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Sidney Miller (actor)

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Sidney L. Miller
Miller (at the piano) performing with Donald O'Connor on The Colgate Comedy Hour (1952)
Born
Sid Miller

(1916-10-22)October 22, 1916
Shenandoah, Pennsylvania, U.S.
DiedJanuary 10, 2004(2004-01-10) (aged 87)
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Occupation(s)Actor, television director, writer and songwriter
Years active1931–1997
Spouses
​
​
(m. 1956; div. 1967)​
Dorothy Green
​
(m. 1967⁠–⁠1984)​
June Rohlrlick
​
(m. 1994)​
Children4, including Barry Miller

Sidney L. Miller (born Sid Miller; October 22, 1916 – January 10, 2004) was an American actor, director and songwriter.[1]

Biography

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Sid Miller was born in Shenandoah, Pennsylvania.[2] His first acting role was in his early teens in Penrod and Sam (1931), albeit uncredited.[citation needed] Within his first year of screen appearances he became established as a scene-stealing juvenile, usually affecting a Jewish dialect for comic effect. Among his earliest credits are Three on a Match and Penguin Pool Murder (both 1932). He also appeared in three of Educational Pictures' "Frolics of Youth" comedy shorts, which featured the up-and-coming Shirley Temple.

Sidney Miller became close friends with Mickey Rooney. Miller had a small, but memorable role, as would-be wrestling announcer Mo Kahn in Rooney's Boys Town (1938), and reprised the character in the sequel, Men of Boys Town (1941). Rooney soon gave Miller roles in his teenage musicals. (Sid is Mickey's orchestra leader in Babes in Arms (1939).)

In 1941 Miller became the second lead in Columbia's collegiate comedy series The Glove Slingers, and he remained with the short-subject series until it lapsed in 1943. Miller was also a member of Universal's teenage stock company. While at Universal he befriended Donald O'Connor and contributed to O'Connor's musicals, both as songwriter and performer. Miller played comic sidekicks in Monogram's budget musical and comedy features. His only solo featured spot of the 1940s is as a specialty act in Universal's Babes on Swing Street (1945), in which nightclub emcee Miller does celebrity impersonations of Walter Winchell, Edward G. Robinson, and even Katharine Hepburn. When the Hollywood studios curtailed low-budget production after World War II, Miller concentrated on radio and the new medium of television.

Broadcasting

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In 1937, he made his radio debut on the Jack Benny Program episode "Christmas Shopping", as a man whom Benny mistakes for a department store floorwalker.[3] The actor was also a regular performer on Cavalcade of America, Suspense and Nightbeat.

He co-starred and co-directed, alongside his good friend Donald O'Connor, in one of the first musical sitcoms on television, Here Comes Donald. After joining Disney, he wrote for and directed The Mickey Mouse Club (1955).[citation needed]

Miller directed episodes of numerous successful television programs throughout the 1950s and 1960s, including Damon Runyon Theater,[4] Bachelor Father, Get Smart, Bewitched, The Ann Sothern Show and My Mother the Car. (He had been a regular on Sothern's radio show The Adventures of Maisie.)

Return to acting

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Although Sidney Miller remained an established director through 1990, he did accept character roles in movies and television. In 1958, he played Roscoe Dewitt, an impressionist who bothers Bob Collins in The Bob Cummings Show episode "Bob Judges a Beauty Pageant". In 1968's Yours, Mine and Ours, he played Doctor Ashford, Lucille Ball's date who was shorter than her three children. For the 1970 Jerry Lewis military comedy Which Way to the Front?, a broad burlesque of the German high command, Lewis cast Sidney Miller as a comic Adolf Hitler. In 1974, Miller appeared briefly as a drunk driver in the Barbra Streisand comedy For Pete's Sake as well as episodes of "Dragnet" and "Adam-12."

In 1980, Miller reunited with Donald O'Connor had a nightclub show described as "a fast-paced vaudeville act" that they performed in cities including Denver, New Orleans, Philadelphia, and San Francisco.[2]

From 1983 to 1985, Miller played the voice of The Dungeon Master in the animated series Dungeons & Dragons, which was based on the role-playing game of the same name. He also provided voices for several other animated shows.

In the 1980s and 1990s, he had a small role as Slow-Burn in Memories of Me, appeared as Sol on The Father Dowling Mysteries episode "The Confidence Mystery" in 1990 and also dubbed the voice of Oompe for the 1992 American version of Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland. He had retired by the late 1990s.

He was married three times, and had an actor son, Barry Miller, from his marriage to Iris Burton.[5] Miller died in Los Angeles from Parkinson's disease on January 10, 2004.[6] His resting place is in Hollywood Forever Cemetery.[citation needed]

Selected filmography

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As actor

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As director

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Composer and songwriter

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  • 1943: O, My Darling Clementine ("Diggin the Docey Doe")
  • 1943: Moonlight in Vermont ("Something Tells Me", "Be A Good Girl", They Got Me in the Middle of Things", "Pickin' the Beets", "Dobbin and a Wagon of Hay", "After the Beat")
  • 1944: This Is the Life ("Yippee-I-Voot", "Gremlin Walk")
  • 1944: Follow the Boys ("Kittens With Their Mittens Laced")
  • 1944: Hot Rhythm ("Shampoo Jingle")
  • 1944: Hi, Good Lookin'! ("By Mistake")
  • 1944: Chip Off the Old Block ("I've Gotta Give My Feet a Break")
  • 1944: Sing a Jingle ("Sing a Jingle", "We're the Janes Who Make The Planes", "Mademoiselle")

References

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  1. ^ "Sidney Miller, 87; Prolific Actor, Director, Songwriter". Los Angeles Times. January 17, 2004. Retrieved September 5, 2011.
  2. ^ a b Shaikowsky, Anne E. (February 9, 1980). "Sidney Miller has fond memories of Shenandoah". Republican and Herald. Pennsylvania, Pottsville. p. 1. Retrieved June 11, 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
  3. ^ "Copyright 2013, J. David Goldin". www.radiogoldindex.com.
  4. ^ Scheuer, Steven H. (November 12, 1955). "Real Pro At Helm Of Runyon". The Record. New Jersey, Hackensack. p. 40. Retrieved June 11, 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
  5. ^ Obituary: Iris Burton, Hollywood agent, The Age, April 17, 2008.
  6. ^ Willis, John; Monush, Barry (2006). Screen World: 2005 Film Annual. Hal Leonard Corporation. p. 385. ISBN 978-1-55783-668-7. Retrieved June 11, 2020.
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