I think Tony Curtis is another actor who might have been discounted because he had a pretty face. Paul Newman encountered that at times also. He handled comedy apparently effortlessly, but it takes a lot of work to make anything look effortless.

My mother was a huge Cary Grant fan, so when any of his came on the television, things stopped and we watched it. Thus I saw his film Operation Petticoat several times - it has Tony Curtis as a funny and interesting officer who was kind of a riff on what we've been talking about here. His character had previously made headway socially because of his pretty face, but when it came down to being useful and smart, he managed that (in the script - with a touch of larceny).

SRS