Old comedians

1. Mabel Normand

Actress | Mickey

Mabel Normand was one of the comedy greats of early film. In an era when women are deemed 'not funny enough' it seems film history has forgotten her contributions. Her films debuted the Keystone Cops, Charlie Chaplin's tramp and the pie in the face gag. She co-starred with both Chaplin and Roscoe "...

2. Pearl White

Actress | The Perils of Pauline

Born on her father's farm in Green Ridge, Missouri, the youngest of five children. Moved with her family to Springfield, Missouri, where she grew up. Joined the Diemer Theatre Company during her second year of high school, and went on the road with a touring stock company at age 18, in 1907. Signed...

3. Betty Compson

Actress | Street Girl

A mining engineer's daughter, blond, blue-eyed Betty Compson began in show business playing the violin in a Salt Lake City vaudeville establishment for $15 a week. Following that, she went on tour, accompanied by her mother, with an act called 'The Vagabond Violinist'. Aged eighteen, she appeared ...

4. Alice Lake

Actress | The Hole in the Wall

Alice Lake was born on September 12, 1895 in Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA. She was an actress, known for The Hole in the Wall (1921), I Am the Law (1922) and Come Through (1917). She was married to Robert Williams. She died on November 15, 1967 in Hollywood, California, USA.

5. Charles Chaplin

Writer | The Great Dictator

Considered to be one of the most pivotal stars of the early days of Hollywood, Charlie Chaplin lived an interesting life both in his films and behind the camera. He is most recognized as an icon of the silent film era, often associated with his popular character, the Little Tramp; the man with the ...

6. Buster Keaton

Actor | The General

Joseph Frank Keaton was born on October 4, 1895 in Piqua, Kansas, to Joe Keaton and Myra Keaton. Joe and Myra were Vaudevillian comedians with a popular, ever-changing variety act, giving Keaton an eclectic and interesting upbringing. In the earliest days on stage, they traveled with a medicine ...

7. Max Linder

Actor | Seven Years Bad Luck

Although all too frequently neglected by fans of silent comedy, Max Linder is in many ways as important a figure as Charles Chaplin, Buster Keaton or Harold Lloyd, not least because he predated (and influenced) them all by several years and was largely responsible for the creation of the classic ...

8. André Deed

Actor | L'uomo meccanico

Starting his show-business career as a singer and acrobat in French music halls, Deed got in almost at the ground floor of the French film industry, making his debut in 1905. It didn't take him long to become one of France's first major comic film stars, and he soon became internationally famous. ...

Cretinetti and Boireau

9. Charles Prince

Actor | Les femmes collantes

Born in France in 1872, Charles Prince Seigneur had been a stage comedian for years when he made his first films at Charles Pathé's studio in 1909. He quickly became the one film comedian of the time who could compete with Max Linder in terms of popularity, known as Rigadin in France, Moritz in ...

Rigadin

10. John Bunny

Actor | Her Old Sweetheart

When John Bunny died the New York Times stated, "The name John Bunny will always be linked to the movies." Little did movie fans of 1915 realize that he would be completely forgotten the next year and completely omitted from many books on silent movies 70-80 years later.

Bunny was the ninth in a ...

11. Chester Conklin

Actor | Modern Times

Iowa-born Chester Conklin was raised in a coal-mining area by a devoutly religious father who hoped that his son would go into the ministry. However, Chester got the performing bug one day when he gave a recitation at a community singing festival and won first prize. Knowing his father would never ...

12. Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle

Actor | Coney Island

Roscoe Arbuckle, the youngest of nine children, reportedly weighed 16 pounds at birth in Smith Center, Kansas on March 24, 1887. His family moved to California when he was one year old. At age 8 he first appeared on the stage. His first part was with the Webster-Brown stock company. From then until...

13. Charley Chase

Actor | Neighborhood House

While Charley Chase is far from being as famous as "The Big Three" (Charles Chaplin, Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd) today, he's highly respected as one of the "greats" by fans of silent comedy.

Chase (real name Charles Parrott) was born in Maryland, USA, in 1893. After a brief career in vaudeville,...

