Chester Conklin
Chester Cooper Conklin was an early American film comedian who started at Keystone Studios as one of Mack Sennett's Keystone Cops, often paired with Mack Swain. He appeared in a series of films with Mabel Normand and worked closely with Charlie Chaplin, both in silent and sound films.
Early life
Conklin was born in Oskaloosa, Iowa. One of three children, he grew up in a violent household. When he was eight, his mother was found burned to death in the family garden. Although first judged a suicide, his father, a devoutly religious man who hoped his son would be a minister, was eventually charged with murder, but found not guilty at trial.
Conklin won first prize when he gave a recitation at a community festival. A few years later, he ran away from home after vowing to a friend he would never return, a promise he kept. Heading to Des Moines he found employment as a hotel bellhop, but then moved to Omaha, Nebraska, where his interest in theatre led to a career in comedic acting. In St. Louis, Missouri, he saw a performance by the vaudeville team of Joe Weber and Lew Fields, which prompted Conklin to develop a character based on his boss at the time, a man with a thick accent and a bushy walrus moustache. With this character, Conklin broke into vaudeville, and spent several years touring with various stock companies, doing vaudeville shows and minstrel shows. He also performed as a clown with the Al G. Barnes Wild Animal Show.
Career
After seeing several Mack Sennett comedies while in Venice, California during the 1913 winter break, the 27-year-old Conklin went to Keystone Studios, applied for a job and was hired as a Keystone Cop with a salary of $3 a day. Sennett directed him in his first film, a comedy short titled Hubby's Job.
In 1914, Conklin co-starred with Mabel Normand in a series of films: Mabel's Strange Predicament, Mabel's New Job, Mabel's Busy Day and Mabel at the Wheel. In that same year he appeared in Making a Living, in which Charlie Chaplin made his film debut. He would go on to make more than a dozen films with Chaplin while at Keystone and the two became lifelong friends. Years later, Conklin would perform with Chaplin in two feature-length films: Modern Times in 1936, and in 1940's The Great Dictator. During this time, Chaplin kept Conklin on year-round salary.
While at Keystone, Conklin became most famous when he was teamed up with the robust comic Mack Swain to make a series of comedies. With Swain as "Ambrose" and Conklin as the grand mustachioed "Walrus", they performed these roles in several films including The Battle of Ambrose and Walrus and Love, Speed and Thrills, both made in 1915. Beyond these "Ambrose & Walrus" comedies, the two appeared together in twenty-six films.
In 1920, when Sennett refused to discuss a contract renewal with Conklin and insisted on referring him to an underling, Conklin quit and went to Fox Film Corporation, which had earlier approached him about doing a series of comedy shorts. He also worked at the Famous Players–Lasky Corporation studio. In between, he had a significant role as ZaSu Pitts' father in director Erich von Stroheim's acclaimed 1924 MGM production, Greed, although the part was cut from the film and the footage is now lost, and in 1928 in the Christie Film Company version of Tillie's Punctured Romance with W.C. Fields, which had nothing to do with the 1914 Chaplin version aside from the title. Paramount Pictures teamed up Conklin and Fields for a series of comic films between 1927 and 1931.
Conklin made the transition to talkies and, although he would continue to act for another thirty years, age and the shift in moviegoing tastes to more sophisticated comedy saw his roles limited to secondary or smaller parts in shorts, including the Three Stooges shorts Flat Foot Stooges, Dutiful But Dumb, Three Little Twirps, Phony Express, and Micro-Phonies. Conklin also appeared in films that appealed to nostalgia for the silent era, such as Hollywood Cavalcade and The Perils of Pauline. In Soundies musicals, he appeared with other silent-comedy alumni as The Keystone Kops, as well as on the televised This Is Your Life tribute to Mack Sennett. Conklin was part of Preston Sturges' unofficial "stock company" of character actors in the 1940s, appearing in cameo parts in six films written by Sturges.
