Vaughan Glaser

Vaughan Glaser (November 17, 1872 – November 23, 1958) was an American stage and film actor. His stage career started a long time before the First World War; he often appeared opposite Fay Courteney in the 1910s. He appeared in numerous Broadway productions between 1902 and 1945.

Glaser made his film debut in 1939 as the high-school principal Bradley in What a Life (1939), a role which he had already played in the Broadway play of the same name. Frank S. Nugent raved about Glaser's performance in The New York Times as the "inspired portrait of an elderly high school principal—the weary dignity, the monumental patience (which has seen every possible form of bad boy, heard every possible excuse), the pedagogical deliberation (not unmixed with hamminess), the taste for neatly turned and rhetorically conclusive sentences, the ability to strip a lying pupil to the skin with ruthless professional logic—is not only the most perfect comical characterization of the year, but is something encountered only once or twice in a generation. So flawless has Mr. Glaser become, by dint of long polishing at his performance ("What a Life" played for a year and four months on Broadway), that there is something almost eternal about his conception of Mr. Bradley. If you have gone as far as high school in your academic studies, you will remble in your boots when Mr. Glaser speaks, or looks at you over the tops of his bifocals."

Glaser continued his role as Mr. Bradley during the 1940s in the Henry Aldrich film series, which was based on What a Life. The character actor also became notable for his appearance as the blind and wise uncle of Priscilla Lane in Alfred Hitchcock's thriller Saboteur. He also portrayed supporting roles in the Frank Capra movies Meet John Doe and Arsenic and Old Lace. Glaser retired from film business after 21 films in five years.