14. Harold Lloyd

Actor | Safety Last!

Born in Burchard, Nebraska, USA to Elizabeth Fraser and J. Darcie 'Foxy' Lloyd who fought constantly and soon divorced (at the time a rare event), Harold Clayton Lloyd was nominally educated in Denver and San Diego high schools and received his stage training at the School of Dramatic Art (San ...

15. Harry Langdon

Actor | His First Flame

Langdon first performed when he ran away from home at the age of 12-13 to join a travelling medicine show. In 1903 he scored a lasting success in vaudeville with an act called "Johnny's New Car" which he performed for twenty years. In 1923, he signed with Principal Pictures as a series star, but ...

16. Stan Laurel

Actor | Saps at Sea

Stan Laurel came from a theatrical family, his father was an actor and theatre manager, and he made his stage debut at the age of 16 at Pickard's Museum, Glasgow. He traveled with Fred Karno's vaudeville company to the United States in 1910 and again in 1913. While with that company he was Charles ...

17. Oliver Hardy

Actor | Saps at Sea

Although his parents were never in show business, as a young boy Oliver Hardy was a gifted singer and, by age eight, was performing with minstrel shows. In 1910 he ran a movie theatre, which he preferred to studying law. In 1913 he became a comedy actor with the Lubin Company in Florida and began ...

18. Ben Turpin

Actor | Yankee Doodle in Berlin

First of all, the cross-eyed comedian of silent days was not born that way. Supposedly his right eye slipped out of alignment while playing the role of the similarly afflicted Happy Hooligan in vaudeville and it never adjusted. Ironically, it was this disability that would enhance his comic value ...

19. Ford Sterling

Actor | The Trouble with Wives

Ford Sterling was born on November 3, 1883 in La Crosse, Wisconsin, USA. He was an actor and director, known for The Trouble with Wives (1925), He Who Gets Slapped (1924) and Yankee Doodle in Berlin (1919). He was married to Teddy Sampson. He died on October 13, 1939 in Los Angeles, California, USA.

20. Larry Semon

Director | The Show

Slapstick comedian known for his charming, white-painted face and clownish smile, mugged his way to being a very highly paid and popular actor. His career was marred by personal problems, and his fortune was lost to high spending. By the time he died, he'd already been hospitalized for a nervous ...

aka Jester

21. W.C. Fields

Actor | It's a Gift

William Claude Dukenfield was the eldest of five children born to Cockney immigrant James Dukenfield and Philadelphia native Kate Felton. He went to school for four years, then quit to work with his father selling vegetables from a horse cart. At eleven, after many fights with his alcoholic father ...

22. 'Snub' Pollard

Actor | Rollin' Plains

In recalling silent movie comedian Harry "Snub" Pollard, his slight frame (5' 6"), bullet-shaped head and dark, droopy mustache are definitive identification badges. Born in Melbourne, Australia as Harold Fraser on November 9, 1889, he started off performing with the Pollard's Lilliputian Opera ...

23. Lee Moran

Actor | The Little Irish Girl

Lee Moran was born on June 23, 1888 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for The Little Irish Girl (1926), The Actress (1928) and Fixed by George (1920). He was married to Esther (Brown) Schinzel. He died on April 24, 1961 in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA.

24. Eddie Lyons

Actor | Everything But the Truth

Eddie Lyons was born on November 25, 1886 in Beardstown, Illinois, USA. He was an actor and director, known for Everything But the Truth (1920), All Bound Around (1919) and Good Night, Ladies (1919). He was married to Virginia Kirtley. He died on August 30, 1926 in Pasadena, California, USA.

25. Mack Sennett

Producer | A Small Town Idol

Mack Sennett was born Michael Sinnott on January 17, 1880 in Danville, Quebec, Canada, to Irish immigrant farmers. When he was 17, his parents moved the family to East Berlin, Connecticut, and he became a laborer at American Iron Works, a job he continued when they moved to Northampton, ...

26. James Finlayson

Actor | Way Out West

Alongside Ben Turpin, diminutive Scots-born Jimmy Finlayson was, arguably, the most instantly recognisable of the many clowns of silent screen slapstick who made their living as comic foil to stars like Laurel & Hardy, or Harold Lloyd. The perpetually exasperated, squinting, bald-pated master of ...

