Clinton Sundberg

Soft-spoken small-part actor 'Clinton Sundberg' (qv) was a minor player on the MGM payroll during the late 40s and 50s. A one-time teacher who turned his focus to character acting, his rather meek countenance and light, raspy tenor tones befitted a comfortable niche playing courteous servile types in mostly sentimental tales. As various desk clerks, waiters and menservants (and maybe a couple of out-of-character villains), he seemed to back up a large roster of MGM's biggest stars in musicals (he himself didn't sing) including 'June Allyson' (qv) in Good 'News' (qv) (1947), 'Fred Astaire' (qv) and 'Ginger Rogers' (qv) in _The Barkleys of Broadway (1949)_ (qv) and 'Betty Hutton' (qv) in _Annie Get Your Gun (1950)_ (qv), to name a few. Of these, he may be best remembered as 'Judy Garland' (qv)'s benevolent bartender in _Easter Parade (1948)_ (qv). Other more prominent parts came as a snippy butler in _The Girl Next Door (1953)_ (qv) and private eye 'J. Scott Smart' (qv)'s "Man Friday" in the Universal mystery programmer _The Fat Man (1951)_ (qv). A Broadway veteran, Sundberg's better known stage roles were as Mortimer in "Arsenic and Old Lace" and Mr. Kraler in "The Diary of Anne Frank." TV allowed him to be a bit more assertive in personality while also showing his intelligent side as assorted doctor and professor types. Sundberg went on to appear in dozens of voice-overs and commercials in the 1970s. He died of heart failure in 1987 shortly after his 84th birthday.::Gary Brumburgh / [email protected]