J. Pat O'Malley

James Rudolph O'Malley, known professionally as J. Pat O'Malley, was born on 15 March 1904 in Burnley, Lancashire, into an Anglo-Irish family. An actor and singer, he built a career spanning stage, film, television, and voice work from the 1940s through the early 1980s, dying on 27 February 1985 of cardiovascular disease at his home in San Juan Capistrano at the age of 80.

O'Malley began his professional life in the United Kingdom, singing with Jack Hylton and his orchestra between 1930 and 1935. Working under the name Pat O'Malley during that period, he recorded "Amy, Wonderful Amy" in 1930, a song about aviator Amy Johnson performed by Hylton's band. At the close of 1935, Hylton brought O'Malley to the United States to record with an ensemble of American musicians, an effort modeled on the earlier transatlantic venture of Ray Noble and Al Bowlly. That project proved short-lived, but O'Malley remained in the country and adopted the stage name J. Pat O'Malley to distinguish himself from another film actor named Pat O'Malley.

His Broadway career ran from 1944 to 1954 and included productions such as Ten Little Indians, Home Is the Hero, Seagulls Over Sorrento, the musical Of Thee I Sing, the comedy But Not Goodbye, and Dial M for Murder. His performance in Ten Little Indians drew notice from New York Times drama critic Theodore Goldsmith, who described O'Malley as "a rara avis, a comedian who does not gauge the success of his efforts by the number of laughs he induces at each performance."

On screen, O'Malley appeared as Hynes in the 1943 film Lassie Come Home, one of his earlier American film roles. His voice work for The Walt Disney Company became a significant part of his legacy. He voiced Cyril Proudbottom in The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad in 1949, and in the 1951 Alice in Wonderland he performed all character voices in "The Walrus and the Carpenter" segment except Alice, including Tweedledum, Tweedledee, the Walrus, the Carpenter, and Mother Oyster. In Mary Poppins in 1964 he provided the voice of the Cockney costermonger in the "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" sequence, and actor Dick Van Dyke has stated that O'Malley served as his dialect coach on that film, crediting O'Malley for the Cockney accent Van Dyke used in the production. O'Malley also voiced Colonel Hathi and the vulture Buzzie in The Jungle Book in 1967.

O'Malley's television work was extensive. He guest-starred in 1951 as a sheriff on The Adventures of Kit Carson and appeared in five episodes of The Philco-Goodyear Television Playhouse between 1950 and 1955. From 1951 to 1957 he was cast in eight episodes of Robert Montgomery Presents. He played the ranch steward Perkins in both the 1955 Spin and Marty film and the 1955 to 1957 serial. In 1959 and 1960 he made eight appearances as Judge Caleb Marsh in Black Saddle and portrayed the title character in a Gunsmoke episode during the show's fourth season. That same period saw him appear in three episodes of The Rebel, playing a judge and a newspaper editor, and in The Swamp Fox, where he first played a British guard and later recurred as Sgt. O'Reilly, one of Francis Marion's closest men.

He made multiple appearances on Perry Mason, including as the defendant in the 1960 episode "The Case of the Prudent Prosecutor" and as the murderer in the 1961 episode "The Case of the Roving River." He appeared in three Twilight Zone episodes: "The Chaser," "The Fugitive," and "Mr. Garrity and the Graves." During the 1963 to 1964 season he appeared in eight episodes of My Favorite Martian, and in the Batman television series in January 1967 he played the eccentric inventor Pat Pending across two episodes. In 1969 he portrayed Carol Brady's father in the first episode of The Brady Bunch. He co-starred in the 1973 comedy A Touch of Grace and made several appearances on Maude between 1973 and 1975. His later television work included recurring appearances on Barney Miller, among other series.

O'Malley married Fay in 1936, and the couple remained married until his death. They had two children.