He became a member of the Roach stock company, appearing prominently in short subjects and featurettes starring Laurel and Hardy, Thelma Todd, and Charley Chase.
The affable Eddie Dunn was an all-purpose talent: he could play butlers, bandleaders, radio announcers, cab drivers, waiters, soldiers, and sailors.
He was often cast as an authority figure opposite the Roach comedians -- a policeman or detective -- which led to more work in feature films.
He began freelancing at various studios in 1933, playing character roles in hundreds of feature films.
Today's audiences may know him as a storm trooper confronting Charlie Chaplin in The Great Dictator (1940), an unfortunate chauffeur trying to repair a car in the W.C. Fields feature The Bank Dick (1940), the policeman arresting Laurel and Hardy in Nothing but Trouble, or the bartender in Mighty Joe Young.