Percy Helton

[Steve-O]

We devote a lot of time to the stars of noir. What about the little guy? Or the little gruesome guy? Like Percy Helton. Today would have been his birthday...


Check out Percy about 3 minutes into (and even creepier 5 min in) this clip from Wicked Woman!



Percy wasn't always a sleaze. Most of the time he was a regular working joe.

His noir includes:

Criss Cross
Kiss Me Deadly (watch the hand!)
Larceny
Alias Nick Beal
The Set-Up (with a rogues gallery of pugly actors)
The Crooked Way
Thieves Highway
Terror at Midnight

[waltermcwilliams]

I just watched The Set-Up this weekend and I loved his performance!

[Nauga]

It's the quiet unassuming ones you have to watch out for!

Besides being an Alfred Hitchcock show staple, westerns will teach you that this fellow lived in every tumbleweed town ever. Ever.

[noirguru]

He was one of the great slimeballs of noir!!

[JCharles]

Check my post on Crashout. He's in that one too as a country doctor who gets to do a house call in the mountains on William Bendix.

[noirton mcgraw]

was one of those noir bit characters that fit his part perfect, check out 'the crooked way', a great noir

[Arthur Bannister]

Aldrich must have liked him, because he used him again in Four for Texas and - more memorably - in Hush, Hush Sweet Charlotte as an undertaker.

[Bob]

Character actors like little Percy are the glue that held the golden age of Hollywood together. His most memorable role is, perhaps, in WICKED WOMAN , where, with rodent-like intensity, he nibbles on the arm of Bev Michaels like it's a piece of cheese.
At the screening of Thieves' Highway at the recent Noir City X, Percy's 5 seconds of screen time towards the end was greeted with approving chuckles and applause . He was one of a kind.

[JCharles]

Percy is memorable in The Crooked Way, a gangster's flunky with an allergy to cat dander, constantly sneezing. This trait ends up being pivotal in the film's denoument.

[noirton mcgraw]

Character actors like little Percy are the glue that held the golden age of Hollywood together. His most memorable role is, perhaps, in WICKED WOMAN , where, with rodent-like intensity, he nibbles on the arm of Bev Michaels like it's a piece of cheese.
At the screening of Thieves' Highway at the recent Noir City X, Percy's 5 seconds of screen time towards the end was greeted with approving chuckles and applause . He was one of a kind.

i agree 100% that the character actors are the glue, i mentioned that in another thread this way,... one more thing that always appeals to me from the 40's,50's noir films, those characters/character actors, .. their faces, manerizims, i just don't see them in todays movies, they don't make'em like them any more, and i don't think we'll ever see the likes of them any more ( they contributed in a big way to those movies)...charles mcgraw,ted de corsia, howard da silva,,jay adler,,neville brand, , phillip pine, leo gordon,,,william bendix,elisha cook,percy helton,john doucette,,william conrad,everett sloane,j.c flippen,frank puglia,malcom atterbury,i.stanford jolley,morris ankrum,lee van cleef,jack elam,rhys williams,anthony caruso,wil wright,richard benedict,frank dekova,mike mazurki,joe downing,joe sawyer,ralph dumke,wallace ford,thomas gomez,william talman .... and many more, ...they were like the dinosours,here and then ,gone, their fossils are the noir movies.... percy was one of those pieces that made a great noir

[JCharles]

i agree 100% that the character actors are the glue, i mentioned that in another thread this way,... one more thing that always appeals to me from the 40's,50's noir films, those characters/character actors, .. their faces, manerizims, i just don't see them in todays movies, they don't make'em like them any more, and i don't think we'll ever see the likes of them any more ( they contributed in a big way to those movies)...charles mcgraw,ted de corsia, howard da silva,,jay adler,,neville brand, , phillip pine, leo gordon,,,william bendix,elisha cook,percy helton,john doucette,,william conrad,everett sloane,j.c flippen,frank puglia,malcom atterbury,i.stanford jolley,morris ankrum,lee van cleef,jack elam,rhys williams,anthony caruso,wil wright,richard benedict,frank dekova,mike mazurki,joe downing,joe sawyer,ralph dumke,wallace ford,thomas gomez,william talman .... and many more, ...they were like the dinosours,here and then ,gone, their fossils are the noir movies.... percy was one of those pieces that made a great noir

I couldn't agree with you more. All of these guys show up in either film noir or westerns and give any film more character and color. I would add John McIntire to the list, superb as the DA in Asphalt Jungle and as a crooked Hail Fellow Well Met in Johnny Stoolpigeon, and as a doomed arms dealer in Winchester '73.

[waltermcwilliams]

I couldn't agree with you more. All of these guys show up in either film noir or westerns and give any film more character and color. I would add John McIntire to the list, superb as the DA in Asphalt Jungle and as a crooked Hail Fellow Well Met in Johnny Stoolpigeon, and as a doomed arms dealer in Winchester '73.

I watched Asphalt Jungle last weekend, and couldn't agree more.

[noirton mcgraw]

I couldn't agree with you more. All of these guys show up in either film noir or westerns and give any film more character and color. I would add John McIntire to the list, superb as the DA in Asphalt Jungle and as a crooked Hail Fellow Well Met in Johnny Stoolpigeon, and as a doomed arms dealer in Winchester '73.

how can i forget john mcintire, he was great, very distinct face and voice,excellent in 'psycho' also as sheriff chambers " detective ar - bo - gast"
you're right on with everything said, and johnny stoolpigeon, another excellent obscure noir....

[eubiecat]

Percy is in a memorably weird episode of Green Acres, in which he plays an irate, shotgun-totin' farmer who may or may not exist...

BTW, the entirety of WICKED WOMAN is viewable on YouTube. A delirious slice of '50s noir trash!