27. Georges Méliès

Director | À la conquête du pôle

Georges Méliès was a French illusionist and film director famous for leading many technical and narrative developments in the earliest days of cinema.

Méliès was an especially prolific innovator in the use of special effects, popularizing such techniques as substitution splices, multiple exposures, ...

28. Al St. John

Actor | Billy the Kid in Texas

Al St. John was born on September 10, 1893 in Santa Ana, California, USA. He was an actor and director, known for Billy the Kid in Texas (1940), Prairie Badmen (1946) and Billy the Kid Trapped (1942). He was married to Yvonne June Villon Price Pearce (actress), Lillian Marion Ball and Flo-Bell ...

29. Mack Swain

Actor | The Gold Rush

Mack Swain was born in 1876 and soon became a talented vaudevillian. In 1913 he was hired by Mack Sennett and appeared in a few Mabel Normand pictures until a year later he became even bigger when Charlie Chaplin arrived at the Keystone Studio. Swain later created a character by the name of Ambrose...

30. Bobby Vernon

Director | For the Love of Fanny

Bobby Vernon was born in the U.S. in 1897, was trained in Vaudeville and became a talented comic in the silent era. He began working in 1913, appearing in Lon Chaney's Almost an Actress (1913) and later worked for Mack Sennett, who teamed him up with young Gloria Swanson in 9 comedies between 1916 ...

31. Vivien Oakland

Actress | Gold Dust Gertie

This vivacious, platinum-blonde leading lady of silent screen comedy was a former Ziegfeld Girl (under her birth name 'Anderson'). The daughter of Norwegian immigrants, she appeared in vaudeville from early childhood and began in films in 1915. Two years later she made her debut on Broadway. From ...

32. Alice Davenport

Actress | Cohen's Outing

Alice was a silent screen comedic actress. She worked in a number of Keystone films and also appeared in the early films that Chaplin did. Other actors that Alice worked with who went on to become big stars were Mabel Normand and Marie Dressler . Alice was married and divorced from Broadway actor ...

33. Alice Howell

Actress | Cinderella Cinders

Alice Howell was born on May 5, 1888 in New York City, New York, USA. She was an actress, known for Cinderella Cinders (1920), The Pride of the Force (1925) and Shipwrecked (1926). She was married to Richard Smith and Benjamin Vincent Shevlin. She died on April 12, 1961 in Los Angeles, California, ...

34. Louise Fazenda

Actress | The Bat

When top "working girl" silent screen comedienne Mabel Normand would gripe to Mack Sennett about making classier films, Sennett's quippy retort would always be, "I'll send for Fazenda." This pretty, oval-faced, highly popular Keystone comedy cut-up put in her time first in comic two-reelers from ...

35. Mistinguett

Soundtrack | La Môme

Mistinguett was born on April 3, 1875 in Enghien-les-Bains, Val-d'Oise, France. She was an actress and writer, known for La Vie En Rose (2007), Chignon d'or (1916) and Rigolboche (1936). She died on January 5, 1956 in Bougival, Yvelines, France.

Elsie LeClaire in USA

36. Charles Murray

Actor | Percy

Charles Murray was born on June 22, 1872 in Laurel, Indiana, USA. He was an actor and director, known for Percy (1925), Vamping Venus (1928) and The Wizard of Oz (1925). He was married to Nellie Bae Hamilton. He died on July 29, 1941 in Los Angeles, California, USA.

37. Charles R. Bowers

Director | Now You Tell One

Charley Bowers led an extraordinary life even prior to getting involved with motion pictures. Supposedly kidnapped by circus performers at age six, he became an accomplished tightrope walker before returning home two years later. He did all types of work over the years, including circus jobs, ...

38. Will Rogers

Actor | Steamboat Round the Bend

World-famous, widely popular American humorist of the vaudeville stage and of silent and sound films, Will Rogers graduated from military school, but his first real job was in the livestock business in Argentina, of all places. He transported pack animals across the South Atlantic from Buenos Aires...

