
William “Willie” Best (May 27, 1916 - February 27, 1962), sometimes known as “Sleep n' Eat,” was an American television and film actor. Best was one of the first African-American film actors and comedians to become well known. In the 21st century, his work, like that of Stepin Fetchit, is sometimes reviled because he was often called upon to play stereotypically lazy, illiterate, and/or simple-minded characters in films. Of the 124 films he appeared in, he received screen credit in at least 77, an unusual feat for an African-American bit player. Willie Best appeared in more than one hundred films of the 1930s and 1940s. Although several sources state that for years he was billed only as “Sleep n' Eat,” Best received credit under this moniker instead of his real name in only six movies: his first film as a bit player (Harold Lloyd's Feet First) and in Up Pops the Devil (1931), The Monster Walks (1932), Kentucky Kernels and West of the Pecos (both 1934), and Murder on a Honeymoon (1935). Best was first loved as a great clown, then later in the 20th century reviled and pitied, before being forgotten in the history of film. Hal Roach called him one of the greatest talents he had ever met. Comedian Bob Hope similarly acclaimed him as “the best actor I know,” while the two were working together in 1940 on The Ghost Breakers. As a supporting actor, Best, like many black actors of his era, was regularly cast in domestic worker or service-oriented roles (though a few times he played the role echoing his previous occupation as a private chauffeur). He was often seen making a brief comic turn as a hotel, airline or train porter, as well as an elevator operator, custodian, butler, valet, waiter, deliveryman, and at least once as a launch pilot (in the 1939 movie Mr. Moto in Danger Island). Willie Best received screen credit most of the time, which was unusual for “bit players,” most in the 1930s and '40s were not accorded due credit. This also happened to white actors in small roles, but black actors were not credited even when their roles were larger. In more than 80 of his movies, he was given a proper character name (as opposed to simple descriptions such as “room service waiter” or “shoe-shine boy”), beginning with his second film. Best played “Chattanooga Brown” in two Charlie Chan films —The Red Dragon in 1945 and Dangerous Money in 1946. He also played the character of “Hipp” in three of RKO’s six Scattergood Baines films with Guy Kibbee: Scattergood Baines (1941), Scattergood Survives a Murder (1942), and Cinderella Swings It in 1943. (Actor Paul White, who played a young version of Best’s “Hipp” in the first film, went on to play “Hipp” in the next three films. Best returned to the role in the last two.) After a drug arrest ended his film career, he worked in television for a while and became known to early TV audiences as “Charlie the Elevator Operator” on CBS's My Little Margie, from 1953 to 1955. He also played Willie, the house servant, handyman and close friend of the title character of ABC’s The Trouble with Father, for its entire run from 1950 to 1955.

South of Caliente

Silly Billies

Harold Lloyd's World of Comedy

Nothing but the Truth

Blondie

High Sierra

Saturday's Heroes

Breakdowns of 1941

Vivacious Lady

Waterfront

Merrily We Live

Gold Is Where You Find It

We Who Are About to Die

Mr. Moto in Danger Island

The Red Dragon

Busses Roar

The Nitwits

Mr. Moto Takes a Vacation

The Adventures of Mark Twain

Feet First

Blondie Brings Up Baby

The Smiling Ghost

Cabin in the Sky

Juke Girl

Maisie Gets Her Man

The Powers Girl

The Stu Erwin Show

The Ghost Breakers

The Hidden Hand

Little Miss Marker

Whispering Ghosts

At the Circus

Blackmail

Murder on a Honeymoon

Kentucky Kernels

The Monster and the Ape

The Green Pastures

Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy of Company "B"

テムプルの愛国者

Thank Your Lucky Stars

Ladies of Leisure

Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?

The Shanghai Chest

The Guilty Generation

A-Haunting We Will Go

Nancy Drew... Trouble Shooter

Deep South

Hold That Blonde!

Two in Revolt

Music for Millions

Blondie on a Budget

Thank You, Jeeves!

The Mark of the Whistler

Straight, Place and Show

Half Past Midnight

Scattergood Baines

Private Detective

Racket Squad

She Wouldn't Say Yes

The Bride Wore Boots

Highway West

Way Down South

Night Waitress

Crashing Hollywood

Dangerous Money

The Girl Who Dared

The Body Disappears

I Take This Woman

The Saint Strikes Back

Down the Stretch

Kisses for Breakfast

Home in Indiana

Muss 'em Up

General Spanky

The Kansan

Flight from Destiny

Road Show

Racing Lady

Pillow to Post

The Bride Walks Out

Murder on a Bridle Path

Super-Sleuth

Hot Tip

I'm from the City

Breezing Home

Mummy's Boys

Slightly Honorable

The Lady from Cheyenne

Scattergood Survives a Murder

Everybody's Doing It

The Face of Marble

Up Pops the Devil

Who Killed Aunt Maggie?

The Monster Walks

Meet the Missus

Jalna

You Can't Buy Luck

TV in Black: The First Fifty Years

Spring Madness

Suddenly It's Spring

Money and the Woman

Dixie

My Little Margie

Youth Takes a Fling

Ellis in Freedomland

Cinderella Swings It

The Covered Trailer

Goodbye Broadway

The Red Stallion

To Beat the Band

West of the Pecos

The Arizonian

Virtuous Husband

Meet the O'Briens