1. 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.
14 Facts About Chester Conklin
1. 2.
Chester Conklin appeared in a series of films with Mabel Normand and worked closely with Charlie Chaplin, both in silent and sound films.
3.
In St Louis, Missouri, he saw a performance by the vaudeville team of Joe Weber and Lew Fields, which prompted Chester Conklin to develop a character based on his boss at the time, a man with a thick accent and a bushy walrus moustache.
4.
Chester Conklin performed as a clown with the Al G Barnes Wild Animal Show.
5.
In 1914, Chester 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.
6.
Chester Conklin would go on to make more than a dozen films with Chaplin while at Keystone and the two became lifelong friends.
7.
Years later, Chester Conklin would perform with Chaplin in two feature-length films: Modern Times in 1936, and in 1940's The Great Dictator.
8.
In 1920, when Sennett refused to discuss a contract renewal with Chester Conklin and insisted on referring him to an underling, Chester Conklin quit and went to Fox Film Corporation, which had earlier approached him about doing a series of comedy shorts.
9.
Chester Conklin appeared in films that appealed to nostalgia for the silent era, such as Hollywood Cavalcade and The Perils of Pauline.
10.
Chester 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.
11.
Chester Conklin's career hit bottom in the 1950s, and he took work as a department-store Santa Claus to make ends meet.
12.
Chester Conklin married Margherita Rouse on May 5,1934, in Hollywood.
13.
On June 17,1965, Chester Conklin married former actress June Gunther in Las Vegas.
14.
Chester Conklin died in California on October 11,1971, at the age of 85.