Pat Costello

Birthday

Dec 10, 1902

Bio: Round-faced, roly-poly Pat Costello is best remembered today as the older brother of comic Lou Costello, and it was in association with his brother that he had his biggest onscreen acting role, of Detective Tim Williams in the Abbott & Costello film Mexican Hayride (1948). The elder Costello sibling proved funny in his own right in that movie, as a straight-man… More Bio: Round-faced, roly-poly Pat Costello is best remembered today as the older brother of comic Lou Costello, and it was in association with his brother that he had his biggest onscreen acting role, of Detective Tim Williams in the Abbott & Costello film Mexican Hayride (1948). The elder Costello sibling proved funny in his own right in that movie, as a straight-man foil for the younger Costello; one of their best bits together played off of their physical similarities. Pat Costello -- born Anthony Sebastian Cristillo three and a half years before his brother Lou -- started out in performing a long way from comedy; his interest was in music, and he was a bandleader in his twenties, doing Dixieland jazz in the 1920s and '30s. He also spent a fair amount of time in New Orleans during this period. It was only when Lou Costello went to Hollywood, and got a long-term contract, that Pat Costello abandoned music and headed there as well. Pat was a stunt-double for his brother in Buck Privates and Keep 'Em Flying (both 1941), Rio Rita (1942), and It Ain't Hay (1943), but during this period he also piled up a fair number of comic acting credits in various East Side Kids movies, produced by Sam Katzman. He was the boxing coach in Bowery Blitzkrieg and the navy recruiter in Let's Get Tough!, among other movies, and also made it into such low-budget horror movies as Voodoo Man and The Brute Man. According to his daughter, Pat Costello treated his onscreen work as a delightful lark to fill time, rather than as a real career; behind the scenes, however, he worked hard as the producer of The Abbott & Costello Show and the Abbott & Costello film vehicle Jack and the Beanstalk. He kept working in movies until his brother's death, and gradually slipped into retirement, playing golf and cards, including poker and gin. He outlived his more famous brother by more than 30 years, and lived to see the Abbott & Costello movies and television show find several generations of new fans. ~ Bruce Eder, Rovi