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Jack Oakie
Highest Rated: 100% Thieves' Highway (1949)
Lowest Rated: 71% It Happened Tomorrow (1944)
Birthday: Nov 12, 1903
Birthplace: Sedalia, Missouri, USA
Delightfully brash character actor of the 1930s and 40s, Oakie was famed for his double-takes and gleeful song-and-dance style. A vaudeville performer from the early 1920s, Oakie first hit Broadway in Mistinguette's "Innocent Eyes" (1924). Talkies proved a boon to Oakie, who was signed by Paramount in 1927 and played wisecracking collegiates in several early musicals (notably "Sweetie," 1929, with Helen Kane).