#keystone actor

[vintagedreamsofsennett]

Nicknamed "Silk Hat Harry," this mugging scene-stealer was one of Sennett's mainstays off-and-on from 1915 to 1932, initially as shifty white-collar villains with slippery fingers or backslapping "best friends."

Joining Keystone for the first time at the start of January 1915 with wife May Emory, Gribbon worked intermittently at the Sennett studio through 1919(serving in WW1 during that time), then returned again to star in some of Sennett's early Pathe releases of 1923-24. Gribbon later rejoined Sennett to star in his Educational talkies, appearing in more than two dozen shorts during 1928-32. Born in New York City, the 6'0'', blue-eyed, brown-haired Gribbon had been a newsboy who pursued a career as a baritone at age 16, and worked with the vaudeville team of Heelan and Helf. He appeared in "Flo Flo" with Stella Mayhew(1904), worked in the 1913 Ziegfeld Follies, played the lead in "Buster Brown" and also worked for the Shuberts and George M. Cohan. Gribbon had been the leading comic of the Gayety Company at the Morosco Theater before his Sennett servitude, and carried many broad stage traits with him, as well as restless heart.

Just over three months after joining Sennett, Gribbon and wife May left Keystone to join Lehrman's L-KO Comedies. The Gribbons rejoined Keystone-Triangle in August 1915 and stayed to make post-Sennett Keystones for Triangle in 1917-18. Harry rejoined Sennett in 1918, left for L-KO, but returned to Sennett in 1919. He then left again for Fox Sunshine in 1919, followed by the feature "Up in Mary's Attic", shorts for Al Christie, Universal's Star and Century Comedies and Norman Manning/Arrow(1921).

After that Gribbon returned to vaudeville on the Keith and Pantages circuits in a song and comedy duo with his wife. He came back to films to work at Mermaid(1923), then Sennett again, followed by another vaudeville stint, and then features. In 1928 for MGM, he had a recurring gag role as a mystified cop in Keaton's The Cameraman, a memorable part as a hyperactive comedy director in Show People and also appeared in Honeymoon.

From 1929 to 1933 Gribbon worked frequently in Warner Bros releases. In 1930-31 Gribbon also made shorts for RKO-Pathe. Relocating to New York, Gribbon made shorts for Vitaphone in 1934 and Educational in 1936-38. He acted in Broadway in plays. In 1943, Gribbon replaced John Alexander in the role of Teddy Brewster in "Arsenic and Old Lace" at the Hudson Theater. By that time Gribbon had developed a serious drinking problem that plagued him the rest of his life. His wife May died in 1948, and in later years Harry was reduced to seeking jobs like emceeing talent shows around the New York area.

When Gribbon fell ill, he relocated from New York to the Motion Picture Home and County Hospital in Woodland Hills, California, where he died at 76. He's interred at Holy Cross Cemetery, Culver City.

-Walker, B.E., 2010, Mack Sennett's Fun Factory, McFarland&Company, Inc., Publishers, pp.509~510 

[vintagedreamsofsennett]

"By 1918, he was back for a third stint with Sennett, this time leaving behind his grotesque makeup of old for a newer, more refined appearance. Sterling (...) usually in relatively straight roles that no doubt made it hard for audiences to recognize the former slapstick police chief and comic Simon Legree." "Cast in this film as a handsome and desirable orchestra leader, Sterling wears stylish clothes and a pencil mustache — very different from the gaudy garb he donned in the early Keystone films."

-Walker, B.E., 2010, Mack Sennett's Fun Factory, McFarland&Company, Inc., Publishers, p.102, p.544

[vintagedreamsofsennett]

"Nicknamed 'Silk Hat Harry,' this mugging scene-stealer was one of Sennett's mainstays off-and-on from 1915 to 1932."

-Walker, B.E., 2010, Mack Sennett's Fun Factory, McFarland&Company, Inc., Publishers, p.509

[vintagedreamsofsennett]

"It took a special talent to play a Keystone villain. One had to be convincingly menacing, yet possess enough comic nuances to salvage stagnant scenes and occasionally rescue a film from the jaws of an uninspired lead actor. Since 1913, Edgar Kennedy had been among the best at this. He was an ex-boxer, so he had a head start on the intimidation factor. But Kennedy was also a comedian skilled in the art of unrestrained bluster, though his full comic potential would remain unrealized for nearly fifteen years."

-Walker, B.E., 2010, Mack Sennett's Fun Factory, McFarland&Company, Inc., Publishers, p. 74

[vintagedreamsofsennett]

( the film i saw Edgar Kennedy, Louise Fazenda, Norma Nichols and Mai Wells for the first time )

Prior to establishing himself as one of Hollywood's most prominent character comedians and master of the "slow burn," with his hand slowly moving down his baldpate and over his exasperated face, Edgar Kennedy was a mainstay in well over 60 Keystone and Sennett comedies between 1913 and 1919. During that era, he still had some hair and a svelte physique, and was referred to as "Big Ed." He returned to Sennett as a director and supporting player in 1924, and made a final freelance appearance in 1932.

