Eddie Bracken

Character actor Eddie Bracken is best known for his roles as lovable, befuddled losers and nervous hayseeds. As a child, he acted and sang on stage and in vaudeville and nightclubs; he also appeared in four "Our Gang" comedy shorts and in six episodes of the "New York Kiddie Troopers" series. As a juvenile, he worked on Broadway and with touring shows, then made his film debut with Too Many Girls (1940). Bracken is best known for his work as a shy bumbler in two light Preston Sturges comedies, The Miracle of Morgan's Creek and Hail the Conquering Hero (both 1944); in the latter he appeared as Norval Jones, the character that established his "type" and which (he would later complain) ruined his film career by restricting the sorts of roles he was offered. In the early '50s his career ground to a halt and he quit making movies in 1953, going on to do much touring stage work with his wife, the former Connie Nickerson. During the early 70s he lost $2 million in a failed scheme to create a chain of stock theaters. He returned briefly to Hollywood in 1983 to appear as a Walt Disney send-up in National Lampoon's Vacation.