39. Johnny Hines

Actor | Little Johnny Jones

Johnny Hines was born on July 25, 1895 in Golden, Colorado, USA. He was an actor and director, known for Little Johnny Jones (1923), Whistling in the Dark (1933) and The Live Wire (1925). He was married to Irma Warner. He died on October 24, 1970 in Los Angeles, California, USA.

40. Vernon Dent

Actor | The Shadow

Familiar to many as the frustrated cop, businessman or landlord in countless two-reel comedies by The Three Stooges, Vernon Dent got his start in show business as a member of a singing troupe traveling in Southern California in the early 1920s. He was befriended by comedian Hank Mann, a member of ...

41. Lloyd Hamilton

Actor | A Self-Made Failure

Being one of numerous important comedians during the silent era whose popularity has turned into almost complete obscurity, Lloyd Hamilton has nevertheless earned a reputation as an original talent among film historians and enthusiasts. Born into a conservative middle-class family in California, ...

42. Max Davidson

Actor | A Daughter of the Poor

Max Davidson was born on May 23, 1875 in Berlin, Germany. He was an actor, known for A Daughter of the Poor (1917), Don Quixote (1915) and The Johnstown Flood (1926). He was married to Alice Marti. He died on September 4, 1950 in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA.

43. Slim Summerville

Actor | All Quiet on the Western Front

Born in Albuquerque, New Mexico in 1892, rustic-looking George "Slim" Summerville possessed one of those malleable mugs that made you laugh even before he opened his mouth. Young Slim ran away from home as a youth and lived a rather wanderlust life until a chance meeting with Mack Sennett through ...

44. Mae Busch

Actress | The Unholy Three

Mae Busch can certainly claim career versatility, having successfully played Erich von Stroheim's mistress, Lon Chaney's girlfriend, Charley Chase's sister, James Finlayson's ex-wife and Oliver Hardy's wife! She was born in Melbourne, Australia, in 1891; her parents were in the theater and when she...

45. Edna Marion

Actress | The Still Alarm

Edna Marion was born on December 12, 1906 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. She was an actress, known for The Still Alarm (1926), Readin', 'Ritin', 'Rithmetic (1926) and The Call of the Wilderness (1926). She was married to William E. Paxson and Herbert P. Naisbitt. She died on December 2, 1957 in ...

46. Dorrit Weixler

Actress | Das rosa Pantöffelchen

Dorrit Weixler was born on March 27, 1892 in Berlin, Germany. She was an actress, known for Das rosa Pantöffelchen (1913), Die das Glück narrt (1913) and Todesrauschen (1914). She died on November 30, 1916 in Berlin, Germany.

47. Ossi Oswalda

Actress | Die Austernprinzessin

Ossi Oswalda was born Oswalda Staglich on February 2, 1899 in Berlin, Germany. She trained to be a ballerina and worked in chorus lines when she was a teenager. Director Ernst Lubitsch discovered her and cast her in his 1916 film The Shoe Palace. Over the next five years she appeared in many of ...

48. Karl Valentin

Actor | Donner, Blitz und Sonnenschein

Karl Valentin, whose real name is Valentin Ludwig Fey, began an apprenticeship as a carpenter in 1897 after attending a private school. Two years later he met Gisela Royes, his future wife. Two daughters were born from this union. Between 1899 and 1901, Valentin worked as a journeyman carpenter. ...

49. Ferenc Futurista

Actor | Za oponou smrti

Ferenc Futurista was born on December 7, 1891 in Prague, Austria-Hungary [now Czech Republic]. He was an actor and writer, known for Za oponou smrti (1923), Ferenc se zení (1918) and Osálená komtesa Zuzana (1918). He died on June 19, 1947 in Prague, Czechoslovakia [now Czech ...

50. Bobby Ray

Director | Dugan of the Dugouts

Bobby Ray was born on October 6, 1899 in New York, USA. He was an assistant director and actor, known for Dugan of the Dugouts (1928), Riley of the Rainbow Division (1928) and Yellow Cargo (1936). He was married to Gladys Jensen and Doris Storck. He died on March 26, 1957 in Los Angeles, California...

