Eugene Pallette

His once athletic build blown out to rotund proportions and his voice registering an octave lower than a bullfrog's, Pallette was a singular presence among the ranks of studio players during the Great Depression. He found his niche playing irascible big city cops, most famously in five whodunits starring William Powell as debonair sleuth Philo Vance, beginning with "The Canary Murder Case" (1929). Comfortable in the sackcloth of a country …