- published: 09 Oct 2009
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Hugh Herbert (August 10, 1887 – March 12, 1952) was a motion picture comedian. He began his career in vaudeville, and wrote more than 150 plays and sketches.
The advent of talking pictures brought stage-trained actors to Hollywood, and Hugh Herbert soon became a popular movie comedian. His screen character was usually absent-minded and flustered. He would flutter his fingers together and talk to himself, repeating the same phrases: "hoo-hoo-hoo, wonderful, wonderful, hoo hoo hoo!" This catchphrase inspired Daffy Duck's "hoo hoo, hoo hoo" phrase during the early years of the character. So many imitators (including Curly Howard of The Three Stooges) copied the catchphrase as "woo woo" that Herbert actually adopted "woo woo" himself in the 1940s.
Herbert's earliest movies, like Wheeler & Woolsey's 1930 feature Hook, Line and Sinker, cast him in generic comedy roles that could have been taken by any comedian. Herbert soon developed his own unique screen personality, complete with a silly giggle, and this new character caught on quickly. He was frequently featured in Warner Brothers films of the 1930s, including Footlight Parade, Dames, Bureau of Missing Persons, Fog Over Frisco, Fashions of 1934, Gold Diggers of 1935, as well the 1935 film adaptation of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. He also played leads in B comedies, notably Sh! The Octopus, a 1937 comedy-mystery featuring an exceptional unmasking of the culprit. Herbert was often caricatured in Warners' Looney Tunes shorts of the '30s and '40s, such as The Hardship of Miles Standish and Speaking of the Weather.
Hugh Herbert Columbia short OH BABY! Part 1
Hugh Herbert SUPER WOLF part 1 Columbia short
Hugh Herbert SUPER WOLF part 2 Columbia short
Hugh Herbert
Hugh Herbert
Hugh Herbert ONE SHIVERY NIGHT
Hellzapoppin' (1941) - Hugh Herbert Behind Tree Scene
Hugh Herbert OH BABY Part 2
HOLLYWOOD HOTEL #1 W/DICK POWELL & HUGH HERBERT DOING RACIST BLACKFACE JOKE 1937
Hugh Herbert A SLIP AND A MISS in French. Ending with different end titles.
The Family Next Door (1939) Full Movie
Hugh Herbert Tyler - Life Story Digital Film
LA CONGA NIGHTS 1940 - Hugh Herbert playing 6 roles, Dennis O'Keefe - directed by Lew Landers
Classic Movie Bloopers '40
Actors: Hugh McCollum (producer), Ben Welden (actor), Henry Batista (editor), Hugh Herbert (actor), Harry Edwards (writer), Richard Quine (director), Victoria Horne (actress),
Plot: The newly-wed Hugh Herbert gets a blackmail letter from his former girlfriend with the threat that she will show his old love letters to his new bride unless he pays up. Hugh's wife hears of the scheme and is at the pay-off spot when the intermediary arrives with the hush money. The wife, pretending to be the old girlfriend, accepts the money to teach Hugh a lesson. She then exposes the go-between as a chiseler who made up the scam.
Keywords: 1950s, actor-shares-first-name-with-character, actor-shares-last-name-with-character, blackmail, blackmailer, bride, california, collector, crook, deceitActors: Louis Jean Heydt (actor), Hugh Herbert (actor), Jean Hersholt (actor), Count Basie (actor), Pat Flaherty (actor), Henry Armetta (actor), Eddie Hall (actor), Ralph Bellamy (actor), Xavier Cugat (actor), Edgar Bergen (actor), Ray Bolger (actor), Benny Baker (actor), William Demarest (actor), Lloyd Corrigan (actor), John James (actor),
Plot: "Dakota," a young soldier on a pass in New York City, visits the famed Stage Door Canteen, where famous stars of the theatre and films appear and host a recreational center for servicemen during the war. Dakota meets a pretty young hostess, Eileen, and they enjoy the many entertainers and a growing romance.
Keywords: actor, actress, bandleader, burlesque, chinese, comedian, dancer, dummy, engagement, entertainmentActors: Paul Borofsky (editor), Eddie Gribbon (actor), Charlie Hall (actor), Hugh Herbert (actor), Fred Kelsey (actor), Eddie Laughton (actor), George J. Lewis (actor), Joe Palma (actor), Fred 'Snowflake' Toones (actor), Christine McIntyre (actress), Barbara Pepper (actress), Vernon Dent (actor), Hugh McCollum (producer), Monte Collins (writer), Monte Collins (writer),
Plot: Hugh Herbert is a nervous, fussy and over-worked executive, and his doctor and wife have both given him up as a hopeless case. His wife heads for Palm Springs, where she is given close attention by the golf pro at the resort spa. Hugh follows her and the usual slapstick situations follow him from bedroom to bedroom, as he gets mixed up with some honeymooners and detectives.
Keywords: 1940s, actor-shares-first-name-with-character, actor-shares-last-name-with-character, bedroom, bellhop, blonde, bride, california, character-name-in-title, chaseActors: Wilfred Jackson (director), Clarence Nash (actor), Walt Disney (producer), Sara Berner (actress), Sara Berner (actress), Sara Berner (actress), Sara Berner (actress), Dave Barry (actor), Dave Barry (actor), Dave Barry (actor), Dave Barry (actor), Dave Barry (actor), Dave Barry (actor), Dave Barry (actor), Dave Barry (actor),
Plot: Various Mother Goose rhymes are portrayed by Hollywood stars for example, Old King Cole's fiddlers three are the Marx Brothers, and Humpty Dumpty is W.C. Fields, who falls while tormenting Charlie McCarthy; Simple Simon and the Pieman are Laurel and Hardy.
Keywords: 1930s, animal-in-title, anthropomorphic-animal, anthropomorphism, blackface, cartoon-duck, celebrity, celebrity-caricature, character-name-in-title, chef