Grady Sutton

Who was Grady Sutton?

Grady Harwell Sutton was an American film and television actor from the 1920s to the 1970s.

Born in Chattanooga, Tennessee, Sutton was raised in Florida where he attended St. Petersburg High School. He began his career during the silent film era and made the transition to sound films with the college themed serials The Boy Friends. He moved on to countless character roles, where he frequently played dimwitted country boys. His most well-known roles were as Frank Dowling, Katharine Hepburn's dancing partner, in Alice Adams and as a foil to W.C. Fields in two films, including Og Oggilby, Fields' daughter's fiancé, in The Bank Dick.

Film historian William J. Mann characterizes Sutton as a typical "Hollywood Sissy," that is as a gay actor who ordinarily portrayed an effeminate character for comedic effect.

He continued to work throughout the 1950s and 1960s, finally retiring from acting in 1979. The strength of his association with Fields was such that it was mentioned in the commentary for My Fair Lady. Sutton has a non-speaking role in some of the formal-dress scenes, and subtly performs some comic shtick. The commentator refers to him as "an old W. C. Fields actor".