Don Brodie: Movies & Box Office

Donald Ellis Brodie, known professionally as Don Brodie, was born on May 29 1904 in Cincinnati, Ohio, the youngest of six children of Frank Ellis Brodie and Charlotte Moonert. He grew up in the Avondale neighborhood and attended Hughes High School before enrolling at the University of Cincinnati. Before pursuing acting he worked in the corporate offices of Procter & Gamble, and at the age of sixteen his rhymed satire was published in The Cincinnati Post. By 1922 Brodie had begun performing on stage, co‑starring in a 1924 production of Lord Dunsany’s Fame and the Poet and later appearing in Cincinnati’s Civic Repertory Theater for nine years. His early theatrical work laid a solid foundation for a prolific screen career that would span nearly seven decades.

In 1931 Brodie signed his first film contract with Universal Pictures, initially promoted as “Steve” Brodie, a moniker quickly abandoned. He became a reliable character actor, appearing in over 250 film and television productions, often in uncredited bit parts but occasionally in more substantive roles such as the car‑lot owner in the noir classic Detour and the comic side‑kick Spud Savage in the Crime Club entry The Last Express. He contributed voice work to Disney’s Pinocchio and Dumbo, and directed the low‑budget feature A Fig Leaf for Eve in 1944. Brodie’s final screen appearance was in the 1989 film Goodnight, Sweet Marilyn. He married Lucille I. Becker on March 7 1930, and the couple remained together until his death in Los Angeles on January 8 2001.