In 1957, he was a guest challenger on the TV panel show To Tell The Truth, dressed in his Keystone Kops uniform.
Decline
Conklin's career hit bottom in the 1950s, and he took work as a department-store Santa Claus to make ends meet. In the 1960s, Conklin was living at the Motion Picture Country Home and Hospital when he fell in love with another patient there, June Gunther. The two got married in Las Vegas in 1965, the fourth marriage for both, they set up housekeeping in Van Nuys, California; the groom was seventy-nine and the bride sixty-five. Conklin's final film appearance was in the Western comedy A Big Hand for the Little Lady, released in 1966.
Personal life
On April 12, 1933, Conklin was divorced from Minnie V. Conklin after a marriage of 18 years and nine months. He married Margherita Rouse on May 5, 1934, in Hollywood. She died on May 14, 1937. On June 17, 1965, Conklin married former actress June Gunther in Las Vegas.
Conklin died in California on October 11, 1971, at the age of 85.
Legacy
For his contribution to the motion picture industry, Conklin has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1560 Vine Street.
Selected filmography
Making a Living – Policeman / Bum Mabel's Strange Predicament – HusbandMabel at the Wheel – Mabel's FatherCaught in a Cabaret – Waiter / Footman The Masquerader – Film ActorTillie's Punctured Romance – Mr. Whoozis / Singing Waiter A Bird's A Bird – HusbandThe Love Thief – Minor RoleCactus Nell – ?Uncle Tom's Cabin Yankee Doodle in Berlin – Officer of Death's Head HussarsSkirts Tea: With a Kick! – Jiggs – Taxi DriverDesire – Oland YoungAnna Christie – TommyNorth of Nevada – Lem WilliamsThe Galloping Fish – JonahThe Fire Patrol – FiremanAnother Man's Wife – RumrunnerGreed – 'Popper' SieppeBattling Bunyan – A StrangerOne Year to Live – FroquinThe Wizard of Oz – Minor Role The Phantom of the Opera – Orderly My Neighbor's Wife – CameramanUnder the Rouge – Mr. FleckWhere Was I? – ElmerThe Winding Stair – OneryThe Great Jewel Robbery – Cootie JoeThe Masked Bride – Wine WaiterA Woman of the World – Sam PooreThe Pleasure Buyers – BurkeThe Great Love – PerkinsBehind the Front – ScottieFascinating Youth – HimselfA Social Celebrity – Johann HaberThe Wilderness Woman – 'Kodiak' MacLeanSay It Again – Prince Otto VThe Duchess of Buffalo – Hotel ManagerThe Nervous Wreck – MortMidnight Lovers – MoriarityThe Lady of the Harem – AliWe're in the Navy Now – Navy Capt. SmithersMcFadden's Flats – Jock McTavishA Kiss in a Taxi – MaravalCabaret – Jerry TraskRubber Heels – Tennyson HawksTell It to Sweeney – Luke BeamishTwo Flaming Youths – Sheriff Ben HoldenGentlemen Prefer Blondes – JudgeTillie's Punctured Romance – Circus OwnerThe Big Noise – John SlovalFools for Luck – Samuel HunterBeau Broadway Varsity – Pop ConlanThe Haunted House – Mr. RackhamTaxi 13 – Angus MactavishMarquis Preferred – Mr. GrugerSunset Pass – WindyHouse of Horror – ChesterThe Studio Murder Mystery – George Stairs of Sand – TimFast Company – Chamber of Commerce PresidentThe Virginian – Uncle "Pa" HugheyThe Show of Shows – Traffic Cop in 'Bicycle Built for Two' NumberSwing High – SheriffThe Love Trader – NelsonThe Master Sweeper Her Majesty, Love – EmilHallelujah, I'm a Bum – SundayThe Big Broadcast of 1936 – Sewer Worker Modern Times – MechanicThe Preview Murder Mystery – ComedianCall of the Prairie – Sheriff