Born Lewis Delaney Offield in Sedalia, MO. A popular portly comic with vaudeville and Broadway experience who borrowed his stage name from the state of Oklahoma, where he was raised from age five. His family later moved to New York, where Oakie attended a business school and found work as a telephone clerk in a Wall Street brokerage house. Showing comic talent in a company annual benefit show, he was persuaded to turn to acting professionally and made his stage debut in 1922, in the chorus of George M. Cohan's Little Nellie Kelly. Entering films in 1928, Oakie appeared in scores of screen productions, in both leads and supporting roles, typically portraying a slow-witted, happy-go-lucky buffoon. During the 30s he was often featured in comedies and musicals with college campus backgrounds, although he looked too old and too dumb to be believable as a bona fide student. During that period, he perfected the traditional comic double take into a triple-take effect. He played his most memorable role in Chaplin's THE GREAT DICTATOR (1940) as Benzini Napaloni, dictator of Bacteria, a takeoff on Mussolini. He was nominated for an Oscar® in the supporting category for that portrayal. During the 1940s he played mainly supporting roles, mostly in comic relief, on rare occasions dramatic, and after 1950 appeared only sporadically in films and on TV. His second wife (from 1950 until his death) was actress Victoria Horne (1911-2003).  Nominated for Supporting Actor 1940: THE GREAT DICTATOR 1 nomination