Charles Butterworth

Charles Edward Butterworth (July 26, 1896 – June 14, 1946) was an American actor specializing in comedic roles, often in musicals. His distinctive voice was the inspiration for the Cap'n Crunch commercials created by the Jay Ward studio: Voice actor Daws Butler based Cap'n Crunch on Butterworth's voice. Early life Butterworth was the son of a physician in South Bend, Indiana. He graduated from the University of Notre Dame in 1924 with a law degree. Career After graduating, Butterworth became a newspaper reporter at the South Bend News-Times and subsequently Chicago. One of Butterworth's more memorable film roles was in the Irving Berlin musical This Is the Army (1943) as bugle-playing Private Eddie Dibble. He was generally a supporting actor, though he had top billing in We Went to College (1936) and the title role in Baby Face Harrington (1935), and shared top billing (as the Sultan) with Ann Corio in The Sultan's Daughter (1944). In his obituary, he was described as "characterizing the man who could not make up his mind".