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The Blue Flower

(6,165 posts)
Wed Aug 27, 2025, 08:02 PM Aug 27

Who is the best animal actor?

I maintain it's the magnificent horse called Silver on the Lone Ranger. He never flinches when LR fires off a round right next to his ear.

43 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight: NoneDon't highlight anything 5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
Who is the best animal actor? (Original Post) The Blue Flower Aug 27 OP
I'd go with "Eddie" Frasier underpants Aug 27 #1
Eddie was awesome Luciferous Aug 27 #25
Rex the German Shepherd on the Canadian cop series "Hudson and Rex" Ritabert Aug 27 #2
Mr. Ed SheltieLover Aug 27 #3
Second vote for Mr Ed!!! rog Aug 27 #13
Woo hoo! SheltieLover Aug 27 #17
aw man, Mr. Ed was outstanding! Skittles Aug 27 #26
That was priceless! nuxvomica Aug 29 #41
Dirty Harry and Ellie Mae Clampett, LOL Skittles Aug 29 #42
Lassie. Diamond_Dog Aug 27 #4
Arnold the Pig of Green Acres. Dorothy V Aug 27 #5
I loved Arnold! SheltieLover Aug 27 #18
Hands down this guy dweller Aug 27 #6
Asta (aka Skippy) JoseBalow Aug 27 #7
Kommissar Rex DBoon Aug 27 #8
Smoky Floyd R. Turbo Aug 27 #9
Cat Ballou one of my favorites Lifeafter70 Aug 27 #11
I just LOVE Lee Marvin! JoseBalow Aug 27 #15
He has great comedic timing Lifeafter70 Aug 27 #19
I thought he was great as Monte Walsh JoseBalow Aug 27 #27
😃 Floyd R. Turbo Aug 28 #32
The Littlest Hobo. Borogove Aug 27 #10
I loved this show! HeartsCanHope Aug 28 #31
There was a movie called The Rounders Marthe48 Aug 27 #12
With Glen Ford, that was a good movie! JoseBalow Aug 27 #14
Glenn Ford and Henry Fonda Marthe48 Aug 27 #16
Trigger the horse in Son of Paleface with Bob Hope SheltieLover Aug 27 #20
The dog in the upcoming horror film Good Boy is getting lots of praise. Orrex Aug 27 #21
Hooch Emile Aug 27 #22
Yukon King VGNonly Aug 27 #23
No love for the adorable Wishbone?? Drum Aug 27 #24
I vote for Wishbone! Easterncedar Aug 28 #30
Bailey in "A Dog's Purpose," is pretty good Bayard Aug 28 #28
This message was self-deleted by its author Bayard Aug 28 #29
Cujo Emile Aug 28 #33
Jed Niagara Aug 28 #34
18 years is a good long life for husky types. VGNonly Aug 28 #35
And it's still too short of time with our beloved pet family members. Niagara Aug 28 #37
Francis!!!! The Mule 7 movies justaprogressive Aug 28 #36
Strongheart: The World's First Movie Star Dog red dog 1 Aug 28 #38
Kitty Kat crud Aug 28 #39
No one's mentioned Benji. (ActuallyHiggins). sinkingfeeling Aug 28 #40
Although Asta and Benji were pretty amazing, OrwellwasRight Aug 30 #43

Ritabert

(1,652 posts)
2. Rex the German Shepherd on the Canadian cop series "Hudson and Rex"
Wed Aug 27, 2025, 08:11 PM
Aug 27

Currently on Ion Mystery on Saturday and Monday.

nuxvomica

(13,626 posts)
41. That was priceless!
Fri Aug 29, 2025, 06:14 PM
Aug 29

Thanks for posting. I bet most folks nowadays don't know what a party line was like.

