Morgan Wallace (born Maier Weill, July 28, 1881 – December 12, 1953) was an American actor. He appeared in more than 120 films between 1914 and 1946. He is perhaps best known to today's audiences for two W.C. Fields comedies. In It's a Gift (1934) he persistently asks grocer Fields for "Kumquats!" In My Little Chickadee (1940), he is a suspicious gambler who challenges Fields in a poker game. Wallace is also known for his performance as the sinister, international menace in Charlie Chan at the Olympics (1936).
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Early life
Born in Lompoc, California, Wallace was the son of Isidore and Hannah Weill. He attended the University of California.
Stage
Wallace toured with a Shakespearean repertory company before organizing his own stock company, The Morgan Wallace Players, in Bangor, Maine, in 1903. During World War I he set up theaters in army camps.
In 1918, the Morgan Wallace Players performed in the Grand Theater in Sioux City, Iowa, and in 1927, the troupe performed in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. In 1922, he acted in a production of Lawful Larceny at the Savoy Theatre in London, England.
Wallace's Broadway credits included Romeo and Juliet (1904), The Widow's Might (1909), The Tavern (1920), Nature's Nobleman (1921), The Law Breaker (1922), The Stork (1925), Gentle Grafters (1926), Ballyhoo (1927), Women Go On Forever (1927; Wallace also appeared in the 1931 film version), and Congratulations (1929).
Film
Morgan Wallace claimed that his first film credit was D. W. Griffith's silent feature Dream Street (1921), but he had appeared in silent films as far back as 1914 (he's in a couple of Charlie Chaplin comedies filmed at Keystone). He "resigned from the Keystone" to return to the New York stage, before his career was interrupted by military service. He returned to films after the war, and left in 1924 to concentrate on stage work.
Wallace was one of the stage-trained actors signed by Hollywood studios for the new talking pictures; he began a second and much more successful movie career in 1930. He soon became a dependable all-purpose character player, equally adept at playing upstanding citizens, prosperous businessmen, and urbane villains.
In 1933 Wallace was one of the founders of the Screen Actors Guild. He was SAG member #3.
Unlike many character actors, Morgan Wallace was never under long-term contract to any single studio. His prominence in the actors' union may have discouraged studios from offering the influential Wallace steady employment. His ability as a character actor was undeniable, however, so Wallace kept working on a freelance basis for most of the Hollywood studios.
During World War II Wallace managed camp shows for the USO. Very late in his career he had a surprising and prominent character role in I'll Remember April (1945), as an industrialist who calmly announces that he has embezzled six million dollars; is murdered; and "returns from the dead" to unmask his own killer. His final film was The Falcon's Alibi (1946).
Broadway encore
That same year Morgan Wallace returned to the Broadway stage for a featured role in the new comedy Loco (1946), starring screen actress Jean Parker. The play ran for exactly one month in the late fall of 1946. Wallace then retired at the age of 65, and returned to his home in California.
Death
He died on December 12, 1953 at the age of 72 in Tarzana, California, and was interred in Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale, California.
