Bert Wheeler

Who was Bert Wheeler?

Albert Jerome "Bert" Wheeler was an American comedian who performed in Broadway theatre, American comedy feature films, and vaudeville acts. He was the comedy partner of Robert Woolsey, and together they formed a successful double act called Wheeler & Woolsey.

Wheeler was born in Paterson, New Jersey in 1895. He worked with Robert Woolsey on Broadway until their film debut in 1929, Rio Rita, established them in the Hollywood film industry.

In the early 1940s, after Robert Woolsey had died, Bert Wheeler struggled to restart his career. Their friend and former film costar Dorothy Lee agreed to tour with him for a vaudeville act.

He continued to work off and on through the 1960s. His later appearances were mostly on American television; his last theatrical films were two slapstick short films for Columbia Pictures, filmed in 1950 and produced by Jules White. In 1955 Wheeler co-starred with Keith Larsen in the CBS western series Brave Eagle; Wheeler played the "half-breed" Smokey Joe, known for his tall tales and tribal wisdom.

Wheeler was married five times, twice to actresses – Bernice Speer and then Sally Haines. His longest union was with Olga Desmondae Rieman, a former vaudevillian singer, from 1951 to her death in 1966. His only child, with Speer, was Patricia Anne Wheeler, who died of cancer, the same year as her father.