51. Hank Mann

Actor | Modern Times

Hank Mann was born on May 28, 1887 in New York City, New York, USA. He was an actor and director, known for Modern Times (1936), The Great Dictator (1940) and City Lights (1931). He was married to Dolly Myers Robinson, Rae Max and Estelle. He died on November 25, 1971 in South Pasadena, California,...

52. Frank Alexander

Actor | The Wizard of Oz

Frank "Fatty" Alexander was an obese comedian who appeared in silent one- and two-reel slapstick comedies as a side-kick before co-starring with two other heavyweights, Hilliard Karr and 'Kewpie Ross' in F.B.O.'s low-budget "Ton of Fun" series at the end of the silent era. Born in Olympia, ...

53. Harry Sweet

Director | Rhythms of a Great City in Minor

Harry Sweet was born in Teller County, Colorado, in 1901 and moved with his family to Reno, Nevada, in 1916. While in high school he was a movie projectionist for several theaters in the city. He also was a talented acrobat.

He arrived in Hollywood in 1919 and immediately went to work as an actor ...

54. Syd Chaplin

Actor | King, Queen and Joker

Syd Chaplin was born on March 16, 1885 in London, England, UK. He was an actor and director, known for King, Queen and Joker (1921), The Better 'Ole (1926) and A Lover's Lost Control (1915). He was married to Minnie Chaplin and Henriette. He died on April 15, 1965 in Nice, Alpes-Maritimes, France.

55. Billie Ritchie

Actor | Life and Moving Pictures

Billie Ritchie was born in Scotland in 1874 and joined the world-renowned Karno Fun Factory and Comedy Troupe traveling the world with Charlie Chaplin and Stan Laurel, among others. In 1914 he left Karno and began making silent films for director Henry "Pathe" Lehrman's L-Ko Comedy studios and then...

Chaplin borrowed his baggy trousers and his coconut hat to make up the successful character 'Carlito'

56. Fred Mace

Director | Without Hope

Mace was a dentist from Erie, Pennsylvania who at one point did some stage stock work for Mack Sennett. Heading west, he worked for Carl Laemmle and Thomas H. Ince before settling back with Sennett. After achieving success as the Chief of the Keystone Kops, he quit Sennett and opened his own ...

57. Monty Banks

Actor | Horse Shoes

Monty Banks was a short, stocky but somehow debonair Italian-born comic actor, later also writer and director. In the US from 1914, he first appeared on stage in musical comedy and cabaret. By 1917 he was working as a dancer in New York's Dominguez Cafe. After this he turned to films, acting and ...

58. Hallam Cooley

Actor | The Monster

Hallam Cooley was born on February 8, 1895 in Brooklyn, New York, USA. He was an actor, known for The Monster (1925), Holiday (1930) and Sporting Youth (1924). He was married to Doris McMahon, Elizabeth Bates and Edna Clara Kemp. He died on March 20, 1971 in Tiburon, California, USA.

59. Neely Edwards

Actor | Show Boat

Neely Edwards was born on September 16, 1883 in Delphos, Ohio, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for Show Boat (1929), Scarlet Pages (1930) and The Hangover (1931). He was married to Marguerite Snow and Bella B. Cohen. He died on July 10, 1965 in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA.

60. Margaret Joslin

Actress | A Snakeville Courtship

Margaret Joslin was born on August 6, 1883 in Cleveland, Ohio, USA. She was an actress, known for A Snakeville Courtship (1913), Sophie's New Foreman (1913) and Sophie's Hero (1913). She was married to Harry Todd. She died on October 14, 1956 in Glendale, California, USA.

61. Marie Dressler

Actress | Dinner at Eight

Once you saw her, you would not forget her. Despite her age and weight, she became one of the top box office draws of the sound era. She was 14 when she joined a theater group and she went on to work on stage and in light opera. By 1892, she was on Broadway and she later became a star comedienne on...

62. Anita Garvin

Actress | Blotto

Anita Frances Garvin was born in the Hell's Kitchen area of New York, the youngest of 3 children to Ann Frances Donovan, who was half Irish and half Blackfoot Indian, and Edward Garvin, an engineer who was killed in an accident when Anita was 6. By the age of 12 she was 5' 6", enabling her to pass ...

