Roy Benson appears in the film "The Lady Objects" (1938,Columbia Pictures).

In the scene starting around the 8:16 mark - to - 9:07 Benson is introduced as the character George Martin, a bandleader who also an amateur magician. Then at 9:08 - to - 11:36 he performs some magic, including a bit of billiard ball manipulation and a torn & restored newspaper.

https://youtu.be/5oXXksGrXIE?t=496

Next at 31:34 - 34:35 Benson performs his Chinese Sticks routine.

https://youtu.be/5oXXksGrXIE?t=1894

Aside from his performance of magic, it is actually a fairly substantial speaking role , with Benson getting 4th billing in the cast.

(I'm trying to think off the top of my head, the magicians who also appeared in motion pictures ... Harry Houdini, John Calvert, Roy Benson, Fred Keating, Channing Pollock are the ones I can recall right now.)

Click here to view attached image.

Orson Welles ("Hollywood Canteen"), Chester Morris ("Boston Blackie" series), Paul Le Paul ("Eternally Yours" w/David Niven), Norm Nielsen (All Pacino's "Bobby Deerfield", the only movie I have ever fallen asleep during), Ricky Jay ("Tomorrow Never Dies", James Bond flix, no magic. Some Sam Elliot western where Ricky played a cook who was a card mechanic.), David Copperfield ("Terror Train").....to name a few.

Cheers!

If your old enough to remember - Max Turhune (sp?) was a Vent, and did magic in a series of "Crash Corrigan (sp?)" Western Series of Movies. I was also privileged to personally know him.

Thanks for the memory jog. I have seen the examples you mentioned: Orson Welles ("Hollywood Canteen"), Chester Morris ("Boston Blackie" series), Paul Le Paul ("Eternally Yours" w/David Niven). I suppose I never thought of Orson Welles as a magician who appeared in films , but rather as a writer/director/actor who also happened to do magic on the side. I don't think I ever knew that actor Chester Morris was also a magician.

I had completely forgotten about Norm Nielsen's appearance in "Bobby Deerfield". I'm not sure I ever saw the movie all the way through (?). I never saw "Terror Train" , but now that you mention it I remember reading about David Copperfield being in that film. I should have remembered that Ricky Jay had appeared in quite a number of films, usually not performing any sort of magic, but doing a character role. He worked most often with director David Mamet (House of Games, Things Change, Homicide, The Spanish Prisoner, State and Main, Heist) and director Paul Thomas Anderson (Boogie Nights, Magnolia), also some notable television roles (such as The Amazing Maleeni, in the X-Files episode of the same name). He also had an on-screen role in the magic-themed movie The Prestige (for which he also acted as the magic consultant.)
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0419633/

Two more I suppose we could add to the list would be Woody Allen who was an active amateur magician as a teenager and has maintained a life-long interest in magic , often including magic themes in his movies. Like Orson Welles, I tend to think of Woody Allen mainly as a writer/stand-up comedian/director/actor who occasionally performs magic. The other one would be Steve Martin , who most people know as a stand-up comedian and actor , but he was a magician early in his career. He is also a writer and has included magic themes in his written work (for example, his play: The Zig Zag Woman).

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Thanks, Russo. I did not know about Max Terhune .


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I really did intend this topic to be about Roy Benson's appearance in "The Lady Objects" , but it is kind of fun to count up the different appearances in the movies by various magicians over the years.

Russo sent me a PM to ask if I had noticed that Bill Larsen is in the movie "Houdini" (1953, starring Tony Curtis) , performing magic at the magic club meeting that Houdini attends. I haven't seen the Houdini film in many years and I don't remember that Bill Larsen was in it, but I'll have to watch that movie again and look for him.

Russo's note jogged my memory that Milt Larsen appears in a sequence in the Disney musical film "Bedknobs and Broomsticks" (1971) starring Angela Lansbury and David Tomlinson. It's not a speaking role, but Milt has some nice comedy business with star David Tomlinson at one point during the sequence. The sequence was cut from the general release version of the film , but many years later was added to the extended version of the film released on DVD.

Someone posted it here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qeb96vyIwo

(a longer, more complete version of the sequence here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVij2hRM76o but the sound is off.)

Milt Larsen first appears as a spectator in the crowd around the 2:01 mark and thereafter : https://youtu.be/_qeb96vyIwo?t=121

David Tomlinson , as Prof. Emelius Browne , cracks eggs and pours milk into Milt's hat , but the trick doesn't turn out successfully to make an omelette or cake in the hat ... just a mess.



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Click here to view attached image.

Neil Patrick Harris, Ryan Gosling, Jimmy Steward, Dick Cavet, Dick Van Dyke, Cary Grant, Boris Karloff, Fred Gwynne, Bill Bixby, Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd, Dom DeLuise, Jerry Lewis aaannnddd Milton Berle.

There are others. This list primarily concerns movie related talent.
Prince Charles, John Denver and Johnny Carson do not apply I guess for this criterion.

The Great Masoni (Eric Mason) appeared in the 1949 British movie - Passport to Pimlico.

As well as releasing some creative commercial effects, Eric also produced many of the illustrations for Corinda's 13 Steps to Mentalism, Pat Page's Big Book of Magic and (the brilliant) Pabular magazine, this side of the pond.

And of course let's not forget Broadway musical star (Big Time Buck White in 1969) Muhammad Ali.

Dante should also be on this list. He is the star of DANTE'S MYSTERIES, an odd but very entertaining movie produced in Sweden in 1930.
Later, he costarred with Laurel and Hardy in A-HAUNTING WE WILL GO.
He was also featured in BUNCO SQUAD but does not perform any magic in it.

I saw "A Haunting We will Go " fun, have a Movies poster of that Film -In Our Magic Den, along with a Poster of Ken Griffins Illusion Show (Wife and I were assistants and a featured Vent act, for a season, photo of us in Ken & Bert's Book and were great Friends) and a Blackstone Jr and Sr.s pictures and poster, we often drove Sr. home from the Castle. 000000h Memories. of the 50's-70's Used to think I was Bragging , until a Pastor Friend said "NO" your sharing a talent the LORD gave, You.. So Best and Blessing to ALL Magi. Ralph

Woody Allen also wrote a lovely little play about a young magician called "The Floating Lightbulb."

Let's not forget George Schindler as Shandu The Magician in Woody Allen's movie New York Stories.

Max Terhune was a vent and magician and a sidekick in many early westerns.