Born in Lake San Antonio, near King City in Monterey County, California, Kennedy was a 6'1", 210-pound ex-boxer who put his muscular frame to good use as Keystone cops and jealous husbands during his Sennett years. Kennedy toured on stage in musical comedies, and made his film debut in Brown in Harvard (1911) with Selig in Chicago. He appears to have been given his start at Keystone through the auspices of Fred Mace, who was arranging boxing matches for Kennedy at the time.

Kennedy left Sennett for L-KO in 1917, then went to Fox Sunshine Comedies in 1918, before returning to Sennett for much of 1919. Edgar also worked in Clyde Cook's Fox Comedies (1921-23), a Lloyd Hamilton comedy (1923) again with Cook in a couple of independent shorts of Educational (1924) and a 1925 Arrow Mirthquake Comedy with Bobby Ray. He also freelanced in features. Kennedy put his boxing skills to use in Universal's "Leather Pushers" series in 1922 as the character of "Ptomaine Tommy," and he also did double duty as a director on Universal's Blue Bird comedies (1926-27).

In 1928, Kennedy joined Hal Roach studios, where he made several memorable appearances in Laurel and Hardy and Our Gang comedies, in addition to co-starring in the classic A Pair of Tights. He made a few Pathé shorts with Arthur Housman, before RKO placed him in his own series of two-reelers in 1931. He would continue to make these "Mr. Average Man" shorts for the next 17 years, until his death. Between shorts, he found himself in high demand as a featured supporting actor. Kennedy had particularly notable showcases for his dramatic ability in the films.

He died of throat cancer at 58 at the Motion Picture Hospital in Woodland Hills, California, leaving widow Patricia Allwyn (whom he married in 1924, after a brief marriage to actress Ruth King), son Larry and daughter Colleen, and is interred at Holy Cross Cemetery, Culver City.

-Walker, B.E., 2010, Mack Sennett's Fun Factory, McFarland&Company, Inc., Publishers, p. 520

[vintagedreamsofsennett]

Ford Sterling in A Film Johnnie (1914)

With his absurd "Dutch" makeup, crumpled top hat, circular goatee and wire rim glasses, Sterling's face remains synonymous with the frenetic action of the Keystone comedies, of which he was an original star from 1912 to 1914. Sterling was a mugger supreme and a delightful ham, whether he was playing comic Victorian villains or the chief of that most inept of bureaucratic institutions, the Keystone cops. After leaving Keystone, he returned to work for Sennett twice more.

Born in La Crosse, Wisconsin, Sterling made his stage debut in a Chicago repertory company headed by George Whittier, then appeared in musical comedy in "The Gay Hussar." Sterling was also a choirboy with Haverley's Minstrels in Chicago circa 1905. He joined the John Robinson Circus, billed as "Keno the Boy Clown," and became a part of the "Flying Leos" acrobatic act. This was followed by success in vaudeville and appearances in plays such as "U.S. Girls " under Julius Kahn, "El Capital" with Francis Wilson and portraying the role Monsieur Graval in "Amazon." Sterling's work in vaudeville included his sketch "Breaking Into Society," and work on the Orpheum and Keith&Proctor circuits, where he perfected his Dutch and German characterizations. He also attended Notre Dame University.

Sterling signed with Biograph in 1912, and was whisked off by Sennett as one of the principals of his new Keystone company. Despite his quick ascent within a year to the statue of Keystone's top male comedian, he accepted an offer from Universal to star in his own Sterling comedies under Henry Lehrman's direction. However, after clashes with Lehrman and Universal, Sterling left the company bearing his name to return to the Keystone fold in 1915. He had starring roles in many of the Keystone-Triangle releases, but left again in 1917 to join the Fox comedy unit.

By 1918, he was back for a third stint with Sennett, this time leaving behind his grotesque makeup of old for a newer, more refined appearance. Sterling parted ways with Sennett for good in 1920, when he signed with Special Comedies Corp. for shorts under the direction of Reggie Morris. Sterling then began to freelance in features for companies like First National and Paramount in the 1920s, usually in relatively straight roles that no doubt made it hard for audiences to recognize the former slapstick police chief and comic Simon Legree.

He starred in early talkie shorts for Al Christie, a series for Paramount in 1931-33 and an RKO short in 1936. In 1935, Vitaphone hired Sterling to recreate the role of the kinetic chief of police in Keystone Hotel, which led to a more modern-dressed Vitaphone series. However, he was beset by health problems, including a heart attack in June 1938, and a leg amputated due to thrombosis in 1939. Sterling died later that year of a heart attack at 58 in Los Angeles at Good Samaritan Hospital, where he had been confined for 16 months, and is interred at Hollywood Forever Semetery.

He married actress Teddy Sampson in late 1914. They separated in April 1916, went through several failed reconcilements and divorce attempts before family reconciling in 1931.

-Walker, B.E., 2010, Mack Sennett's Fun Factory, McFarland&Company, Inc., Publishers, p.544