Skittles

(167,424 posts)
42. Dirty Harry and Ellie Mae Clampett, LOL
Fri Aug 29, 2025, 06:56 PM
Aug 29

PRICELESS INDEED

I briefly remember a party line in a small Iowa town.......GET OFF THE PHONE EDNA I would shout when I wanted to talk to a bf

followup clip!


JoseBalow

(8,402 posts)
7. Asta (aka Skippy)
Wed Aug 27, 2025, 08:43 PM
Aug 27

Skippy (also known as Asta, 1931–1951) was a Wire Fox Terrier dog actor who appeared in dozens of movies during the 1930s. Skippy is best known for the role of the pet dog "Asta" in the 1934 detective comedy The Thin Man, starring William Powell and Myrna Loy, and for his role in the 1938 comedy Bringing Up Baby, starring Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant. Due to the popularity of The Thin Man role, Skippy is sometimes credited as Asta in public and in other films.
Wikipedia

DBoon

(24,283 posts)
8. Kommissar Rex
Wed Aug 27, 2025, 08:44 PM
Aug 27
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inspector_Rex

Inspector Rex (German: Kommissar Rex; Italian: Il commissario Rex) is an Austrian-Italian police procedural television series created by Peter Hajek and Peter Moser. Originally an Austrian series aired from 1994 to 2004 on ORF 1, in 2008 it was revived under Austro-Italian production on Rai 1 and, from the next year, was made fully in Italy, with occasional episodes set in Austria. Rai 1 eventually cancelled the Austro-Italian production in June 2015, after eight Italian seasons.[1]

The series follows the German Shepherd police dog Rex, his partners and the rest of the team at the Vienna Kriminalpolizei homicide unit, as they work together to solve crimes. From 2008, episodes are set in Rome.


The dog figures everything out in the first 5 minutes, then spends the next 20 minutes trying to convince the humans.

Available on Kanopy for free if you have a library card (https://www.kanopy.com )

Lifeafter70

(649 posts)
11. Cat Ballou one of my favorites
Wed Aug 27, 2025, 09:19 PM
Aug 27

When Lee Marvin accepted his Oscar, he said half of it belonged to Smoky.
It was also one of the last performances of Nat King Cole.

Lifeafter70

(649 posts)
19. He has great comedic timing
Wed Aug 27, 2025, 09:46 PM
Aug 27

But his drinking did get on Jane Fonda's last nerve during the filming.

JoseBalow

(8,402 posts)
27. I thought he was great as Monte Walsh
Wed Aug 27, 2025, 11:55 PM
Aug 27

And I loved him as A#1 in Emperor of the North

He was always excellent, even in his smaller and early roles. I can't think of anything he wasn't good in.

(3:34)



HeartsCanHope

(1,317 posts)
31. I loved this show!
Thu Aug 28, 2025, 07:36 AM
Aug 28

I found a video a while back with several episodes. That dog was so cute!

Marthe48

(21,814 posts)
12. There was a movie called The Rounders
Wed Aug 27, 2025, 09:20 PM
Aug 27

A horse was central to the plot, and even though I saw the movie in 1965 or 66, I'll never forget how the horse stole the movie with its antics.

I tried to find the name of the horse before I posted, but had no luck.

Marthe48

(21,814 posts)
16. Glenn Ford and Henry Fonda
Wed Aug 27, 2025, 09:37 PM
Aug 27

that was it. I couldn't remember the horse's name and couldn't find its real name

Response to The Blue Flower (Original post)

Niagara

(10,815 posts)
34. Jed
Thu Aug 28, 2025, 08:57 AM
Aug 28




Meredith Salenger and Jed




Jed was born at Whatcom Humane Society in Bellingham, Washington in 1977 where Gerhardt "Gary" Winkler, Henry Winkler's second cousin, adopted him as part of his collection of Siberian Huskies and Alaskan Malamutes.


Jed was an American animal actor, known for his roles in the movies The Thing (1982), The Journey of Natty Gann (1985), White Fang (1991), and White Fang 2: Myth of the White Wolf (1994).


