The 'brains' and 'action' heavies who had meaty roles and lots of dialog ... and the players who were fathers, ranch owners, lawman, mayors, judges, lawyers, storekeepers, newspaper editors, wardens, etc. |
(Courtesy of Les Adams) | Jimmy/Jimmie Aubrey James Aubrey 1887 or 1888 - 1983 Birth name may be: James Aubrey Whitehead On the left - Jimmy Aubrey circa 1939 - 1940 when he was doing Bob Steele westerns for Bernard B. Ray and Harry Webb's short lived Metropolitan Pictures Corporation. |
Jimmy Aubrey was born in Lancashire, England in 1887 and sources indicate his birth name was James Aubrey Whitehead. In England, he was a member of the Fred Karno traveling variety troupe. Other alumni of the Karno group were Charlie Chaplin and Stan Laurel.
Circa 1908, Aubrey moved to the United States. His earliest films were the "Heinie and Louie" Starlight Comedies for the Mittendahl Studios in New Jersey which were released through Pathe exchanges. Aubrey was "Heinie" and Walter Kendig portrayed "Louie". Circa 1919, Aubrey began his "Big V" comedies for Vitagraph, often paired up with Oliver "Babe" Hardy (before his Laurel and Hardy days). There's links below to some other websites which show Aubrey in stills and lobby cards from those Vitagraph comedies. Pay particular attention to his vertical moustache. His movie career consisted of about 450 films, spread over a 40 year period that ran from about 1915 to the mid 1950s. After his Vitagraph series ended around 1923, Aubrey did some more silents including a couple with the new comedy team of Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy. When sound arrived, he was able to adapt to the new medium as well as his new (lesser) status. And he became a familiar face in dozens of B westerns of the 1930s and 1940s. Les Adams has Aubrey identified in about 250 sound films and that number includes 133 westerns and 5 chapterplays. In those, he was mostly unbilled/uncredited and his varied roles included lawman, bartender, drunk/barfly, posse member, and henchman. Occasionally he even portrayed the sidekick to our white hatted hero. And when he spoke, the dialog came out flavored with a Cockney English accent. Despite his lengthy career, Aubrey only worked in two films at Republic Pictures and both were non-westerns (thus, he didn't do any with Gene, Roy, Rocky, Sunset, the Three Mesquiteers, and lots of others). He never appeared in a Mascot serial for Nat Levine. No Hopalong Cassidy features ... nor any westerns starring John Wayne or Ken Maynard or Hoot Gibson or Tom Mix or Wild Bill Elliott or Jimmy Wakely or Whip Wilson or Eddie Dean or Lash LaRue. He did one with Buck Jones, but that was a Rough Riders at Monogram. And he was in one of the mid 1930s Johnny Mack Brown oaters produced by A. W. Hackel / Supreme Pictures. So where did Jimmy get his paychecks? There are a few people and production companies tied to over two-thirds of his 133 westerns:
Les Adams summarizes Aubrey's employment situation: "Once someone hired Aubrey, they couldn't get rid of him."
Although some of the data may be incomplete or inaccurate, the Internet Movie Database (IMDb) has information on Jimmy Aubrey: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0041410/ |
Above are two screen captures of Jimmy Aubrey from THE PHANTOM COWBOY (Aywon, 1935), one of several grade Z train wrecks directed by Robert J. Horner. One-time silent screen hero Ted Wells is the star and Aubrey is his overacting sidekick named "Ptomaine Pete". Wells has a dual role and also plays the "phantom cowboy". This thing has rotten dialog, a stationary camera, and lots more negatives. But the worse is when Wells and Aubrey decide to take a cool swim in the local creek ... and strip down to their skivvies. The phantom steals their clothes, gunbelts, and horses, and Ted and Jimmy spend about 10 minutes doing scenes in their underwear. |
The bulk of Aubrey's westerns were with/for: | ||
Star/Hero or Producer/Director | Production Company | Quantity |
Sam Newfield directed westerns prior to his stay at PRC (with Rex Bell, Tim McCoy, Fred Scott) | Various | 12 |
Ultra low budget oaters for producer/director/story writer Robert J. Horner (3 with Perrin, 2 with Ted Wells, 2 with Bill Cody) | Cosmos/West Coast and Aywon |
