One of the bigger victims of typecasting was Arthur Lake. After a while no one could see him as anything else but the henpecked Dagwood Bumstead from the Blondie comics. Lake did a series of films for Columbia Pictures that ended in 1951 based on Chic Young's comic strip. One of the reasons it came to an end was the blacklist troubles of Penny Singleton playing Blondie.
While Lake lived there was no one else who could remotely be considered for the part of Dagwood and he was considered for nothing else. So in 1957 Blondie got revived for television with Pamela Britton as Blondie. Their two children were Stuffy Singer and Ann Barnes. The Woodleys the ever prying neighbors were Harold Peary and Hollis Irving. And Dagwood's boss J.C. Dithers was Florenz Ames.
Dagwood was a trip. Those eight inch concoctions of sandwich he made, his constant collisions with the poor mailman while racing for the bus. Honestly I never figured out why this guy just didn't time his deliveries when he knew Lake was at work. And his razor like mind when it came to math. I still remember those adding machine noises he made while working with figures. All in his head and he was always right. Today he'd be working at some top secret government project.
It was a funny show, but sad to say it only lasted a season. And poor Arthur Lake could never get another role.
While Lake lived there was no one else who could remotely be considered for the part of Dagwood and he was considered for nothing else. So in 1957 Blondie got revived for television with Pamela Britton as Blondie. Their two children were Stuffy Singer and Ann Barnes. The Woodleys the ever prying neighbors were Harold Peary and Hollis Irving. And Dagwood's boss J.C. Dithers was Florenz Ames.
Dagwood was a trip. Those eight inch concoctions of sandwich he made, his constant collisions with the poor mailman while racing for the bus. Honestly I never figured out why this guy just didn't time his deliveries when he knew Lake was at work. And his razor like mind when it came to math. I still remember those adding machine noises he made while working with figures. All in his head and he was always right. Today he'd be working at some top secret government project.
It was a funny show, but sad to say it only lasted a season. And poor Arthur Lake could never get another role.