Donald Meek

Thomas Donald Meek was born on 14 July 1878 in Glasgow, Scotland, to Matthew and Annie Meek. During the 1890s, the family emigrated first to Canada and subsequently to the United States. By 1900, Meek was living in Philadelphia, where the United States census recorded his occupation as a dry goods salesman.

Meek gave his first public performance at the age of eight and began his Broadway career in 1903 with The Minister's Daughters. Over the following decades he accumulated an extensive list of stage credits, appearing in Going Up (1917), Nothing But Love (1919), The Hottentot (1920), Little Old New York (1920), Six-Cylinder Love (1921), Tweedles (1923), The Potters (1923), Easy Terms (1925), Fool's Bells (1925), Love 'em and Leave 'em (1926), The Shelf (1926), Spread Eagle (1927), My Princess (1927), The Ivory Door (1927), Mr. Moneypenny (1928), and Jonesy (1929). In the 1929 production Broken Dishes, he appeared alongside a young Bette Davis. His Broadway appearances continued through 1932.

Having lost his hair as a result of yellow fever, Meek was frequently cast in film roles as timid, anxious characters. He is particularly remembered for playing Mr. Poppins in Frank Capra's You Can't Take It with You (1938) and whiskey salesman Samuel Peacock in John Ford's Stagecoach (1939). His film work also included The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Little Miss Broadway, and State Fair, among more than one hundred Hollywood productions. Between 1931 and 1932, he appeared as criminologist Dr. Crabtree in a series of twelve Warner Bros. two-reel short subjects written by S. S. Van Dine.

On 3 January 1909, Meek married Isabella "Belle" Walken in a Methodist church in Boston. As a consequence of taking her husband's British nationality, the American-born Belle Meek lost her United States citizenship upon their marriage.

Meek died of leukaemia on 18 November 1946, in Los Angeles, while in the midst of filming the role of Mr. Twiddle in Magic Town. He was posthumously awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1960.