Biography
Billy Gilbert's career cuts a wide swathe: from vaudeville and Laurel & Hardy comedies to Disney's "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" and Charlie Chaplin's "The Great Dictator." Born in 1894 to a pair of opera singers, Gilbert began working on stage when he was just a boy. He soon became known for a unique ability: being able to sneeze on cue. Pudgy as an adult, Gilbert's size made him perfect as the imposing and bumbling villain of 1930s comedy shorts. In 1937 Gilbert brought his childhood talent to the animated classic "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs," as the voice (and "achoo") of dwarf Sneezy. Into the 1940s, Gilbert was occupied with small parts in comedies, including turns in the screwball "His Girl Friday," the musical "Anchors Aweigh," and the Fred MacMurray vehicle "One Night in Lisbon." However his biggest role of the period, and perhaps of his career, was as Herring (a thinly veiled portrait of Nazi war minister Hermann Göring) in Chaplin's Third Reich satire "The Great Dictator." After transitioning to TV in the 1950s, Gilbert retired from performing in 1962.
