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George 'Gabby' Hayes

Acting Born May 6, 1885 Wellsville, New York, USA 24 credits

Biography

George Hayes is an American character actor, the most famous of Western-movie sidekicks of the 1930s and 1940s. He worked in a circus and played semi-pro baseball while a teenager. In 1914, he married Olive Ireland and the pair became successful on the vaudeville circuit. Retired in his forties, he lost much of his money in the 1929 stock market crash and was forced to return to work. He played scores of roles in Westerns and non-Westerns alike, finally in the mid-1930s settling in to an almost exclusively Western career. He gained fame as Hopalong Cassidy's sidekick Windy Halliday in films between 1936 and 1939. Leaving the Cassidy films in a salary dispute, he was legally precluded from using the Windy nickname, and so took on the sobriquet Gabby, and was so billed from about 1940. In his early films, he alternated between whiskered comic-relief sidekicks and clean-shaven bad guys, but by the later 1930s, he worked almost exclusively as a Western sidekick to stars such as John Wayne, Roy Rogers, and Randolph Scott. After his last film in 1950, he starred as the host of The Gabby Hayes Show. He died on February 9, 1969.

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Known for

What's My Line?

as Self
Film

Scrooge

as Self

The Gabby Hayes Show

as Himself
Film

Blue Sunshine

as Gabby Whittaker (archive footage)
Film

Mr. Deeds Goes to Town

as Farmer's Spokesman (uncredited)

Rainha da Sucata

as Andrew 'Doc' Grunch

Full filmography

  • What's My Line? (1950) as Self
  • The Dinah Shore Chevy Show (1956) as Self
  • The Gabby Hayes Show (1950) as Himself
  • Western von gestern (1978) as Gabby Whittaker (archive footage)
  • Blue Steel (1934) as Sheriff Jake Withers
  • The Star Packer (1934) as Matt Matlock
  • 'Neath the Arizona Skies (1934) as Matt Downing
  • Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936) as Farmer's Spokesman (uncredited)
  • In Old Oklahoma (1943) as Despirit Dean
  • Love Me Tonight (1932) as Grocer (uncredited)
  • Randy Rides Alone (1934) as - Marvin Black aka Mat Mathews/Matt the Mute
  • The Lucky Texan (1934) as Jake 'Grandy' Benson
  • The Man from Utah (1934) as Marshal George Higgins
  • Tall in the Saddle (1944) as Dave
  • It's Howdy Doody Time: A 40-Year Celebration (1987) as Self (archive footage)
  • The Plainsman (1936) as Breezy
  • Rainbow Valley (1935) as George Hale
  • Silverspurs (1936) as Drag Harlan
  • Dirigible (1931) as Parade Official (uncredited)
  • Trailing North (1933) as Flash Ryan
  • Trail Street (1947) as Billy Jones
  • Dark Command (1940) as Andrew 'Doc' Grunch
  • The Devil's Mate (1933) as Collins
  • The Stolen Jools (1931) as Projectionist