Fred Sanborn

Who was Fred Sanborn?

Fred Sanborn was an American vaudeville performer, actor, and musician. He was most notable as a member of Ted Healy's comedy troupe Ted Healy and his Southern Gentlemen.

Sanborn appeared frequently in the group's early stage acts. However, after appearing with Healy, Moe Howard, Larry Fine, and Shemp Howard in the Rube Goldberg film Soup to Nuts—for which Sanborn also wrote a song—he left the group, preferring to concentrate on his music rather than become known as a "Healyite". Sanborn's character was a quasi-Chaplinesque little fellow who is never heard speaking, preferring to whisper in other characters' ears while waggling his thick eyebrows. He appeared in films sporadically throughout the 1930s-40s, often in small, unspeaking comedy roles.

His last performance was as a comedian on The Ed Wynn Show in 1950.