Throughout the 1950s, no onscreen animal was cooler than Francis the Talking Mule. Okay, “cool” might be overstating it, but his popularity at the time is unquestionable.

In his 1950 silver screen debut, Francis starred opposite Donald O’Connor as a sagacious Burmese mule who befriends an American GI (O’Connor’s Peter Stirling). With Francis’ help, Peter is able to foil the enemy. However, when Peter tries to convince his commanding officers that Francis helped him foil the bad guys, he earns a trip to a padded cell instead of a medal.

Such began the great big screen hijinks of this man and talking beast duo. The predecessor to TV’s knock-off Mister Ed (also produced by Francis originator Arthur Lubin), Francis was trained by Will Rogers and starred in seven films throughout the course of his career. He was also the star of a Dell comic book series called Francis, the Famous Talking Mule. And he became the subject of a Capital Records recording, Francis the Talking Mule, featuring two songs by Chill Wills and the Starlighters.

Though Donald O’Connor is most often associated with the Peter Stirling character, Francis’ human sidekick was also played by Mickey Rooney in the final Francis film, 1957’s Francis and the Haunted House.

The stubborn, longsuffering mule was rewarded for his hard work by receiving the American Humane Association’s Annual Patsy Award for six years. The Patsy was awarded for outstanding animal performances in motion pictures. It was discontinued in 1980, due to the increasing use of computer graphics and mechanical animals in film.