Winstead Sheffield "Doodles" Weaver (May 11, 1911 – January 16, 1983)[1][2] was an American character actor, comedian, and musician.
Born into a wealthy West Coast family, Weaver began his career in radio.
In the late 1930s, he performed on Rudy Vallée's radio programs and Kraft Music Hall.
He was reportedly suspended from Stanford in 1937 (the year he graduated) for pulling a prank on the train home from the Rose Bowl.
[5][11] On radio during the late 1930s and early 1940s, he was heard as an occasional guest on Rudy Vallée's program and on the Kraft Music Hall.
Part of the Professor's schtick was mixing up words and sentences in various songs and recitations as if he had myopia or dyslexia.
In 1966, Weaver recorded a novelty version of "Eleanor Rigby"—singing, mixing up the words, insulting, and interrupting, while playing the piano.
He performed an Ajax cleanser commercial with a pig, and the audience reaction prompted the network to give him his own series.
In 1965, he starred in A Day With Doodles, a series of six-minute shorts sold as alternative fare to cartoons for locally hosted kiddie television programs.
Each episode featured Weaver in a first-person plural adventure (e.g., "Today we are a movie actor"), portraying himself and, behind false mustaches and costume hats, all the other characters in slapstick comedy situations with a voice over narration and minimal sets.
He portrayed eccentric characters in guest appearances on such television series as Batman (where he played The Archer's henchman Crier Tuck), Land of the Giants, Dragnet 1967 and The Monkees.
[citation needed] On January 16, 1983, Weaver was discovered dead by his son Winston at his Burbank, California home.