Donald Meek

With his bald head, timid mustache, and an air of perpetual, flustered anxiety, Donald Meek was one of Hollywood's most instantly recognizable faces. The Scottish-born actor had decades of stage experience before arriving in films, and he deployed his precise comic timing to perfection in the sound era. Directors cast him as fussy clerks, jittery undertakers, meek bankers, and lovable cowards—roles he inhabited with a unique physical vocabulary of twitches, hesitations, and apologetic smiles. He appeared in an astonishing number of major films in the late 1930s and early 1940s, holding his own against giants like John Wayne in 'Stagecoach' and delivering a hilarious turn as the drunken, painting-obsessed Mr. Poppins in the classic 'You Can't Take It With You'. In a town of leading men, Meek proved that a masterful character actor could become a beloved star in his own right.