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Hugh Herbert (August 10, 1887 – March 12, 1952) was a motion picture comedian. He began his career in vaudeville, and wrote more than 150 plays and sketches. The advent of talking pictures brought stage-trained actors to Hollywood, and Hugh Herbert soon became a popular movie comedian. His screen character was usually absent-minded and flustered. He would flutter his fingers together and talk to himself, repeating the same phrases: "hoo-hoo-hoo, wonderful, wonderful, hoo hoo hoo!" This catchphrase inspired Daffy Duck's "hoo hoo, hoo hoo" phrase during the early years of the character. So... MORE

Hugh Herbert (August 10, 1887 – March 12, 1952) was a motion picture comedian. He began his career in vaudeville, and wrote more than 150 plays and sketches. The advent of talking pictures brought stage-trained actors to Hollywood, and Hugh Herbert soon became a popular movie comedian. His screen character was usually absent-minded and flustered. He would flutter his fingers together and talk to himself, repeating the same phrases: "hoo-hoo-hoo, wonderful, wonderful, hoo hoo hoo!" This catchphrase inspired Daffy Duck's "hoo hoo, hoo hoo" phrase during the early years of the character. So many imitators (including Curly Howard of The Three Stooges) copied the catchphrase as "woo woo" that Herbert actually adopted "woo woo" himself in the 1940s. Herbert's earliest movies, like Wheeler & Woolsey's 1930 feature Hook, Line and Sinker, cast him in generic comedy roles that could have been taken by any comedian. Herbert soon developed his own unique screen personality, complete with a silly giggle, and this new character caught on quickly. He was frequently featured in Warner Brothers films of the 1930s, including Footlight Parade, Dames, Bureau of Missing Persons, Fog Over Frisco, LESS