He was a Northwestern wolf-Alaskan Malamute hybrid. His mother was a captive Vancouver Coastal Sea wolf from British Columbia's Pacific Rim National Park Reserve. His father was an Alaskan Malamute originally from Juneau, Alaska's Gastineau Humane Society.


He died in June 1995. Rest in Paradise, Jed.

VGNonly

(8,254 posts)
35. 18 years is a good long life for husky types.
Thu Aug 28, 2025, 10:18 AM
Aug 28

Captive wolves live 15-20 years, compared to 6-8 for wild wolves. My Siberian passed at 14 1/2.

Niagara

(10,815 posts)
37. And it's still too short of time with our beloved pet family members.
Thu Aug 28, 2025, 04:08 PM
Aug 28

I'm sorry for your loss.

justaprogressive

(5,430 posts)
36. Francis!!!! The Mule 7 movies
Thu Aug 28, 2025, 02:04 PM
Aug 28


In the late forties Americans were anxious to embrace peacetime but Khrushchev’s bomb tests weren’t helping. Lighter than light entertainment was required and the story of Francis—World War II seen through the comforting lens of a fairy tale—fit the bill. The mule evolved into a legitimate franchise; Stern published Francis Goes to Washington in 1948 and his creation went on to dominate newsstands in both comic books and a newspaper strip. It was high time for Francis to go to the movies and that film, titled just Francis, went into production in the summer of 1949 and was released in February of 1950.

Francis was directed by steadfast company man Arthur Lubin who had an affinity for animals, both four-legged and human (he helmed 1951’s Rhubarb about a baseball-loving feline and directed a feral Gale Sondergaard in 1946’s The Spider Woman Strikes Back). Heading the cast was Donald O’Connor as Peter Stirling, a Second Lieutenant on patrol in Burma who finds himself lost behind enemy lines. A stray army mule rescues the chuckle-headed soldier who discovers the animal is blessed with more than just a heroic nature—he can talk (the mule’s dialog was spoken by the outsized Chill Wills—a good old boy known for braying his lines when he wasn’t barking them).

This army mule is named Francis and he’s no jackass—thanks to his free-roaming status as a barnyard animal, he has easy access to unsuspecting enemy forces and their battle plans—by using Francis’ skills as an undercover donkey, Peter gains a reputation as a genius-level military strategist. Stirling’s problem is that, unlike the stubborn donkey, he can’t keep his mouth shut. His straightforward explanations as to the source of his information—”A mule told me”—lead to more than one appointment with the staff psychiatrist. When the going gets rough for his human friend, Francis reveals his true nature and Peter is exonerated. The end.


https://trailersfromhell.com/francis-the-talking-mule-7-film-collection/]

sinkingfeeling

(56,337 posts)
40. No one's mentioned Benji. (ActuallyHiggins).
Thu Aug 28, 2025, 07:58 PM
Aug 28

Actually, Frank Inn was who discovered Higgins (who was three years old) in 1960, adopted him from the Burbank Animal Shelter, and brought him home to be a pet and show-business dog for his wife Juanita and himself.[5] Inn trained Higgins for roles in such TV shows as The Beverly Hillbillies (10 episodes), Petticoat Junction (all episodes), and Green Acres (three episodes). After a few episodes of Lassie, Inn retired Higgins, but brought him back at age 14 in 1974 to star in Benji.[6]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benji

OrwellwasRight

(5,246 posts)
43. Although Asta and Benji were pretty amazing,
Sat Aug 30, 2025, 06:01 PM
Aug 30

I propose for honorable mention the following cats:

Jake from The Cat from Outer Space (https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0077305/). Incidentally, unlike much Disney fare from this era, this holds up. If you have Disney+, give it a try.

and

The cat from Early Edition (https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0115163/?ref_=tttrv_ov_bk). Not quite as amazing an actor at Jake, but the series was great. I wish it were available on streaming somewhere.

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