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Roscoe Conkling Arbuckle, also known
as Fatty Arbuckle (March 24, 1887 – June 29, 1933), was an American
silent film comedian, director, and screenwriter.
Born
in Smith Center, Kansas, to Mollie and William Goodrich Arbuckle, he
had several years of Vaudeville experience, including work at Idora
Park in Oakland, California. One of his earliest mentors was
comedian Leon Errol. He began his film career with the Selig
Polyscope Company in July 1909. Arbuckle appeared sporadically in
Selig one-reelers until 1913, moved briefly to Universal Pictures
and became a star in producer-director Mack Sennett's Keystone Cops
comedies.
Arbuckle was also a talented singer. After Enrico Caruso heard him
sing he urged the comedian to "give up this nonsense you do for a
living, with training you could become the second greatest singer in
the world".
Despite his massive physical size, Arbuckle was remarkably agile and
acrobatic. Mack Sennett, when recounting his first meeting with
Arbuckle, noted that he "skipped up the stairs as lightly as Fred
Astaire"; and, "without warning went into a feather light step,
clapped his hands and did a backward somersault as graceful as a
girl tumbler". His comedies are noted as rollicking and fast-paced,
have many chase scenes, and feature sight gags. Arbuckle was fond of
the famous "pie in the face," a comedy cliché that has come to
symbolize silent-film-era comedy itself.
In 1914 Paramount Pictures made the then-unheard of offer of $1,000
a day/25% of all profits/complete artistic control to make movies
with them. The movies were so lucrative and popular that in 1918
they offered Arbuckle a 3-year/$3 million contract.
Arbuckle is noted as one of the most popular actors of his era, but
he is best remembered for a heavily publicized criminal prosecution
that ended his career. Although he was acquitted by a jury with a
written apology, the trial's scandal ruined the actor, who would not
appear on screen again for another 10 years. |