Eugene Pallette, the Winfield-born actor with the gravel voice
Pallette appeared in more than 240 productions and is best remembered as Friar Tuck and as the father in My Man Godfrey.
By Garrett Pruitt
If you have seen “The Adventures of Robin Hood” from 1938, you have seen a Winfield native. Eugene Pallette played Friar Tuck.
Pallette was born in Winfield in 1889. His parents had both been stage actors, though by the time he was born his father sold insurance. He went to Culver Military Academy in Indiana, worked as a jockey and had a stage act with three horses.
He spent six years in stock companies before going into films. Between 1913 and 1946 he appeared in more than 240 productions, silent and sound. He started out as a slim leading man and became a heavyset character actor with a deep, gravelly voice that critics compared to a croaking frog.
Besides Friar Tuck, he played Carole Lombard’s father in “My Man Godfrey,” Fray Felipe in “The Mark of Zorro,” and appeared in “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” and “Heaven Can Wait.” He died in 1954.