Arthur Lake

Arthur William Lake (né Silverlake, April 17, 1905 – January 9, 1987) was an American actor known best for bringing Dagwood Bumstead, the bumbling husband of Blondie, to life in film, radio, and television.

Arthur William (Silverlake) Lake was born on April 17, 1905, in Corbin, Kentucky, when his father Arthur Adolph Silverlake (né Timberlake) and uncle Archie Glenn Silverlake (né Timberlake) were touring with a circus in an aerial act known as "The Flying Silverlakes". His mother, Edith Goodwin (née Edith Blanche Fautch) was an actress. His parents later appeared in vaudeville in a skit "Family Affair", traveling throughout the South and Southwest United States. Arthur first appeared on stage as a baby in Uncle Tom's Cabin; his sister Florence and he became part of the act in 1910. Their mother took the children to Hollywood to get into films, and Arthur made his screen debut in the silent Jack and the Beanstalk (1917). Florence became a successful actress achieving a degree of fame as one of the screen wives of comedian Edgar Kennedy.

Universal Pictures signed Lake to a contract where, as an adolescent, he played character parts in Westerns. At age 19 he began starring in a long series of comedy shorts for Universal, which ran through 1930. He signed with RKO Radio Pictures shortly after it formed in 1928. There he made Dance Hall (1929), and Cheer Up and Smile (1930).

Moviegoers first heard Lake speak when he appeared as Harold Astor, the lead of the 1929 musical comedy On with the Show!, which is notable as the first all-talking feature film using the Vitaphone process, and as Warner Bros' first all-color film shot in two-color Technicolor.

In the early sound film era, Lake typically played light romantic roles, often with a comic "Mama's Boy" tone to them, such as 1931's Indiscreet, starring Gloria Swanson. He also had a substantial part as the bellhop in the 1937 film Topper.

Arthur Lake is best known for portraying Dagwood Bumstead, the husband of the title character of the Blondie comic strip, in 28 Blondie features produced by Columbia Pictures between 1938 and 1950, co-starring Penny Singleton as Blondie and Larry Simms as Baby Dumpling (later known as Alexander). Lake also played Dagwood on the radio series, which ran concurrently with the film series from 1938 to 1950, earning Lake a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6646 Hollywood Blvd. (Many of the actors on the radio show noted Lake's commitment to the program, stating that on the day of the broadcast, Lake became Dagwood Bumstead.)

Far from feeling bitter about being typecast, Lake continued to embrace the role. He played Dagwood in a short-lived 1957 Blondie TV series, and often gave speeches to Rotary clubs and other civic organizations (eagerly posing for pictures with a Dagwood sandwich), well into the 1960s and beyond. He died in 1987.

In 1943 Columbia discontinued the Blondie series and dismissed Penny Singleton but retained Arthur Lake—leading men were hard to find during wartime. Lake starred in comedy features for Columbia, Republic Pictures, and United Artists during this hiatus. He also lent his voice to a series of military cartoons produced by Warner Bros. for the U. S. Navy in 1945; Lake played "Mr. Hook," a hapless sailor learning the value of war bonds.

Popular demand caused Columbia to reinstate the Blondie pictures in 1945, reuniting Lake with Singleton until the series finally ended in 1950.

Arthur Lake dabbled in film production in 1948, in partnership with independent filmmaker Irving Allen, who had won the Academy Award for his short subject Climbing the Matterhorn, released by Monogram Pictures. Lake and Allen collaborated on a feature-length undersea adventure, 16 Fathoms Deep, starring Lloyd Bridges and Lon Chaney Jr., and featuring Arthur Lake in a comedy-relief role. Monogram released the film and billed Lake as the star in its advertising. The ambitious "Arthur Lake Production," filmed on location in Tarpon Springs, Florida, was photographed in color and received good reviews and reception, but it was Lake's only venture behind the cameras.

Lake became very friendly with newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst and his mistress Marion Davies. He was a frequent guest at the beach house of Davies, where he met Patricia Van Cleeve, Davies's niece. Lake and Van Cleeve married at San Simeon in 1937. They had two children, Arthur Patrick Lake (born March 1, 1943) and Marion Rose Lake (born October 6, 1944). Arthur Patrick Lake died in a car accident in 1994. Their grandson is Arthur David Lake, known in skateboarding as Arthur Lake III, a surfer and mason in Hawaii.

Patricia Lake's parentage was the subject of much gossip and speculation. However, at the time of her death, Patricia Lake reportedly admitted to being the daughter of Davies and Hearst. Arthur Lake was bequeathed half of Marion Davies's $20,000,000 estate when she died in 1961. This fueled the rumors of an arranged marriage between Van Cleeve and him, providing a method of inheritance without acknowledging her parentage.

In his book about the Black Dahlia murder case, author Donald H. Wolfe asserts that Arthur Lake was questioned by the Los Angeles Police Department as a suspect, having been acquainted with the victim through her volunteer work at the Hollywood Canteen. No charges were filed and Lake was one of many persons of interest in a case that remains unsolved.

Lake died of a heart attack in Indian Wells, California, on January 9, 1987. He is interred in the Hollywood Forever Cemetery, in the Douras family mausoleum, along with actress Marion Davies and her husband, Horace G. Brown. Lake's widow Patricia was interred there upon her death in 1993.