Christian Rub

Christian Rub (April 13, 1886 – April 14, 1956) was an Austrian-born American character actor whose career spanned stage, screen, and voice work across several decades. Born in Graz, in what was then Austria-Hungary, he came from a theatrical family: his father Otto was an actor, his mother Paula was known as a stage beauty, and his sister Marianne worked in radio. Rub took to performing at a young age, working as a comedian in Germany as a boy. By the age of fifteen he had appeared in a French drama at the Imperial theater in Vienna, and two years later he was touring the Tyrolean Alps with a company, taking on roles ranging from elderly grandfathers to young lovers. He also played Ernest Rodel in a production of Spring Awakening.

Rub made his Broadway appearance in 1920 in Wo Die Lerche Singt, a credit verified in theatrical records. His stage work extended beyond New York, and in the early 1930s he took on a dramatic role in a production of Grand Hotel in Los Angeles.

His screen career began with the 1919 film The Belle of New York, and in the early 1920s he appeared in two-reel comedies in Hollywood. Over the course of his film career he was featured in more than 100 productions, working from the late 1910s through the early 1950s. Among his most recognized contributions was providing the voice of Geppetto in the 1940 Disney animated film Pinocchio. Rub was not the first actor cast in the role; he replaced an earlier performer whose voice Walt Disney judged too harsh. He also supplied voices for kindly elderly characters in cartoons produced by MGM, Fox, and Warner Bros. His final film role came in the 1952 production Something for the Birds. Rub died in Santa Barbara, California on April 14, 1956, one day after his seventieth birthday.