--- name: "Buddy Hackett" canonical: "https://film.one/person/buddy-hackett" roles: ["Actor"] born: "31 August 1924" died: "30 June 2003" reviewed_on_fi1m: 1 average_as: "actor" average_over: 1 updated: "2026-09-20T04:05:17.713709+00:00" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Buddy Hackett Actor. Born 31 August 1924 in Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA. Died 30 June 2003. ## Details - **Work:** Actor - **Born:** 31 August 1924, Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA - **Died:** 30 June 2003 - **Also known as:** Leonard Hacker - **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddy_Hackett, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q558333, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0004983/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/67393 ## Streaming the US now - **Tubi:** [*The Music Man*](https://film.one/film/the-music-man.md) (78) For United States; add `?region=XX` for another country. ## Fi1m on Buddy Hackett > A Brooklyn nightclub comic who spent his film career playing the harmless friend in family pictures, Buddy Hackett was funnier than most of the parts he was given, and the gap between the act and the roles is the story. The first thing we notice about Buddy Hackett in *The Music Man* (1962) is the voice, which comes out of one side of his mouth as if it had been parked there. He plays Marcellus Washburn, the con man's former partner, who has gone straight and settled in the town Robert Preston's Harold Hill arrives to work over, and he spends most of the film being pleased to see him. Then he is handed "Shipoopi", a dance number about nothing, and the whole town joins in for six minutes while the story waits outside. We had been enjoying ourselves a quarter of an hour earlier, and we looked at the clock and were cross about it. That is the number's fault more than his; Hackett throws himself at it, and a man of his build throwing himself at anything is worth a look. He had come up the hard way and the funny way. Stand-up in the Catskills resorts as a teenager, the army during the war, then the Brooklyn nightclubs, where he changed his name. Broadway noticed him in *Lunatics and Lovers* (1954), television gave him a sitcom, *Stanley* (1956–57), that did not last, and from the late 1950s he was in supporting film roles. The 1960s were the visible years: Benjy Benjamin in Stanley Kramer's *It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World* (1963), paired with Mickey Rooney, and Tennessee Steinmetz, the hippie mechanic, in Disney's *The Love Bug* (1968). After that the work was mostly voices, television guest spots and the clubs, and the voice that lasted was Scuttle the seagull in *The Little Mermaid* (1989), which he played again in the 2000 sequel. The odd thing about the film career is how little of the act got into it. In the clubs and on the variety shows he was brash and blue, a heavy man with a thick New York accent saying things the network would rather he had not. The films took the shape and the face and left the material at the door, and cast him as the sidekick, the mechanic, the bird. He was at his best in crowds, where a big-cast farce could use his timing without asking him to carry anything, and stage fright kept him out of scripted theatre after *Lunatics and Lovers*, which may be why the films never asked him to carry one either. A seagull, on the other hand, can be as loud as he likes and nobody's parents mind. So what survives on screen is a supporting player, and a good one, rather than the comedian people paid to see. Watch *The Music Man* for Preston and stay in your seat for "Shipoopi", because it is the closest the films came to letting Hackett off the leash, and he is still plainly on one. He once told Johnny Carson, "Did I mention that I was offered the job as the third Stooge once?" It would have suited him. ## Biography Buddy Hackett (born Leonard Hacker) was an American comedian and comic actor. Born in Brooklyn, New York, on 31 August 1924, he died in Malibu, California, on 30 June 2003. He began performing in nightclubs and the Catskills resorts after military service in the Second World War. Hackett appeared regularly on television variety shows in the 1950s and 1960s, including *The Jackie Gleason Show* and *The Tonight Show*. His film roles include Marcellus Washburn in *The Music Man* (1962), Benjy Benjamin in *It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World* (1963), Tennessee Steinmetz in *The Love Bug* (1968), and the voice of Scuttle in *The Little Mermaid* (1989). *Sources: en.wikipedia.org, imdb.com.