How to describe the Hollywood actor William Bendix (1906-1964)? Well, look at his face. He has a pug nose, slightly shifty eyes and a thick build. He had one of the best known ‘Brooklyn’ accents in the business (all the more bizarre since he was apparently from Manhattan) with a wonderful nasal quality to his voice that was perfect for playing tough guys, honest to goodness hard working Joes, or dopes. For Americans he’s probably better known for starring in The Babe Ruth Story (1948) or playing Chester A. Riley in The Life of Riley on television in the 1950s - in 2004 he was named in a list of top fifty TV dads of all time.
The Knowledge prefers to think of him as the soldiers he plays in Wake Island (1942) and A Bell for Adano (1945), his heavies in The Dark Corner and The Blue Dahlia (both 1946) and as Sherrif in Cover Up (1949). There’s also his Gus Smith, an injured sailor amongst the survivors on Alfred Hitchcock’s Lifeboat (1944). To my mind, Bendix always added a touch of class to any film he was in, able to show the complexity behind the no nonsense 'everyman'.
He could move from humour and good-naturedness to menace with complete ease. Take Cover Up where his Sheriff Larry Best appears to be sinister, but might be one of the good guys. Or if you can (and you really should!) look at The Big Steal as his Captain Vincent Blake chases Lieutenant Duke Halliday (Robert Mitchum) into Mexico over the matter of some stolen army money. Watch how Bendix goes from being a physical threat to a slapstick doofus and back to physical threat. It’s masterly.
Mainly though there was that voice – Brooklyn was never the same again!
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