- Born
- Died
- Birth nameFrancis Curry McHugh
- Height5′ 7″ (1.70 m)
- The parents of Frank McHugh ran their own stock company and he was on the stage as a child. When he was 10 he was part of an act that include his brother Matt McHugh and sister Kitty McHugh. After vaudeville and other stock companies, Frank debuted on Broadway "The Fall Guy" (1925). In 1930 he was hired at Warner Brothers as a contract player. Frank would usually play the sidekick to the lead actor and would provide the comedy relief in tense situations - if it were called for. With his nervous laugh and hangdog look, he appeared in over 90 movies in the first dozen years he worked at Warners. He would also appear with another very busy character actor, Allen Jenkins, in a dozen or so films. McHugh would be a mechanic, a song plugger, a pilot, a baseball player or a newspaperman, and would either be married or get the girl only if the girl was not the one the hero was interested in. Over the years he would work with most of the stars that Warners employed. By the early 1950s his film career started winding down. From 1964 to 1965 he played the role of Willis Walter on The Bing Crosby Show (1964).- IMDb Mini Biography By: Tony Fontana <[email protected]>
- SpouseDorothy Margaret Spencer McIsaac(July 25, 1933 - September 11, 1981) (his death, 3 children)
- ParentsEdward A. McHughKatherine Curry McHugh
- RelativesMatt McHugh(Sibling)Kitty McHugh(Sibling)
- High-pitched squeaky laugh
- Made 11 movies with his close friend James Cagney, more than any other actor. These were The Crowd Roars (1932), Footlight Parade (1933), Here Comes the Navy (1934), Devil Dogs of the Air (1935), The Irish in Us (1935), A Midsummer Night's Dream (1935), Boy Meets Girl (1938), The Roaring Twenties (1939), The Fighting 69th (1940), City for Conquest (1940), A Lion Is in the Streets (1953).
- Appears in five Oscar Best Picture nominees: The Front Page (1931), Here Comes the Navy (1934), A Midsummer Night's Dream (1935), Four Daughters (1938) and Going My Way (1944), with the last the only winner in the category.
- Played the same character, Spud Connors, in The Crowd Roars (1932) and its remake, Indianapolis Speedway (1939).
- Played the same character (the petty thief running away from Chinese authorities) both in One Way Passage (1932) and its remake, 'Til We Meet Again (1940). The character was called Skippy in the first film and Rockhingham T. Rockingham in the second.
- Ex-brother in law of Ned Glass.
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