Although he played in only one movie, Sam became famous for his role as Chiffon in The Shaggy Dog.
 |
| Fred MacMurray and Sam |
Sam, an Old English Sheepdog whose official name was Lillybrad's Sammy's Shadow, was born in Denver, Colorado. He belonged to Mrs. Billye Anderson who paid $500 for him when he was two months old. At four months old, Anderson enrolled Sam in an obedience class with William Koehler. Koehler was impressed with Sam after his nine weeks of training, and about a year later when learning the Disney Studio was looking for a sheepdog for its next film Koehler felt Sam would be perfect for the part.
"Walt Disney Productions had viewed more than 20 Old English Sheepdogs for the title role in a picture to be called The Shaggy Dog," Koehler recalled. "Each of them had exhibited the contemporary curse of the breed: degrees of neurosis that varied from 'geared and dingy' to cowardly and emotionally unstable. It appeared that the dearth of qualified candidates would set the stage for Sam who qualified in temperament and had novice obedience training."
Sam was originally planned to do the principal work while other dogs were to be used as doubles doing specialized actions; however, Sam was so skilled he ended up doing just about everything - including the scene where the shaggy dog is racing down the road in a hot rod. A special bucket seat was designed for Sam to sit comfortably in the car, hair-covered mittens were tied to the steering wheel for him to slide his paws into, and a seatbelt covered with hair was used to secure him. Of course Sam couldn't actually drive the car so a stuntman was used, hidden from sight in the rigged up car. When the stuntman turned his steering wheel, Sam's wheel would turn, making it look like Sam was moving the wheel.
"Driving the car was the dog himself and it worked beautifully," said assistant director Arthur Vitarelli. "The dog would look over the top of the windshield and out the side. It looked like he was really driving."
The cast and crew loved working with Sam. According to Fred MacMurray, "Shaggy kept the whole cast and crew in stitches. He even broke me up a couple of times, and for an actor, believe me, that's no laughing matter. I knew I had to give everything I had to keep him from walking away with the picture. It wouldn't have been so bad if he'd been just a trick dog. I tell you he's an actor. I never saw any amateur catch on to the business so fast as this one did. He's a natural screen personality."
The Shaggy Dog was released in March 1959, and was more profitable than the movie Ben-Hur which was released the same year. Sam won the 1960 PATSY (Picture Animal Top Star of the Year) award from the American Humane Association for his performance, and his paw prints were immortalized in cement in the courtyard of the Burbank Animal Shelter in Burbank, California.
