George Givot
A vaudeville comic who built an entire act on a fake Greek accent, Givot was billed as the Greek Ambassador of Good Will and carried the bit from the stage into radio, Broadway, television and eventually film. Hollywood used him the way the variety houses had, in short bursts: a Greek clothing merchant in the 1933 comedy The Chief, Neb Jolla in Road to Morocco, an uncredited baron in The Racers, a corporal in the Indochina war picture China Gate.
The role that outlived all of it is animated. As Tony, the restaurant owner in Lady and the Tramp, he wheels a table into an alley, produces a plate of spaghetti and sings Bella Notte over two dogs. It is one sequence of a Disney feature, and it is the only performance of his that most people alive have seen, which is either a cruel joke on a long career in comedy or the best outcome a character man can hope for.
Movies (5)
Where to start with George Givot
Lady and the Tramp is the one you have already seen, and it stays the reason to look him up: an accent that had been a stage gag for years finally found a character it fitted.
After that the pickings are lean but not dull. Road to Morocco drops him into the middle of the Hope and Crosby routine, which is the right register for him, and The Chief is the earliest surviving look at the Greek act on film. China Gate is the odd one, a hard war picture with no comedy in it at all, and The Racers is an uncredited walk-on for completists only.