Felix Knight

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Felix Knight, born William Felix Knight (November 1, 1908 – June 18, 1998), was an American tenor, actor, and vocal teacher. He is best known for Tom-Tom, the Piper’s Son, in the 1934 Laurel and Hardy musical Babes in Toyland.

Knight was born in Macon, Georgia. His father, a cotton farmer, died in a hunting accident when Knight was five. The family moved to Pensacola, Florida, where he learned guitar and began singing at dances and nightspots. By his teens he performed on local radio, and a movie producer on location encouraged him to try California.

In California, Knight studied voice with support from the Harkness Scholarship Foundation. He sang on radio, performed at the Hollywood Bowl, and worked in San Francisco’s opera scene. He made his screen debut in 1934 and soon landed the memorable role of Tom-Tom in Babes in Toyland.

Knight worked with MGM but also appeared in shorts and Hal Roach productions. He moved to New York City in 1937, making radio recordings and performing on network programs. He was a finalist in NBC’s Metropolitan Opera Auditions of the Air in 1938.

On Broadway he sang in It Happens on Ice (1940) and later appeared in The Merry Widow at Carnegie Hall (1942) and Once Over Lightly (1942). In 1946 he joined the Metropolitan Opera, singing Count Almaviva in The Barber of Seville, and stayed with the company until 1950. He also engaged in radio, records, and early television.

During World War II he served in the Pacific, including Guadalcanal. After the war he continued performing in concerts, summer stock, and clubs, and in the 1950s hosted a TV show and made more recordings. In the 1960s he shifted to a career as a vocal teacher, guiding both Broadway and opera singers for the rest of his life.

Knight was married twice: first to Alice Moore (1935–1939) and then to Ethel Blume in 1940. He had one son, William Felix Knight II. He died on June 18, 1998, in the Bronx, New York, and is buried in Woodlawn Cemetery. His wife Ethel Blume died in 2014.