Jay C. Flippen
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jay C. Flippen (born March 6, 1899 in Little Rock, Arkansas; died February 3, 1971 in Los Angeles) is best remembered as a gruff-faced actor usually playing a police officer or weary criminal in many movies of the 1940s and 1950s.
Flippen was already an established vaudeville singer and stage actor, after being discovered by famed African-American comedian Bert Williams in the 1920s, before shifting his focus to films. At one time he was a radio announcer for New York Yankees games and was one of the first game show announcers. (Between 1924 and 1929, Flippen recorded over 30 songs for Columbia, Perfect and Brunswick).
His films include They Live by Night (1948), Winchester '73 (1950), Flying Leathernecks (1951), The Wild One (1953), Oklahoma! (1955) (his only singing role) and The Killing (1956). Flippen also appeared on television, most notably as C.P.O. Nelson on the 1962 sitcom Ensign O'Toole. Later in life he continued acting even though he used a wheelchair following a leg amputation.
Jay Flippen died at the age of seventy-two of an aneurysm caused by a swollen artery while in surgery. He is buried in the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles.
