- Born
- Died
- Birth nameAlbert Jerome Wheeler
- Height5′ 4″ (1.63 m)
- After his mother died at the age of only 17 he was raised by his father and an aunt, and later a stepmother.
He later went to New York, where he tried to break into showbiz.
He got his first break with Gus Edwards, working later as actor in several shows, among them "The Gingerbread Man" and "When Dreams Come True". During this show he met his first wife, Margaret Grae, with whom he formed up a successful vaudeville team. Although being asked several times to make movies (among them a request by Harold Lloyd), he stayed with vaudeville. In 1926 they divorced and his wife soon married another actor.
In 1927 he was signed by Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. for his show "Rio Rita", where he was teamed with Robert Woolsey. They clicked and formed a comedy team that lasted until 1938 when Woolsey died. When Ziegfeld sold the screen rights of Rio Rita to the newly formed RKO studio as their official debut, they were the only actors in the cast who repeated their stage roles. Further more, a young actress named Dorothy Lee joined the team.
During the 1930s, while they made many comedies in Hollywood, Wheeler married and was divorced twice.
After Woolsey's death, he continued as a single, mostly on the stage, but sometimes also on the screen.
His last years were darkened with financial difficulties and failing health.
Furthermore, two weeks before his own death on January 18, 1968 his daughter Patricia died of cancer.- IMDb mini biography by: Stephan Eichenberg <eichenbe@fak-cbg.tu-muenchen.de>
- SpousesPatsy Orr(1952 - 1956) (divorced)Sally Haines(February 26, 1937 - June 2, 1939) (divorced)Bernice Wheeler(April 15, 1928 - February 19, 1936) (divorced, 1 child)Margaret Bruce Grae (Betty Wheeler)(April 27, 1915 - November 11, 1926) (divorced)
- Was teamed with Robert Woolsey for the Broadway production "Rio Rita", the teaming was so successful, that they were signed by RKO to repeat their stage roles in a movie version. Wheeler & Woolsey were the first comedy team to emerge as stars from sound pictures with their partnership lasting until Woolsey's death in 1938.
- In later years he teamed with a new partner, Tommy Dillon, a young chap he worked with in Las Vegas and Manhattan's Latin Quarter.
- Bert Wheeler had one child with actress Bernice Wheeler. Their daughter, Patricia Anne Wheeler, was born in 1936 and died of cancer in 1968.
- Nine of the 21 movies he and Woolsey made together were released in a DVD collection entitled "Wheeler & Woolsey: RKO Comedy Classics Collection" in March 2013 by Warner Archive.
- Like the Three Stooges, Wheeler and Woolsey were rather short men. Bert was only 5'4" while his partner, Robert Woolsey, towered over him at 5' 5 1/2".
- [on working for Florenz Ziegfeld Jr., who made no secret of the fact that he didn't appreciate comics] You could never get the stage to rehearse. He'd be using it to drape those gorgeous dames. You could rehearse in the alley for all he cared. But when you worked for Mr. Ziegfeld you had made it. That was the tops.
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