WWI veteran Bert Lahr, who played the role of the Cowardly Lion in the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz, was born in New York City on August 13, 1895.
Lahr’s brilliant, immortal performance as the Cowardly Lion was a masterclass in physical comedy that he dragged directly out of the fast-paced, high-energy world of American burlesque and Broadway vaudeville. His casting turned what could have been a flat, children’s book caricature into a deeply vulnerable, hysterically funny human character who defined the emotional core of the film’s trio. To deliver his iconic performance, Lahr had to endure a suffocating, ninety-pound costume crafted out of real lion pelts that was constantly drenched in sweat under the blistering, high-intensity Technicolor studio lights, a grueling physical sacrifice that permanently secured his place in Hollywood history.
Image via Wikimedia Commons, public domain
