Julius Tannen (16 May 1880 – 3 January 1965) was a comedian – or monologist, as those of his era were known – who had a long and successful career in vaudeville. He was known to stage audiences (and respected by other monologists) for his witty improvisations and creative word games. He had a successful career as a character actor in films, appearing in over 50 films in his 25-year film career. He is best known to film audiences from the musical Singin' in the Rain, in which he appears as the man demonstrating a talking picture early in the film.