* ## On Fi1m (1) - *The Music Man* (1962), Fi1m 78, as Marcellus Washburn — [page](https://film.one/film/the-music-man.md) ## Complete filmography (56) Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page. - *It's a Zabriskie, Zabriskie, Zabriskie, Zabriskie Point* (2023), as Benjy Benjamin (archive footage) - *The Little Mermaid Live!* (2019), as Scuttle (archive footage) (voice) - *The Ultimate Collection Starring Johnny Carson - The Best of the 60s and 70s* (2002), Actor - *Man and Cat* (2001), as Narrator - *The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea* (2000), as Scuttle (voice) - *Action* (1999), series, as Uncle Lonnie - *Paulie* (1998), as Artie - *LateLine* (1998), series, Actor - *Just Shoot Me!* (1997), series, as Buddy Hackett - *Sabrina, the Teenage Witch* (1996), series, as Car (voice) - *E! True Hollywood Story* (1996), series, Actor - *Boy Meets World* (1993), series, as Mr. Fontaine - *Animaniacs* (1993), series, as CEO (voice) - *Mouse Soup* (1993), as Mouse - *Fish Police* (1992), series, as Crabby (voice) - *Dinosaurs* (1991), series, as Louie (voice) - *Little Mermaid's Island* (1990), series, as Scuttle (voice) - *Ferris Bueller* (1990), series, as Emcee - *The Little Mermaid* (1989), as Scuttle (voice) - *Buddy Hackett II: On Stage At Caesars* (1986), Writer - *Murder, She Wrote* (1984), series, as Murray Gruen - *Buddy Hackett: Live and Uncensored* (1983), Writer, Actor's Assistant - *Hey Babe!* (1983), as Sammy Cohen - *The Fall Guy* (1981), series, Actor - *Jack Frost* (1979), as Pardon-Me-Pete (voice) - *Bud and Lou* (1978), as Lou Costello - *Sword of Justice* (1978), series, Actor - *Loose Shoes* (1978), as Buddy Hackett - S.T.O.P.-I.T. Spokesman - *The Love Boat* (1977), series, as Mickey Greenbaum, Julian Garfield - *Quincy, M.E.* (1976), series, as Ronnie Fletcher - *McMillan & Wife* (1971), series, as Joey Germaine - *The Good Guys and the Bad Guys* (1969), as Ed - Townsman (uncredited) - *The Love Bug* (1968), as Tennessee Steinmetz - *The Danny Thomas Hour* (1967), series, as Zeus - *Get Smart* (1965), series, as Wilbur (uncredited) - *The Dean Martin Show* (1965), series, Actor - *The Big Valley* (1965), series, as Charlie Sawyer - *Once Upon a Tractor* (1965), as Garage Owner - *The Golden Head* (1964), as Lionel Pack - *Muscle Beach Party* (1964), as The Rich Business Manager - *It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World* (1963), as Benjy Benjamin - *The Lucy Show* (1962), series, as Harry Barton - *The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm* (1962), as Hans (segment "The Singing Bone") - *The Music Man* (1962), as Marcellus Washburn — Fi1m 78, [page](https://film.one/film/the-music-man.md) - *Everything's Ducky* (1961), as Seaman Admiral John Paul 'Ad' Jones - *All Hands on Deck* (1961), as Shrieking Eagle Garfield - *The Rifleman* (1958), series, Actor - *God's Little Acre* (1958), as Pluto Swint, Sheriff Candidate - *Stanley* (1956), series, Actor - *The Wonderful World of Disney* (1954), series, as Tennessee Steinmetz - *Max Liebman Presents* (1954), series, Actor - *Fireman Save My Child* (1954), as Smokey Hinkle - *Walking My Baby Back Home* (1953), as Blimp Edwards - *The Jackie Gleason Show* (1952), series, Actor - *King of the Pins* (1950), as Inept Bowler - *Saturday Night Swing Club* (1938), as Orchestra Leader ## Gallery - ![Buddy Hackett](https://film.one/media/person/1241137/gallery-f15dfecef713.jpg) Buddy Hackett — Trailer screenshot, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/95/Buddy_Hackett_Its_a_Mad%2C_Mad%2C_Mad%2C_Mad_World_Trailer14.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled) - ![Photo of comedians Buddy Hackett and Flip Wilson from The Flip Wilson Show. (1973)](https://film.one/media/person/1241137/gallery-f48e5290f768.jpg) Photo of comedians Buddy Hackett and Flip Wilson from The Flip Wilson Show. (1973) — NBC Television, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/78/Buddy_Hackett_Flip_Wilson_1973.JPG?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled) - ![Buddy Hackett](https://film.one/media/person/1241137/gallery-5ee1c5710654.jpg) Buddy Hackett — Image via TMDB ## Awards ### Other awards — 1 won - Disney Legends 2003: Disney Legends (won) *From Wikidata, which records wins more completely than nominations.* --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/buddy-hackett