Vince Barnett

Barnett's initial involvement with Hollywood was as a screenwriter, writing screenplays for the two-reeler movies of the late 1920s. He began appearing in films in 1930, playing hundreds of comedy bits and supporting parts. One of his more sizable screen roles was the moronic, illiterate gangster "secretary" in Scarface (1932). Among his best-regarded early roles, apart from Scarface, were The Big Cage (1933), Thirty Day Princess (1934) and Princess O'Hara (1935).

In later years, Barnett played straight character parts, often as careworn little men, undertakers, janitors, bartenders and drunks in pictures ranging from films noir (The Killers, 1946) to westerns (Springfield Rifle, 1952). He was a welcome presence in "B" comedies and mysteries: as Runyonesque gangsters in Petticoat Larceny (1943), Little Miss Broadway (1947), and Gas House Kids Go West (1947), and notably as Tom Conway's enthusiastic sidekick in The Falcon's Alibi (1946).

After World War II, with the Hollywood studios making fewer films, Barnett became a familiar face on television.