Charles Judels (1882-1969) was a Dutch-born actor. He was elected to The Lambs in 1909 as a Professional member. He was made a Lifetime Member.
Judels was born on August 17, 1882, in Amsterdam as a third generation in a family of actors. His grandfather owned several theatres throughout the Netherlands and starred in his own plays. Judels’ father combined his love of theatre and music and was a stage manager for the Metropolitan Opera in New York for 35 years.
Judels starred on Vaudeville in the early 1900s, and made his Broadway stage debut in “The Ziegfeld Follies of 1912.” He was a portly actor who appeared in more than 130 American comedy and drama movies, his expertise with dialects served him well throughout his career. His first film was the comedy Old Dutch (1915) directed by Frank Hall Crane and starring Lew Fields for the Shubert Film Co. He is perhaps best remembered as the cheese-store proprietor in the Laurel & Hardy film Swiss Miss (1938).
Judels appeared in more than 130 films from 1915 to 1949. In 1928, he was signed by 20th Century Fox to direct Movietone films and did extensive work as a voice-over actor in animated films, including the voices of Stromboli and The Coachman in Walt Disney’s Pinocchio (1940).
Judels died in San Francisco on Feb. 14 1969. He was 86 years old.