1950 with “Dick Tracy”. 

He was finally reunited with Ball (although not on screen) in a brief scene in “Ricky Sells The Car” (ILL S5;E4), as the Union Pacific Railroad Clerk who tells Ricky the only thing left on the Domeliner are upper berths.  Brodie’s telephone scene lasts less than twenty seconds and he is alone in an office, only interacting with Desi by voice. 

In 1959, he did an episode of the Desilu western “Yancy Derringer”.  Again, he played a railroad ticket agent. Again his character was telling the leads that there were no tickets available!  Was he being typecast? 

In 1960 he worked for Desilu on an episode of their hit show “The Untouchables” titled “Syndicate Sanctuary”.  He played a Barker outside of a nightclub – no trains were involved!   This was also a sort of typecasting, since he had voiced the Carnival Barker in Disney’s Pinocchio (1940). He performed the live-action reference for the Witch in Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937). 

His final screen appearance was playing the projectionist (uncredited) in the 1989 biopic Goodnight, Sweet Marilyn, which was actually a re-worked version of the 1976 film Goodbye, Norma Jean, in which he also appeared.  His last time acting in front of a camera was actually a 1987 episode of “Hotel”. 

He died on January 8, 2001 at age 96.