63. Katherine Grant

Actress | The Wolf of Placer

Katherine Grant was born on May 1, 1904 in Los Angeles, California. Her parents divorced and her father passed away in 1921. At the age of eighteen she won the Miss Los Angeles beauty contest and competed in the Miss America pageant. Katherine worked as a professional dancer and to make extra money...

64. Glenn Tryon

Actor | Lonesome

Glenn Tryon was born on August 2, 1898 in Julietta, Idaho, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for Lonesome (1928), The Secret Menace (1931) and Hot Heels (1927). He was married to Jane Frazee and Lillian Hall. He died on April 18, 1970 in Orlando, Florida, USA.

65. Billy West

Actor | Hello Bill

Billy West was a silent film comedian, the best-known and most successful imitator of Charles Chaplin's "Tramp" character, until West developed his own comedic persona. Oliver Hardy was West's foil in many of his silents.

66. Joe Cobb

Actor | Uncle Tom's Uncle

Joe Cobb was born on November 7, 1916 in Shawnee, Oklahoma, USA. He was an actor, known for Uncle Tom's Uncle (1926), Good Cheer (1926) and The Buccaneers (1924). He died on May 21, 2002 in Santa Ana, California, USA.

67. Edgar Kennedy

Actor | Duck Soup

Edgar Kennedy, who was born on April 26, 1890, near Monterey, California, hit the road as a young man and traveled across the country, working in a succession of jobs. He became a professional boxer, claiming to have gone 14 rounds against The Manassas Mauler, Jack Dempsey.

In addition to his ...

68. Jack Cooper

Actor | Taxi Spooks

Jack Cooper was born on January 25, 1890 in Stockport, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Taxi Spooks (1929), The Carnival Girl (1926) and Midnight Daddies (1930). He was married to Adella Louise Anthes. He died on January 12, 1970 in Chicago, Illinois, USA.

69. Joe Murphy

Actor | Uncle Bim's Gifts

Attended Horace Mann school in San Jose. Once belonged to a bicycle club there, known as the Garden City Wheelmen. His nickname in those days was "Spike", but thanks to the fame garnered from playing the comic strip character in the silent Universal short subject series, he would let himself be ...

70. Lew Fields

Actor | The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle

Lew Fields was born on January 1, 1867 in New York City, New York, USA. He was an actor, known for The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle (1939), The Barker (1917) and Mike and Meyer Go Fishing (1915). He was married to Rose Harris. He died on July 20, 1941 in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, California, ...

71. Ernest Morrison

Actor | Ghosts on the Loose

"Sunshine Sammy" Morrison was most famous as one of the Dead End Kids/East Side Kids, but he was probably the most experienced actor of that group. Morrison made his film debut while still an infant; his father worked for a wealthy Los Angeles family that had connections in the film industry, and ...

72. James Parrott

Director | Sous les verrous

Hal Roach hired him in the early 20's as a comedian called Paul Parrott but his talent was as a film director. He was also a good writer turning out many scripts for Laurel and Hardy and directed 22 of their films, more than any other of their directors. His first film with them was the silent ...

73. Billy Bevan

Actor | Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Billy Bevan's show-business career began in his native Australia, with the Pollard theatrical organization. The company had two theater troupes, one which toured Asia and the other traveling to North America. Bevan wound up in the latter, performing in skits and plays all over Canada and Alaska ...

74. Billy Bletcher

Actor | The Lost City

Billy Bletcher, standing 5' 2", was known as the little guy with the big voice, who, ironically, started his film career during the silent era.

Billy's show business career began in 1913 at the age of 19 in vaudeville, and within a year, he went to work for Vitagraph Studios in Brooklyn where he ...

75. Billy Franey

Actor | When Damon Fell for Pythias

William 'Billy' Franey was a leading comic character actor of dishevelled appearance and fuzzy moustache, usually in a suit a couple of sizes too big. His screen career began around 1913, with leads in the 'Joker' comedy series released by Universal. He was co-starred with Louise Fazenda (until her...

