Biography
The younger brother of Broadway lyricist Lorenz Hart (1895-1943), diminutive comedian Teddy Hart made at least one memorable, if minor, mark on film history: Hart became the third actor to portray the stoic Indian Crowbar in the Universal's popular Ma and Pa Kettle series, replacing
Victor Potel -- who created the character in
The Egg and I (1947) -- and
Chief Yowlachie. Hart performed the role in four films, more than any other actor. On screen from 1932, the pudgy comic earned his first notices playing the secretary of war in the anarchic farce
Million Dollar Legs (1932) and was then Puppenpuppen, one of the three diabolical munitions manufacturers in the Wheeler and Woolsey comedy
Diplomaniacs (1933). There were several other colorful roles to come, but it is probably as Crowbar that Hart will be remembered. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide