H. Brandon; Veteran Actor

Henry Brandon, a character actor who portrayed the villainous Squire Cribbs in Los Angeles’ longest-running stage production, “The Drunkard,” fierce Indian chiefs for John Ford and a foil for Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, has died in his Hollywood home.

The veteran of more than 100 films and dozens of stage productions was 77 when he died Thursday of an apparent heart attack. His agent, Gary Butcher, said Brandon was working until the time of his death, mostly doing voice-overs for commercials. He also had been cast as yet another Indian in a forthcoming television movie.

With a rich voice and impelling features, the Berlin-born Brandon--who came to Hollywood with his family as a baby--was only 20 when he began a two-year run as Squire Cribbs in the original “The Drunkard.” The melodrama (followed by olio acts in which Brandon and the other performers sang and danced) ran for several decades at the old Theatre Mart on Vermont Avenue in Los Angeles.

Brandon came to the attention of Hal Roach, the producer of the Laurel and Hardy comedies, and was cast under his real name, Henry Kleinbach, portraying Old Barnaby in the 1934 classic “Babes in Toyland.”

His stern visage found him in demand as an evildoer in such serials as “Drums of Fu Manchu,” “Jungle Jim” and “Buck Rogers in the 25th Century.”

He was seen in dozens of films of the 1930s through the 1950s and was the animators’ model for Captain Hook in Walt Disney’s “Peter Pan,” Butcher said.

His film roles from those years include “Beau Geste,” “Nurse Edith Cavell,” “Underground,” “Joan of Arc,” “Pony Express,” “The War of the Worlds,” “Auntie Mame” and “The Big Fisherman.”

He portrayed Indian chiefs 26 times, including parts in “The Searchers” and “Two Rode Together” for director Ford.

His last film credit was “When the North Wind Blows” in 1975.

His survivors include a brother and sister.