76. Bobby Dunn

Actor | His Busted Trust

Bobby Dunn was born on August 28, 1890 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA. He was an actor, known for His Busted Trust (1916), The Thrill Hunter (1926) and Our Alley (1923). He died on March 24, 1937 in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA.

77. Bert Roach

Actor | So Long Letty

Chubby silent film comic Bert Roach began on the New York stage at the age of 17. In 1911, he headlined in the two-act musical farce Louisiana Lou and then spent several years in stock as a lead tenor. Two years later, he made his screen debut at Keystone in Mack Sennett's Fatty's Magic Pants (1914)...

78. Phyllis Haver

Actress | The Christian

Phyllis Haver was born Phyllis O'Haver on January 6, 1899, in Douglas, KS. When she was a child her family moved to California. Young Phyllis got a job playing piano at a local movie theater. Producer Mack Sennett saw her and hired her to be one of his "Sennett Bathing Beauties". Between 1916-20 ...

79. Phyllis Allen

Actress | White Youth

Getting her show business start in vaudeville, Phyllis Allen's large physique and excellent timing made her a natural for film comedies, and she appeared in many of Mack Sennett's slapstick films. She also appeared in several of Charles Chaplin's movies, and was often paired with equally hefty ...

80. Flora Finch

Actress | The Cat and the Canary

Flora Finch was born in London, England, on June 17, 1867. After spending time on the legitimate stage, she began to make films, and was one of the early comedy stars of the silent-film era. Her first film was Mrs. Jones Entertains (1909). After making nine more films she began appearing with ...

81. Fay Tincher

Actress | Don Quixote

Often compared in looks and ability to Mabel Normand, lively, dark-haired comedienne Fay Tincher began as a vaudeville and musical comedy actress. Though she had operatic aspirations at the outset, Fay settled on an acting career. She first appeared on the Chicago stage while still finishing her ...

82. Eric Campbell

Actor | Behind the Screen

Campbell was born in Sale, Cheshire on 26th April 1880 and began acting as a boy. He married fellow music hall performer Fanny Gertrude Robotham on March 30, 1901 and was later hired by English music hall impresario Fred Karno for his "Fun Factory" comedy troupes that featured other comics like a ...

83. Joe Roberts

Actor | Our Hospitality

Joe Roberts was born on February 2, 1871 in Albany, New York, USA. He was an actor, known for Our Hospitality (1923), The Primitive Lover (1922) and Three Ages (1923). He was married to Lillian Stuart Feld Roberts and Nina Mildred Straw Shannon. He died on October 28, 1923 in Los Angeles, ...

84. Bud Jamison

Actor | Three Little Beers

Bud Jamison was born on February 15, 1895 in Vallejo, California, USA. He was an actor and director, known for Three Little Beers (1935), Their First Tintype (1920) and Captain Caution (1940). He was married to Georgia Kathleen Holland. He died on September 30, 1944 in Hollywood, Los Angeles, ...

85. Josef Swickard

Actor | You Can't Take It with You

A veteran stage and screen actor, Swickard was the brother of actor Charles Swickard. He entered films in 1912 and was playing supporting roles for Mack Sennett by 1914. He remained with Sennett until 1917 when he started numerous aristocratic roles in films. His career in sound films was somewhat ...

86. Glen Cavender

Actor | The General

Glen Cavender was born in Tucson, Arizona, USA. He was an actor and director, known for [=tt0017925], [=tt0463180] and The Man from Brodney's (1923). Before he went into the movies he was a soldier of fortune. He served in the Boer war, in Cuba and in the Philippines. Also, served in China during ...

87. George Davis

Actor | The Circus

George Davis was born on November 7, 1889 in Amsterdam, Noord-Holland, Netherlands. He was an actor, known for The Circus (1928), Le petit café (1931) and The Awakening (1928). He died on April 19, 1965 in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA.

88. Lige Conley

Actor | Casey Jones, Jr.

Lige Conley was born on December 5, 1897 in St. Louis, Missouri, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for Casey Jones, Jr. (1923), King of the Kitchen (1926) and Sally, Irene and Mary (1938). He died on December 11, 1937 in Hollywood, California, USA.

