Roscoe Conkling "Fatty" Arbuckle was an American silent film actor, director, and screenwriter. He started at the Selig Polyscope Company and eventually moved to Keystone Studios, where he worked with Mabel Normand and Harold Lloyd as well as with his nephew, Al St. John. He also mentored Charlie Chaplin, Monty Banks and Bob Hope, and brought vaudeville star Buster Keaton into the movie business. Arbuckle was one of the most popular silent stars of the 1910s and one of the highest-paid actors in Hollywood, signing a contract in 1920 with Paramount Pictures for $1,000,000 a year.
This is an overview of 1921 in film, including significant events, a list of films released and notable births and deaths.
1917 in film was a particularly fruitful year for the art form, and is often cited as one of the years in the decade which contributed to the medium the most, along with 1913. Secondarily the year saw a limited global embrace of narrative film-making and featured innovative techniques such as continuity cutting. Primarily, the year is an American landmark, as 1917 is the first year where the narrative and visual style is typified as "Classical Hollywood".
James Forbes was a Canadian playwright who worked as a Hollywood film screenwriter. The Chorus Lady and The Famous Mrs. Fair were his best known plays.
Flora Finch was an English-born vaudevillian, stage and film actress who starred in over 300 silent films, including over 200 for the Vitagraph Studios film company. The vast majority of her films from the silent era are currently classified as lost.
Al St. John was an early American motion-picture comedian. He was a nephew of silent film star Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, with whom he often performed on screen. St. John was employed by Mack Sennett and also worked with many other leading players such as Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton and Mabel Normand. His film career successfully transitioned from the silent era into sound, and by the late 1930s and 1940s he was working predominantly in Westerns, often portraying the scruffy comedy-relief character "Fuzzy Q. Jones". Among his notable performances in that role are in the "Billy the Kid" series of films released by the Producers Releasing Corporation from 1940 to 1946 and in that company's "Lone Rider" series from 1941 to 1943.
Sam Bernard was an English-born American vaudeville comedian who also performed in musical theatre, comic opera and burlesque and appeared in a few silent films.
These are the films of the American silent film actor, comedian, director, and screenwriter Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle. Films marked with a diamond (♦) were directed by and featured Arbuckle. He used the name William Goodrich on the films he directed from 1924 onward.
The Round-Up is a 1920 American silent Western film starring Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle and featuring Wallace Beery. The movie was written by Edmund Day and Tom Forman, directed by George Melford, and based on Day's play that was a huge hit for Roscoe Arbuckle's older cousin Macklyn Arbuckle and Julia Dean on the Broadway stage in 1907. It was Macklyn in the play who created the famous phrase used in advertisements of the film, nobody loves a fat man.
Araminta Estelle "Minta" Durfee was an American silent film actress from Los Angeles, California, possibly best known for her role in Mickey (1918).
Fatty's Reckless Fling is a 1915 American short comedy film directed by and starring Fatty Arbuckle.
Brewster's Millions is a lost 1921 American comedy film starring Fatty Arbuckle. It is an adaptation of the 1902 novel written by George Barr McCutcheon as well as the 1906 Broadway smash hit play of the same name starring Edward Abeles.
The Dollar-a-Year Man is a 1921 American comedy film starring Fatty Arbuckle. It is not known whether the film currently survives, which suggests that it is a lost film.
George C. Pearce was an American stage and film actor, primarily of the silent era. He appeared in more than 130 films between 1914 and 1939. He was born in New York, New York, and died in Los Angeles, California. He was also known as George C. Pierce.
Betty Ross Clarke was an American stage and film actress. She appeared in more than 30 films between 1920 and 1940, including silent and sound films, in both credited and uncredited roles.
Hamlet is a 1913 British silent drama film directed by Hay Plumb and starring Johnston Forbes-Robertson, Gertrude Elliott and Walter Ringham. It is an adaptation of the play Hamlet by William Shakespeare made by the Hepworth Company and based on the Drury Lane Theatre's 1913 staging of the work.
Truly Shattuck was a soubrette star of vaudeville, music halls, and Broadway whose career began in tragedy and ended in relative obscurity.
The Traveling Salesman is a 1916 American silent comedy film directed by Joseph Kaufman, written by James Forbes, and starring Frank McIntyre, Doris Kenyon, Harry Northrup, Russell Bassett, Julia Stuart, and Harry Blakemore. It was released on December 17, 1916, by Paramount Pictures.
Louis Anger was an American vaudeville performer and movie studio executive. During the early days of the American silent film industry, Anger was considered to be "the king of slapstick comedy producers," and was instrumental in developing the film careers of famed actors Fatty Arbuckle and Buster Keaton.
