Percy Helton

Who was Percy Helton?

Percy Helton was an American film and television actor.

One of his most memorable supporting roles was playing a drunken Santa Claus in Miracle on 34th Street. He also appeared in small but memorable roles in Criss Cross, The Set-Up, Kiss Me Deadly and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Percy Helton began acting as a young child at the age of two, appearing in his father's vaudeville act. He appeared in many Broadway plays as a child actor before joining the US Army to serve in World War I with the American Expeditionary Forces. The short actor with a hoarse, raspy voice and breathy delivery was a fixture in a wide range of films and TV programs in the 1950s and 1960s. Among them were three guest appearances on Perry Mason, including the role of Asa Cooperman in the 1961 episode, "The Case of the Pathetic Patient."