89. Lupino Lane

Actor | Who's Your Father

Lupino 'Nipper' Lane was one of the few English actors to achieve fame in Hollywood in the 20's. He was a descendant of the clown Grimaldi, who, it was said, was the first to use concealed trap doors for comic effect., Lupino carried on that tradition and had many years of stage experience from his...

90. Charlie Hall

Actor | A Chump at Oxford

Born in Birmingham, England, Charlie Hall was a member of the famed Fred Karno vaudeville troupe, which gave the world Charles Chaplin and Stan Laurel. Hall arrived in the U.S. in the early 1920s, after Chaplin and Laurel, and entered films playing a foil for many of the era's top comics. He is ...

91. Earle Rodney

Writer | Uppercut O'Brien

Earle Rodney was born on June 4, 1888 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He was a writer and actor, known for Uppercut O'Brien (1929), The College Kiddo (1927) and Clancy at the Bat (1929). He was married to Leona Adelle Domke. He died on December 16, 1932 in Los Angeles, California, USA.

92. Billy Dooley

Actor | Call of the Yukon

Billy Dooley was born on February 8, 1893 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. He was an actor, known for Call of the Yukon (1938), The Marines Are Here (1938) and Manhattan Tower (1932). He died on August 4, 1938 in Hollywood, California, USA.

93. Bobby Clark

Actor | Kraft Television Theatre

Famed vaudeville comedian Bobby Clark was born in Springfield, Ohio on June 16, 1888. When he was 12 years old, Bobby and his classmate Paul McCullough created a tumbling act that they took on the road. The duo toured with a traveling minstrel troupe before joining a circus as clowns. The clown act...

94. Hilliard Karr

Actor | Love in the Desert

Hilliard "Fat" Karr was an obese comedian who appeared in silent two-reel slapstick comedies with two other heavyweights, Frank Alexander and 'Kewpie Ross', in F.B.O.'s low-budget "Ton of Fun" series at the end of the silent era.

Hailing from Houston, Texas, Hilliard Karr made his motion picture ...

95. Augustus Carney

Actor | Alkali Ike Plays the Devil

Augustus Carney was born in 1870 in the UK. He was an actor, known for Alkali Ike Plays the Devil (1912), Hank and Lank: Joyriding (1910) and Alkali Ike Bests Broncho Billy (1912). He died in 1920.

96. Marcel Perez

Actor | The Wisest Fool

Marcel Perez was born in 1885 in Madrid, Spain. He was an actor and director, known for The Wisest Fool (1919), He Wins (1918) and It's a Great Life (1918). He was married to Dorothy Earle. He died on February 8, 1929 in Los Angeles, California, USA.

A Scrambled Honeymoon

97. Dot Farley

Actress | The Red Kimono

Dot Farley was born on February 6, 1881 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. She was an actress and writer, known for The Red Kimono (1926), So Big (1924) and The Little Irish Girl (1926). She died on May 2, 1971 in South Pasadena, California, USA.

98. Gale Henry

Actress | Lady Baffles and Detective Duck in Kidnapping the King's Kids

Eccentric, big-nosed, lugubrious-faced purveyor of silent screen slapstick, at one time billed as 'the elongated comedienne'. She was even suggested to have served as the model for 'Olive Oyl' of Popeye comic strip fame. An actual cartoon version of her was in fact featured in the British ...

99. Anne Cornwall

Actress | College

Anne Cornwall was born on January 17, 1897 in Brooklyn, New York, USA. She was an actress, known for College (1927), Dulcy (1923) and The Roughneck (1924). She was married to Ellis Wing Taylor and Charles Maigne. She died on March 2, 1980 in Van Nuys, California, USA.

100. Elsa Lanchester

Actress | Witness for the Prosecution

Elsa Sullivan Lanchester was born into an unconventional a family at the turn of the 20th century. Her parents, James "Shamus" Sullivan and Edith "Biddy" Lanchester, were socialists - very active members of the Social Democratic Federation (SDF) in a rather broad sense - and did not believe in the ...