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| Image courtesy findagrave.com |
On this day, in 1902,
Harry Bayless Stockwell was born in Kansas City, Missouri. Born with a
golden voice, Harry studied at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New
York before moving to the Big Apple. He made his Broadway debut in 1929 in one
of Busby Berkeley’s musical extravaganzas, Broadway
Nights. The following year he appeared in the 1930 edition of legendary
producer and composer Earl Carroll’s Vanities
(which also featured the soon to be legendary Jack Benny in his Broadway debut). In 1933, Harry
started a yearlong run in another musical revue on the Great White Way, As Thousands Cheer.
Harry made his film debut in MGM’s 1935 comedy Here Comes the Band as Ollie Watts. That role led to appearances in Broadway Melody of 1936 and All Over Town in 1937. That same year,
Harry made Disney history when he was cast as the very first Disney Prince in
the studio’s first animated feature, Snow
White and the Seven Dwarfs. Unfortunately for Harry, the Prince in Snow
White wasn’t important enough to the story to get a name (he’s usually just referred
to as Snow Prince) but Harry did get his voice immortalized forever in a
classic Disney song, One Song.
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| Image copyright Disney |
Following Snow White, Harry spent most of the rest of his
career on the stage. In 1943, he took over the role of Curly in Oklahoma! on Broadway, a role he would
play off and on for the next five years. In 1945, he originated the role of
Crown Prince Rudolph in the musical drama Marinka,
which, while not a well-known show did run for 165 performances. He later starred in productions of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, The New Moon
and as Judge Aristide Forestier in Can-Can.
His later movie roles were few and far between. They numbered exactly three: a
Blackface Singer in 1945’s Rhapsody in Blue, a Passenger in 1959’s It Happened
to Jane and Military #2 in 1973’s The Werewolf of Washington, which starred his
son Dean.
Besides playing Prince to Disney’s first Princess, Harry’s
biggest contribution to the theatrical world may be the two sons he had with
his first wife, Betty. His son Guy appeared in 30 films and hundreds of
television episodes before his death in 2002. His son Dean enjoyed a career
that spanned seven decades (most notably as Al Calavicci on the show Quantum Leap) before his recent
retirement. Harry’s own career was pretty much wrapped up by the early
Seventies and he quietly lived out the remainder of his life with his second
wife of 34 years, Nina Olivette (who was also a Broadway performer), in
Manhattan, New York. He passed away there on July 19, 1984. He was 82.
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