Hero of the Month: Donald Kerr
An invaluable asset of any film studio was the bit player. A unique member of the acting profession, they had to be someone who could come into one scene for a specific purpose, make an impression but not overshadow the stars and supporting players, and then exit. Donald Kerr was one such luminary of the art. Whether he was playing one of Fred Astaire’s gambling buddies at the beginning of Swing Time (1936) or popping up on Petticoat Junction in the sixties as a door to door salesmen, Kerr could be counted on to deliver a quick and amusing performance that would be remembered after he left.
Occasionally, like playing Dave O’Brien’s cameraman sidekick in The Devil Bat (1941), Kerr would get to be a supporting player with a substantial comedy relief role. But for the most part his career was a one scene bit in films like Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), Murder, My Sweet (1944) and Jailhouse Rock (1957).
Most classic science fiction fans know him as Happy Hapgood, a go getting and slightly pushy reporter who stows aboard Dr. Zarkov’s spacehip where he ends up on Mars and helps Flash Gordon stop Ming the Merciless from draining all the Nitron from the Earth’s atmosphere and destroying the planet in Universal’s Flash Gordon’s Trip to Mars (1938). It was his biggest part and he definately made the most of it with a winning performance.
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