A rotund, often mustachioed character comedian, James B. Carson (born James Frelich) enjoyed a long stint touring in vaudeville and burlesque before entering films full-time in the mid-1930s. Often playing waiters, Carson -- a Missourian -- affected the mannerisms and accent of an excitable Frenchman when waiting on the likes of Joan Crawford and Clark Gable in Love on the Run; Jeanette MacDonald and Allan Jones in The Firefly (1937); and Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, Dorothy Lamour, and others in The Road to Zanzibar (1941). Carson retired from films due to illness in the late '40s. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, Rovi