Sandy McQueenHotel Haywire – O'Shea Forlorn River – Sheriff Alec GrundyEvery Day's a Holiday – CabbyZenobia – Farmer The Spellbinder – Courtroom Extra Hollywood Cavalcade – SheriffMr. Smith Goes to Washington – Man in Press Section of Senate Gallery Chip of the Flying U – Joe Henry Goes Arizona – Bus Driver The Great Dictator – Barber's CustomerLi'l Abner – Mayor GurgleSweetheart of the Campus – The Prisoner-Vagrant Here Comes Mr. Jordan – Newsboy Harmon of Michigan – Gasoline ChuckOne Foot in Heaven – Man Crying During Baptism Jesse James at Bay – Town Drunk Sullivan's Travels – Old Bum Honolulu Lu – Joe – Keystone Kop Valley of the Sun – Soldier at Hitching Rail The Remarkable Andrew – Shopkeeper Romance on the Range – Lynch Mob Member In Old California – Town Drunk Sons of the Pioneers – Old-TimerThe Palm Beach Story – Sixth Member Ale and Quail ClubI Married a Witch – Party Bartender Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch – Drunk X Marks the Spot – Vagrant Hangmen Also Die! – Cook Sagebrush Law – Horse Owner The Avenging Rider – Town Drunk Riders of the Rio Grande – Barfly So This Is Washington – Inventor with Pocket Machine Gun Sweet Rosie O'Grady – Customer at Flugelman's My Kingdom for a Cook – Taxicab Driver Around the World – Waiter The Miracle of Morgan's Creek – Pete Knickerbocker Holiday – Town Trumpeter The Adventures of Mark Twain – Frog-Jumping Contest Judge Man from Frisco – Baggage Man Goodnight, Sweetheart – Bottle ManThe Yellow Rose of Texas – Drunken Gambler A Fig Leaf for Eve – WaiterThe Great Moment – Frightened Patient Hail the Conquering Hero – Western Union Man Something for the Boys – Minor Role Sunday Dinner for a Soldier – Photographer Can't Help Singing – Poker Player Betrayal from the East – A Guy, a Gal and a Pal – Station Owner Brewster's Millions – Stage Doorman Having Wonderful Crime – Motel Proprietor The Great John L. – Haggerty Road to Utopia – Amateur Contestant Banjo Player Little Giant – Hotel Valet Smooth as Silk – Doorman Fear – Railroad Switchman The Hoodlum Saint – Cop Two Sisters from Boston – Street Cleaner She Wrote the Book – Man at Bar Singin' in the Corn – Austin DriverSong of Scheherazade – Sailor Song of the Wasteland – The JailerThe Trouble with Women – Comedian The Perils of Pauline – Comic ChefSpringtime in the Sierras – Old-TimerJesse James Rides Again – Roy The Son of Rusty – Bakery Clerk Merton of the Movies – Keystone Kop My Wild Irish Rose – Man Escorted Out of Theatre by Police The Wreck of the Hesperus – Hostler Isn't It Romantic? – Townsman One Sunday Afternoon – Clerk Knock on Any Door – Barber Tulsa – Gambling Casino Patron The Beautiful Blonde from Bashful Bend – Messenger BoyBrimstone – Drunk Jiggs and Maggie in Jackpot Jitters – Jiggs' Friend My Friend Irma – Gypsy Tea Room Waiter The Golden Stallion – Old ManThe Good Humor Man – Bush-Cutting Gardener Joe Palooka in Humphrey Takes a Chance – PrenticeFancy Pants – Guest Never a Dull Moment – Albert Shakedown – Chet Right Cross – Haggerty's Waiter The Milkman – Man Let's Dance – Watchman My Favorite Spy – Short Comic Son of Paleface – 2nd Bartender Doc Corkle Private Hell 36 – Murdered Man in Elevator The Beast with a Million Eyes – Ben WebberApache Woman – Dick MooneyRock-A-Bye Baby – Bit Role Paradise Alley – Mr. GregoryA Big Hand for the Little Lady – Old Man in Saloon