Best, Willie, 1916-1962

LC control no.	n 87896360
Descriptive conventions	rda
Personal name heading	Best, Willie, 1916-1962 *Browse this term in* LC Authorities or the LC Catalog
Variant(s)	Sleep 'n' Eat, 1916-1962 Best, William, 1916-1962 Best, Pat, 1916-1962
Located	Los Angeles (Calif.)
Birth date	1916-05-27
Death date	1962-02-27
Place of birth	Sunflower County (Miss.)
Place of death	Woodland Hills (Calif.)
Profession or occupation	Actors
Found in	The Arizonian [MP] 1935: credits (the players, Willie Best) Inter. film necrology, 1981 (Willie Best; AKA Sleep 'n' Eat; b. May 27, 1916, Miss.; d. Feb. 27, 1962) Marcotte, D. It's all over now [SR] 1946: label (William Best) Big bands database plus WWW site, Oct. 17, 2007: Databases; Composers (Best, William; b. May 27, 1913, Sunflower, Miss.; d Feb. 27, 1962, Hollywood, Calif.; for unknown reasons, this composer was widely known as Pat Best; credited as Willie Best and Sleep 'n' Eat; composed words and music to the song "(I love you) For sentimental reasons," erroneously credited to lyricist Deek Watson) Ancestry.com WWW site, Oct. 17, 2007: California death index (Willie Best; b. May 27, 1916, Mississippi; d. Feb. 27, 1962, Los Angeles, Calif.) African American National Biography, accessed April 24, 2015, via Oxford African American Studies Center database: (Best, Willie; stage / screen actor; born c. 27 May 1916 in Sunflower County, Mississippi, United States; remained in Los Angeles, where he found work in a touring stage show; was discovered by a Hollywood agent who noticed both his comedic talent and his physical similarity to Stepin Fetchit (Lincoln Perry); was signed to appear in feature films; his film debut was the comedy Feet First (1930); built an extensive filmography of over 120 movies; The Ghostbreakers (1940) received the highest billing of his career; onscreen characters were shuffling, dim-witted stereotypes with names like "Charcoal" or "Sambo"; his career was also hurt by a highly publicized arrest on narcotics charges (1951); he appeared as a regular or semiregular in the domestic comedies My Little Margie and The Stu Erwin Show, and in the drama Waterfront (1951-1955); died 27 February 1962 in Woodland Hills, California, United States)