Editing William Demarest (section)

== Career ==
Demarest started in show business working in vaudeville, performing initially in his youth with his two older brothers and later with his wife Estelle Collette (real name Esther Zichlin) as "Demarest and Colette".<ref name="TNYT83"/> He then moved to work on Broadway, and by 1926 also began working in films.  By the 1940s he was a member of an informal troupe of actors whom director [[Preston Sturges]] often featured in his [[screwball comedies]], appearing in 10 films written by Sturges, eight of which were under his direction.  Among these he had prominent roles in ''[[The Lady Eve]]'', ''[[Sullivan's Travels]]'', ''[[Hail the Conquering Hero]]'', and ''[[The Miracle of Morgan's Creek]]''. Demarest was such a familiar figure at the [[Paramount Pictures|Paramount]] studio that just his name was used in the movie ''[[Sunset Boulevard (film)|Sunset Boulevard]]'' as a potential star for [[William Holden]]'s unsold baseball screenplay.

[[File:Don Grady William Demarest My Three Sons 1969.JPG|thumb|Demarest with [[Don Grady]] in ''[[My Three Sons]]'' (1969)]]

In 1951 Demarest had a featured role in ''[[The Strip (1951 film)|The Strip]]'' opposite [[Mickey Rooney]] as a philosophic nightclub owner and pianist fronting for a band composed of [[Louis Armstrong]], [[Jack Teagarden]], [[Barney Bigard]], [[Earl Hines|Earl "Fatha" Hines]], and Rooney himself on drums.

He played folksy Jeb Gaine, an occasional sidekick to the main character, in the 1961–62 season of the Western series ''[[Tales of Wells Fargo]]''.

Demarest appeared as Police Chief Aloysius of the Santa Rosita Police Department in the film ''[[It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World]]'' (1963) and in 1964 he co-starred in an episode originally aired in the final season of ''[[The Twilight Zone]]'' ("[[What's in the Box]]"), portraying a hen-pecked husband who murders his wife, played by [[Joan Blondell]]. Several years later, Blondell and Demarest reunited on an episode of ''[[My Three Sons]]''.

His most famous television role was in the sitcom ''[[My Three Sons]]'' from 1965 to 1972, playing Uncle Charley O'Casey. He replaced [[William Frawley]], who was in failing health. Demarest had worked with [[Fred MacMurray]] previously in the films ''[[Hands Across the Table]]'' (1935), ''[[Pardon My Past]]'' (1945), ''[[On Our Merry Way]]'' (1948), and ''[[The Far Horizons (1955 film)|The Far Horizons]]'' (1955) and was a personal friend.