7 |
Bud 'n' Ben shorts (with Humes, Wales, Dennis Moore, 2 w/Perrin) | Reliable | 5 |
Tom Tyler | Reliable | 13 |
Jack Perrin | Reliable | 3 |
Bob Custer | Reliable | 2 |
Dennis Moore | Metropolitan | 2 |
Bob Steele | Metropolitan | 5 |
Jack Randall | Monogram | 5 |
Buster Crabbe as Billy the Kid/Billy Carson (directed by Sam Newfield) | PRC | 26 |
George Houston Lone Riders (directed by Sam Newfield) | PRC | 2 |
Bob Livingston Lone Riders (5 of 6 directed by Sam Newfield) | PRC | 6 |
Texas Rangers | PRC | 11 |
Bob Steele | PRC | 2 |
Range Busters | Monogram | 4 |
Total | 105 | |
Note: the above quantities are WESTERNS ONLY. Aubrey did some non-westerns for these same folks and production companies and those are not included. Couple of examples: Aubrey was in the Sam Newfield directed THE BLACK RAVEN (1943) and DEAD MEN WALK (PRC, 1943), both with George Zucco, and he was in THE CONTENDER (PRC, 1944), a boxing flick with Buster Crabbe which Newfield also helmed. |
On the trail of Jimmy Aubrey
Rick Albright was able to locate various information on Aubrey. Additional comments are shown in ( ):
Find A Grave has a photo of the marker for Jimmy Aubrey who is interred at San Fernando Mission Cemetery, Mission Hills, Los Angeles County, California. The marker has his birth year as 1887: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/78285386/jimmy-aubrey
Aubrey's silent film career
The Nitrate Film Interest Group has some nitrate film frames of Aubrey in some unidentified silents:
Rob Stone is the Moving Image Curator at the Library of Congress and has blogs about the solo film careers of Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy as well as an article on the 1915 death of Walter Kendig in a motorcycle accident (Kendig was "Louie" in the "Heinie and Louie" comedy shorts). He has several Vitagraph lobby cards showing Jimmy Aubrey and Oliver Hardy together circa 1919 - 1920: |
(Courtesy of Les Adams) Aubrey and his "Whitehead" surname. Above is from the pressbook to Bob Steele's MESQUITE BUCKAROO (Metropolitan, 1939). Eighth on the list is "James Whitehead" ... who just happens to be Jimmy Aubrey. Aubrey also had this same name change in Steele's RIDERS OF THE SAGE (Metropolitan, 1939). |
(Courtesy of the Robert Webb Family) A pause in the action on the Bob Steele western SMOKY TRAILS (Metropolitan, 1939). Above are: 1. James Aubrey 2. producer/director Harry S. Webb 3. Eddie Saeta 4. Bob Steele 5. producer/director Bernard B. Ray (he directed SMOKY TRAILS) 6. Rose Gordon, wife of Harry S. Webb 7. Gordon Webb (first son of Harry and Rose) 8. Sammy Gordon. The leading lady (center) is Jean Carmen, best remembered as the rider of the paint horse in Republic's 1937 serial, THE PAINTED STALLION. Bruce Dane is the tall cowboy on the right. (Courtesy of Minard Coons) | |
Above from left to right are George Chesebro, Ray 'Crash' Corrigan, Budd Buster (top hat), Jimmy Aubrey, Archie Ricks and Herman Hack in a saloon scene from the Range Busters BOOT HILL BANDITS (Monogram, 1942). The partial face behind Corrigan's left shoulder is Richard Cramer doing barkeep duty. Aubrey played the local drunk and a crop/blowup is shown on the left. |
(Courtesy of Minard Coons) Above is barkeep Jimmy Aubrey chatting with Max Terhune and dummy Elmer in a still from the Range Busters HAUNTED RANCH (Monogram, 1943). When Jimmy wore that large handlebar moustache, I'm reminded of "Yosemite Sam" in the Looney Tunes cartoons. (Courtesy of Les Adams) Above is the title lobby card from THE RENEGADE (PRC, 1943) and shows Buster Crabbe on the right sneaking up on Jimmy Aubrey (blue shirt) and screen veteran Jack Montgomery. Sam Newfield directed all 36 of Crabbe's Billy the Kid/Billy Carson films and Aubrey appeared in 26. Jack Montgomery
Jimmy Aubrey (Courtesy of John White) Above from left to right are Curley Dresden, Jess Cavin, Carl Mathews, Jimmy Aubrey and Dan White in a scene from the Buster Crabbe VALLEY OF VENGEANCE (PRC, 1944). Aubrey, Cavin and White are settlers, while Dresden and Mathews play gang members employed by Lynton Brent and Jack Ingram. All five in this photo were unbilled in this film. |