Full Name Ernest Sharpe Education University of Oklahoma Role Film actor | Name Erik Rhodes Years active 1934–1976 | |
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Born February 10, 1906 ( 1906-02-10 ) El Reno, Oklahoma Territory, U.S. Died February 17, 1990, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States Spouse Emmala Dunbar (m. 1972–1990) Movies Top Hat, The Gay Divorcee, Mysterious Mr Moto, Charlie Chan in Paris, Smartest Girl in Town Similar People Mark Sandrich, Joseph Santley, John G Blystone, George Stevens, Norman Foster | ||
Erik Rhodes (February 10, 1906 – February 17, 1990) was an American film and Broadway singer and actor. He is best remembered today for appearing in two classic Hollywood musical films with popular dancing team of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, The Gay Divorcee (1934) and Top Hat (1935).
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Biography
Born Ernest Sharpe at El Reno, Indian Territory, now Oklahoma, USA, Rhodes started performing on the Broadway stage in A Most Immoral Lady (1928) using his birth name Ernest Sharpe. This was followed by two musicals The Little Show (1929) and Hey Nonny Nonny! (1932).
He first used the name Erik Rhodes when he appeared on Broadway in Gay Divorce (1932) and again in London in 1933. In this show, he gave a memorable comic portrayal of a spirited, feather-brained, thick-accented Italian character that impressed RKO executives enough to bring him to Hollywood to reprise the role in the film version, The Gay Divorcee (1934).
His last film in the pre-war years was On Your Toes (1939). By the end of the war, he was very socially active in New York City often seen with Baron Nicolas de Gunzburg, his onetime companion, and the Nordstrom Sisters at popular watering holes such as the Stork Club and 21 Club.
Between 1947 and 1964, he was back on Broadway in The Great Campaign, Dance Me a Song, Collector's Item, Shinbone Alley, Jamaica, How to Make a Man, and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. In the Cole Porter musical Can-Can, he appeared as a lecherous art critic, and introduced the song "Come Along With Me".
Among his television appearances, he played the role of murder victim Herman Albright in the 1961 Perry Mason episode, "The Case of the Violent Vest."
He married his wife Emala in 1972 and they lived in New York City until the early 1980s. He died of pneumonia in Oklahoma City at age 84 and is interred with his wife in the El Reno Cemetery in El Reno, Oklahoma.