Benjamin Sherman Crothers (May 23, 1910 – November 22, 1986), known professionally as Scatman Crothers, was an American actor and musician. He performed on drums and piano in several bands. He also recorded many solo albums as well as singles. Crothers won the Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in ‘The Shining.’
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He began his musical career as a teenager. He sang and was self-educated on guitar and drums. He was in a band that played in speakeasies in Terre Haute, Indiana. Among the people he performed for was notorious gangster, Al Capone. Crothers. During the 1930s, he formed a band, spent eight years living in Akron, Ohio, and performed five days a week on a radio show in Dayton, Ohio. The station manager thought he needed a catchier name, so Crothers suggested "Scatman" for his scat singing. He married Helen, a native of Steubenville, Ohio, in 1937. In the 1940s, the couple moved to California.
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| Slim Gaillard with Crothers & Bam Brown |
In 1946, Crothers took over from Leo Watson as drummer of Slim Gaillard's Trio in 1946 after settling in Los Angeles. Made a bunch of records starting in 1947, in 1948 Crothers was introduced to Phil Harris, a radio star and regular on Jack Benny's program. He and Harris--like Crothers a native of Indiana--immediately hit it off. Together Crothers and Harris recorded a song called "Chattanooga Shoeshine Boy," which they introduced on Harris's NBC radio show The Phil Harris--Alice Faye Show. Crothers recorded two more hits later that year: "On the Sunny Side of the Street" and "Dead Man's Blues." He became a regular guest on Harris's show, and the pair continued to collaborate on records and in films for years to come.
In 1948, he brought his combo to Los Angeles and became the first black featured on Los Angeles television, in a show titled ''Dixie Showboat.'' He also performed in Las Vegas, and at the Apollo Theater in Harlem, New York City. Capitol released several of his singles: "I'd Rather Be a Hummingbird", "Blue-eyed Sally", and "Television Blues". High Fidelity Records released his album Rock and Roll with Scatman Crothers. He went on USO tours with Bob Hope. According to the jacket notes of the Let Freedom Sing CD set, Crothers was part of the music group The Ramparts, who sang "The Death of Emmett Till" (1955), a song by A. C. Bilbrew.
Crothers made his debut in the movie Meet Me at the Fair (1953). He then appeared in the movies ‘East of Sumatra’, ‘Johnny Dark’, ‘Tarzan and the Trappers’ and ‘Porgy and Bess’. From 1961 to 1969, the actor did several films out of which only ‘The Sins of Rachel Cade’ and ‘The Patsy’ got him acting credits. He had roles in the film musicals Hello Dolly! (1969) and The Great White Hope (1970) before providing the voice of "Scat Cat" in the animated film The Aristocats (also 1970).
He appeared in four films with Jack Nicholson: The King of Marvin Gardens (1972), The Fortune (1975), One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), and The Shining (1980). He had the part of a fable-telling convict in the animated film Coonskin (1975), a train porter in Silver Streak (1976), a liveryman in The Shootist (1976), Mingo in Roots (1977), a ringmaster in Bronco Billy (1980), a baseball coach in Zapped! (1982), and angels in Two of a Kind (1983) and Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983). He was awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6712 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California on April 8, 1981.
After The Aristocats in the 1970s, he found voice acting jobs as Meadowlark Lemon in the Harlem Globetrotters cartoon series and as the title character in Hong Kong Phooey. For four years he played the role of Louie the garbage man on Chico and the Man. During his appearance on Sanford and Son he joined Redd Foxx for two musical numbers. One was a version of the standard "All of Me" in which he accompanied Foxx on tenor guitar. In 1966, Hanna-Barbera aired an animated special called The New Alice in Wonderland (or What's a Nice Kid like You Doing in a Place like This?), an updated version of the Lewis Carroll story featuring Sammy Davis Jr. as a cool Cheshire cat. The special was followed by an audio adaptation for HB Records, but since Davis was signed to Reprise, Crothers provided the cat's voice for the album.
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| Crothers with Richard Pryor & Gene Wilder |
Crothers had many guest roles on television shows, such as Alfred Hitchcock Presents in 1958, Dragnet in 1967, Bewitched and McMillan & Wife in 1971, Adam-12 in 1972 (as "George Strothers"), Kojak and Ironside in 1973, Kolchak: The Night Stalker and Sanford and Son in 1974, Starsky and Hutch in 1977, Charlie's Angels and The Love Boat in 1978, Magnum, P.I. in 1980, Benson in 1982, and Taxi in 1983. Also in 1980, he was on two episodes of Laverne & Shirley as a porter. In the 1980s, he provided the voice of the Autobot Jazz on the television series The Transformers. He starred in three short-lived 1980s television series: One of the Boys (1982), Casablanca (1983), and Morningstar/Eveningstar (1986).
On November 22, 1986, Crothers died at the age of 76 at his home in Van Nuys, California, after struggling with lung cancer for nearly four years. He is buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles. (Edited from Wikipedia & IMDb)