George 'Gabby' Hayes Biography

Fast Facts

• Awarded two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, one for radio and one for television, and was inducted into the Hall of Great Western Performers at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, Okla
• Famous Manhattan restaurant Danny's Hideaway has a main dining area called the Gabby Hayes Room, honoring the friendship between owner Dante "Danny" Stradella and Hayes, and also has a street named after him in Wellsville, N․Y
• Entered Saint Joseph Hospital in Burbank, Calif․, in 1969 for treatment of cardiovascular disease and died soon after due to complications from the disease
• After the Wall Street Crash of 1929, Hayes was forced to go back to work as an actor in the circus and soon met up with producer Trem Carr while in California to find work in TV and film
• Raised in a small town outside of Wellsville, N․Y․, playing baseball and working in a circus as a teenager before running away from home at 17 with a touring stock company, later performing in a successful vaudeville act
• Quote: "[on turning down cowboy roles] "I won't do it anymore․ Most of them aren't my type -- I mean full of action․ A lot of the new boys are ludicrous․ They don't even know how to get on a horse․ I didn't know it either at first, but I learned․""
• Trademark phrases include "yer dern tootin'," "durn persnickety female" and "young whippersnapper․"
• Known for his Western film appearances in the 1930s and '40s as the colorful sidekick to the leading man, was also known by most actors he worked with as a well-read, philosophical man
• Following his wife's death in 1957, managed a ten-unit apartment building he owned in North Hollywood, Calif
• Due to his popularity in Western films, Fawcett Publications published a serial comic with Hayes as the titular hero, entitled "Gabby Hayes Western," which ran for eight years