Billy Gilbert

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Actor | Comedian | Voice Actor Born William Gilbert Barron on Sept. 12, 1894 in Louisville, KY

Billy Gilbert was born into stardom. Actually he was born in a dressing room at the Hopkins Opera House in Louisville, Ky.

Despite scores of movies — including a Charlie Chaplin directed feature — and six decades of roadshows, comedian Billy Gilbert remains best known for his sneezing routine. That routine led to Walt Disney casting him as the voice of Sneezy in 1937's "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs." Gilbert and Disney would later work together again in "Mickey and the Beanstalk."

Born William Gilbert Barron, the child of singers with the Metropolitan Opera, he began working in vaudeville at the age of 12.

He appeared in the early comedies of the Three Stooges at Columbia Pictures and eventually broke into film. He appeared as Herring, the minister of war, in Charlie Chaplin's "The Great Dictator."

When he married Ella McKenzie in 1938, costar and friend Charley Chase was the best man.

— Los Angeles Times September 24, 1971