Rolfe Sedan

Rolfe Sedan, born Edward Sedan on January 20, 1896, in New York City, was an American character actor whose career in stage, film, radio, and television extended across more than six decades. He died on September 15, 1982, in Pacific Palisades, California, from heart problems at the age of 86. His mother worked as a Broadway theatre fashion designer and his father served as an orchestra conductor, placing Sedan in proximity to the performing arts from an early age.

Sedan launched his professional life as a vaudeville and nightclub performer before transitioning to East Coast theatre. His Broadway debut came in 1916, and his stage credits over the following decades included the farce All Men Are Alike, The Time, the Place and the Girl, the comedy Little Dark Horse, A Bell for Adano, and Merry Christmas, Daddy!, with his Broadway appearances continuing through 1944. In 1922 and 1923, he worked as a featured actor with the Leith-Marsh Players in El Paso, Texas.

His film career began in 1921 with Metro Pictures Corporation, and he became a prolific presence in Hollywood as a character actor, frequently cast in bit parts as clerks, waiters, postmen, train conductors, and cooks, often without screen credit. Among his most recognized film appearances was his role as the hotel manager in the 1939 Greta Garbo vehicle Ninotchka. He also appeared in small, uncredited roles in several other Garbo films, including Flesh and the Devil in 1926 and Grand Hotel in 1932, and made an uncredited appearance in Silk Stockings in 1957, the musical remake of Ninotchka. That same year as Ninotchka, 1939, Sedan appeared uncredited as the Balloon Ascensionist in the Emerald City sequence of The Wizard of Oz. He had bit parts in several Marx Brothers films, with somewhat more substantial roles in Monkey Business in 1931 and A Night at the Opera in 1935. Later in his career he was seen as the train conductor in Young Frankenstein in 1974 and appeared in bit parts in two additional films starring Gene Wilder.

Sedan's entry into radio work came only after six months of unsuccessful auditions, despite having already accumulated 22 years of film experience by that point. His first broadcasting role came in an episode of Big Town, where his voice suited a particular part. He subsequently acted in radio dramas including The Adventures of Ellery Queen, Grand Central Station, Lux Radio Theatre, The March of Time, The Screen Guild Theater, and Silver Theater.

In television, Sedan accumulated guest appearances on series including I Love Lucy, where he played a chef at a Parisian restaurant in the episode "Paris at Last," as well as The Jack Benny Program and The Tab Hunter Show. His most sustained television work came through recurring roles: he played Mr. Beasley, a mail carrier, in 25 episodes of The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show, and appeared as Mr. Briggs in four episodes of The Addams Family. Additional television credits included Combat!, The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, The Man From U.N.C.L.E., Petticoat Junction, and Kung Fu.