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(31 October 1883 – 25 November 1960)
Albert
Edward Duncan was born in Brooklyn, the son of a ventriloquist. He
made his vaudeville debut at 15 and first appeared in films for the
Biograph studio in 1908. Diminutive (4'11") and pudgy, he was typed
in comic roles.
In 1914 Duncan joined the Kalem Co., where he was teamed with the
hulking, bear-like Lloyd Hamilton for a series of one-reelers that
came to be known as the "Ham and Bud" comedies. These often
grotesquely violent slapstick shorts were so popular among
unsophisticated audiences that Kalem churned them out at the rate of
one a week, over 100 films in all through 1917. It could even be
said that "Ham and Bud" were the Laurel & Hardy of their day. For
Duncan that day was short-lived. Fame inflated his ego and made him
difficult to work with, and when Kalem went out of business he and
Hamilton parted company.
Duncan failed to make it as a solo act and ended his career playing
sidekicks in Poverty Row westerns.
He appeared in 167 films between 1912 and 1942. |