Fred Howard

Frederick Howard Wright was born on September 30, 1896, in San Diego, California, the middle of five children born to Lucy Simonds (née Wheeler) and William Sherman Wright. He died on July 2, 1990, at age 93, and is interred at the Los Angeles National Cemetery. Throughout his career he worked under several professional names: Fred Howard for his writing and all stage and radio work, Howard Wright for his later film and television appearances, and Fred Howard Wright in more recent attributions. An American songwriter, vaudeville performer, and character actor across theatre, radio, film, and television, he is best remembered as one half of the popular vaudeville, radio, recording, and songwriting duo the Happy Chappies, formed with fellow songwriter Nat Vincent.

Wright's first public performance came at age nine, when, having sold the most tickets to a high school operetta, he was called upon not only to formally present the frieze purchased with the production's proceeds but also to sing at the ceremony. He later attended the University of California, San Diego, before joining the U.S. Army and serving with the 1st Cavalry Regiment during the Pancho Villa Expedition. He rose to the rank of Second Lieutenant and received his discharge in 1920. Over the following decade, working under the name Fred Howard, he established himself as a stage performer, writer, producer, and director specializing in musical comedy, with his singing featured in the trio Harmony Three. His Broadway work included an appearance in 1912 in the musical The Wall Street Girl.

By February 1929, Wright had become one half of the Happy Chappies, replacing pianist Nat Vincent's previous partner, tenor Harry Morton. The partnership also marked Wright's radio debut, on San Francisco's KFRC. The duo reportedly co-authored 486 popular songs as of December 1935 and continued performing together at least through the summer of 1937. In April 1938, Wright appeared at New York's Waldorf Astoria Hotel in the Lambs Club's annual Spring Gambol, co-starring with Walter Woolf King and Gene Wolf in the brief operetta Tempest in a Teapot, for which he wrote both the words and music.

As a radio actor, Wright took on several recurring roles, among them C. Pemberton Tooley on Ma Perkins, Mr. Pringle — father of Oogie — on A Date with Judy, and Pa Buskirk on The Opie Cates Show. From 1949 through 1952 he served as the principal writer on The Ruggles, the Charlie Ruggles sitcom created by Irving Phillips. In March 1949, still billed as Fred Howard, he made his television debut starring alongside K. T. Stevens and Marc Lawrence in the Don Lee Television Workshop episode "Shoes and Souls." A 1951 appearance on Racket Squad followed before he transitioned, without public explanation, to the screen name Howard Wright beginning with a 1953 credit on The Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok.

Among his more notable television appearances were two episodes of The Twilight Zone: he played Judge Hardy in the Season Three episode "The Jungle" and an unnamed judge in the Season Two episode "What's in the Box." He also appeared across multiple episodes of the westerns Bonanza and Death Valley Days. On the film side, his supporting performance in the 1956 western Stranger at My Door, directed by William Witney from a Barry Shipman script, drew specific praise from Variety reviewer William Brogdon, who credited Wright — playing a doctor — alongside Louis Jean Heydt, Slim Pickens, and Malcolm Atterbury as supporting players whose characters were compellingly performed.

Wright married Jean — elsewhere identified as Laura — Henley in 1919 or 1920, and the couple had one daughter, Jo Ann. He was subsequently married to actress Sylvia Jane Worley from January 1925 until no later than October 1930. His third wife, Greek-born Theofani Arminda Pappadakis, became Mrs. Wright in October 1930 and remained so until her death on March 4, 1963; they had one daughter, Patsy Zo. In 1969 Wright married Helen Louise Daves (née Young), who died in 1985.