Bert Lahr

From Philosopedia

Burt Lahr (13 August 1895 - 4 December 1967)

Irving Lahrheim, the American comic actor who shortened his name to Lahr, was the son of Jacob Lahrheim, a German immigrant and third generation upholsterer, and his wife Augusta. The family was poor, as a young boy his life was filled with tension, and he dropped out of school when he was 15.

He first performed in burlesque and vaudeville, becoming known for his morose facial expressions, his booming baritone voice that made a "gnong-gnong" sound, his comic inarticulate diction, and his frequent saying, "Some fun, eh kid?"

Lahr appeared in many Broadway shows, in films, and on television. His 1956 Broadway performance in Waiting for Godot is considered the high point of his career, but he is best remembered as the Cowardly Lion in the film The Wizard of Oz (1939), with Judy Garland.

Lahr married a Ziegfield Follies girl, Mildred Schroeder. Theirs was an eventful twenty-seven-year marriage, according to a biography by his son, critic John Lahr, who, in “My Mother the Ziegfield Girl” (The New Yorker, 13 May 1996), recalls the following concerning his mother, Mildred Schroeder:

• She once upbraided me for letting my friends call me Lahrheim, which was Dad’s original name. (He changed it by deed poll in 1959.) “Your name is Lahr,” Millie insisted over tea.” “Face it, Mom,” I said. “You were married to one of the great Jewish entertainers.” Millie folded her napkin carefully in front of her and fixed me with a look. “John, your father was not Jewish,” she said. “He was a star.”

Lahr was a 1964 Tony Award winner for Best Leading Actor in a Musical for his role in Foxy.

He was married from 1929 to 1940 to Mercedes Delpino and from 1940 until his death in 1967 to Mildred Schroeder.

Lahr died of pneumonia in the middle of filming The Night They Raided Minsky's and is buried at Union Field Cemetery in Ridgewood, Queens, New York City.

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