Arthur Treacher

The Butler Who Scorned Hollywood

Arthur Treacher stood nearly six and a half feet tall, and that shaped his career from day one. He was born in Brighton in 1894 and served in World War I before stepping onto a stage. His physical presence created an insurmountable distance from the rest of the cast.

He was the man who never smiled.

He arrived in New York in 1926 with a theater company and decided he would never return to England. He quickly realized that his accent and bearing were a goldmine in the talkies. Studios wanted that air of British superiority for their drawing-room comedies, and he exploited it without mercy.

He played Jeeves in Thank You, Jeeves! during 1936. It was the first time P.G. Wodehouse's character reached the big screen with a recognizable face. No one could raise an eyebrow like him to signal that the protagonist had just committed a faux pas.

Shirley Temple's Long Shadow

His professional partnership with Fox's child star was what truly gave him financial security. In 1937, they filmed Heidi, and two years later they reunited for The Little Princess. Treacher played the stern, rigid counterpoint to Temple's energy.

But the typecasting was total. Directors didn't ask him to act; they wanted him to stand there with his back straight. So he accepted his fate with a mix of professionalism and boredom (an attitude that jumped off the screen).

In 1964, he had a brief but memorable role in Mary Poppins. He played a police officer in one of the opening scenes of the Disney film. It was one of his last big-screen appearances before he focused entirely on television.

And the gamble paid off.

Fried Fish and a Golden Retirement

Merv Griffin hired him as announcer and sidekick on his talk show in 1964. There, Treacher could laugh at his own stiff image in front of millions of viewers. He became a beloved figure for a generation that had never seen his black-and-white films.

In 1969, he decided to capitalize on his image as the quintessential old-school English gentleman. He sold his name and likeness to a fish-and-chips restaurant franchise. The chain eventually had more than 800 locations open across the United States.

But the oil crisis of 1970 and rising cod prices sank the business soon after. By then, Treacher was in no shape for financial setbacks, and he withdrew from public life.

He died in Manhasset on October 31, 1975, from cardiovascular disease at the age of 81.