Jack Oakie
Oakie in 1941
Born	Lewis Delaney Offield (1903-11-12)November 12, 1903 Sedalia, Missouri, U.S.
Died	January 23, 1978(1978-01-23) (aged 74) Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Resting place	Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Glendale)
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1923–1971
Spouses	Venita Varden ​ ​ (m. 1936; div. 1945)​ Victoria Horne ​ ​ (m. 1950)​

Jack Oakie (born Lewis Delaney Offield; November 12, 1903 – January 23, 1978) was an American actor, starring mostly in films, but also working on stage, radio and television. He portrayed Napaloni in Chaplin's The Great Dictator (1940), receiving a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.

Early life

Jack Oakie was born in Sedalia, Missouri, at 522 W. Seventh St. His father, James Madison Offield (1880–1939), was a grain dealer, and his mother, Evelyn Offield (nee Jump) (1868–1939), was a psychology teacher.^[1] When he was 5, the Offield family moved to Muskogee, Oklahoma, the source of his "Oakie" nickname.^[1] His adopted first name, Jack, was the name of the first character he played on stage. Young Lewis/Jack grew up mostly in Oklahoma but also lived for periods of time with his grandmother in Kansas City, Missouri. While there he attended Woodland Elementary and made spending money as a paperboy for The Kansas City Star. He recalled years later that he made especially good money selling "extras" in November 1916 during the presidential election campaign that resulted in Woodrow Wilson being re-elected.^[1]

Early career

Oakie worked as a runner on Wall Street and narrowly escaped being killed in the Wall Street bombing of September 16, 1920. While in New York, he also started appearing in amateur theatre as a mimic and a comedian, finally making his professional debut on Broadway in 1923 as a chorus boy in a production of Little Nellie Kelly by George M. Cohan.

Oakie worked in various musicals and comedies on Broadway from 1923 to 1927, when he moved to Hollywood to work in movies at the end of the silent film era. Oakie appeared in five silent films during 1927 and 1928. As the age of the "talkies" began, he signed with Paramount Pictures in 1927.^[2] He made his first talking film, The Dummy, in 1929.

Film career

When his contract with Paramount ended in 1934, Oakie decided to freelance. He was remarkably successful, appearing in 87 films, most made in the 1930s and 1940s. In the film Too Much Harmony (1933), the part of Oakie's on-screen mother was played by his real mother, Mary Evelyn Offield. During the 1930s, he was known as "The World's Oldest Freshman", as a result of appearing in numerous films with a collegiate theme. He was also known for refusing to wear screen make-up of any kind, and the frequent use of double-take in his comedy. Oakie was quoted as saying of his studio career:

The pictures I made were called the bread and butter pictures of the studio. They cost nothing and made millions, and supported the prestige productions that cost millions and made nothing.

Oakie portrayed Benzino Napaloni, the boisterous dictator of Bacteria, in Charlie Chaplin's The Great Dictator (1940), for which he received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor. This role was a broad parody of the fascist dictator of Italy, Benito Mussolini, then in power.

With Tina Louise in The New Breed TV series, 1961.

Personal life

Oakie was married twice. His first marriage to Venita Varden in 1936 ended in 1938 when Venita got an interlocutory decree of divorce. They reconciled, but finally divorced in 1944. She died in 1948 in the crash of United Airlines Flight 624 at Mount Carmel, Pennsylvania.

Oakie's second marriage was in 1950, to actress Victoria Horne, with whom he lived at "Oakridge" until his death in 1978.

Jack Oakie died on January 23, 1978, in Los Angeles, California, at the age of 74 from an aortic aneurysm. His remains were interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale in Los Angeles County.

Legacy

In 1981, the "Jack Oakie Lecture on Comedy in Film" was established as an annual event of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. At the inaugural presentation, Oakie was described as "a master of comic timing and a beloved figure in the industry."^[7]

The Jack Oakie Endowed Chair in Comedy at the School of Cinematic Arts at the University of Southern California was established in 2003.^[8]

Jack Oakie's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame is at 6752 Hollywood Boulevard, and his hand and footprints can be found at Grauman's Chinese Theater in Hollywood.

A small display celebrating the comedy and fame of Jack Oakie is at Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills, California. There is a plaque in the ground in front of the home where he was born in Sedalia, Missouri.

Jack Oakie is mentioned in the Coen Brothers film Barton Fink as the favorite actor of Charlie, a character played by John Goodman.

Filmography

Bibliography

• Jack Oakie (1980). Jack Oakie's Double Takes. Strawberry Hill Press. ISBN 0-89407-019-3. Autobiography published posthumously by Oakie's widow on January 1, 1980. 240 pages.
• Victoria Horne Oakie (1994). "Dear Jack": Hollywood birthday reminiscences to Jack Oakie. Strawberry Hill Press. ISBN 978-0-89407-113-3. Letters of congratulation and reminiscence sent from almost 150 celebrities to Jack Oakie in celebration of his 70th birthday. Compiled & edited by Mrs Oakie to commemorate his 90th birthday. 140 pages.

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Jack Oakie.

• Jack Oakie discography at Discogs
• Jack Oakie at IMDb 
• Jack Oakie at the Internet Broadway Database
• Works by Jack Oakie at Open Library
• JACK OAKIE CELEBRATION OF COMEDY IN FILM at oscars.org
• Biography of Jack Oakie
• Movie Figures Hear Jack Oakie Eulogized as Genius of Comedy
• NY Times Biography of Jack Oakie Archived 2003-08-14 at the Wayback Machine
• Jack Oakie at Find a Grave
• Photographs of Jack Oakie