Allen C. Jenkins

Allen Curtis Jenkins was an American actor, voice actor, and singer born on Staten Island, New York, on April 9, 1900. He worked across stage, film, and television throughout his career. His father, Robert Oliver Jenkins, was an actor born in Baltimore and descended from a colonial Catholic family that had settled in Maryland in the early 1600s. His mother, Leona Jenkins, born Leonora Cooley, was a musical performer and teacher whose family were primarily New England Yankees from Massachusetts and Vermont. Jenkins's maternal grandfather and great-grandfather both bore the name Ebenezer Cooley. Though he is sometimes reported to have been born Alfred McGonegal, his birth records, census records, draft card, and New York Times obituary all confirm his name at birth as Allen Curtis Jenkins.

Jenkins began his stage career in 1922, though his Broadway appearances date to 1920, when he performed in the musicals Kissing Time and Florodora. In 1932 he signed a seven-year contract with Warner Bros., where he established himself as a character player known for a gloom-faced, wisecracking screen presence. He worked across comedies, dramas, and musicals, and was also an accomplished dancer. His Warner agreement was non-exclusive, allowing him to appear at other studios as well, including in Whirlpool, where he played Jack Holt's sidekick, and Dead End, in which he appeared alongside Humphrey Bogart. Though primarily of English and Welsh descent, Jenkins was considered part of Hollywood's so-called Irish Mafia, a circle of Irish-American actors that included Spencer Tracy, James Cagney, Pat O'Brien, and Frank McHugh.

After his Warner contract lapsed, Jenkins worked as a freelancer for the remainder of his film career. In the postwar period, as major studios reduced their feature film output, he found work at smaller operations including the studios of Robert L. Lippert, Monogram Pictures, and Republic Pictures. In 1959 he appeared in the comedy Pillow Talk, playing an elevator operator named Harry. He also had a cameo in the 1963 comedy It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. His final screen appearance came in Billy Wilder's 1974 remake of The Front Page, filmed eleven days before his death and released posthumously.

Television became an important part of Jenkins's later career. He was a series regular on Hey, Jeannie!, a sitcom starring Jeannie Carson that ran from 1956 to 1957, in which he played cabbie Al Murray across 26 episodes. He recurred on The Red Skelton Show throughout the 1950s and into the 1970s, portraying Muggsy, a friend of Red Skelton's character Freddie the Freeloader, in 11 episodes. He also provided the voice of Officer Charlie Dibble in the Hanna-Barbera animated series Top Cat, which aired from 1961 to 1962, voicing the character in 30 episodes. Among his many guest appearances were roles on I Love Lucy, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., Mr. and Mrs. North, Playhouse 90, The Tab Hunter Show, The Ernie Kovacs Show, Zane Grey Theater, Your Show of Shows, Wagon Train, The Real McCoys, Bewitched, Batman, and Adam-12.

Jenkins died of lung cancer on July 20, 1974, at the age of 74. His remains were cremated and his ashes scattered at sea.