EUGENE PALLETTE TO RETIRE

Evening Star, Issue 23657, 17 August 1940, Page 5

EUGENE PALLETTE TO RETIRE

. Eugeno Pallette, who has appeared in hundreds of pictures and who claims to have worked in Hollywood before any of the preseu t-day stars, will retire from the screen in October. Pallette has had a remarkable career and is still a very popular actor, “I’m tired,” ho said. ‘‘l feel the strain of doing character roles, and I want to ‘ have some fun before it is too late.’ ”

Pallette is completing his work in ‘ He Stayed for Breakfast,’ and will play two roles for Universal, one of them in support of Deanna Durbin, before he retires.

The actor, wbo had some experience on the road and in stock before lie decided to settle down in the film colony, first went to Hollywood in'l9lo, before Charlie Chaplin, ’Wallace Beery, or any other famous player among the working inhabitants of to-day.

“ I made 100 pictures a year for four years during the early part of my career,” he said. “ Believe it or not, I was Norma Talmaclgc’s leading man. at one time. Of course, in those days my weight was only a little more than’half of what it is to-day.” Pallette said that when he began to put on weight his vanity was hurt, hut eventually he found that ho could capitalise on his bulky figure. “ I could get good character parts,” he explained. “I had been through as a leading man for years.”

Pallctte began as an extra. He obtained his first job because bo could ride a horse. He now earns about £7OO a week.