Chester Conklin Pics

Chester

Conklin

Oskaloosa, Iowa

Capricorn

11 October 1971

Van Nuys, California

White

Keystone Cops

Male

American

11/01/1886

Average

Natural Causes

Chester Cooper Conklin (January 11, 1886 – October 11, 1971) was an American comedian and actor. He appeared in over 280 films, about half of them in the silent era.

Chester Cooper Conklin was an American comedian and actor. He appeared in over 280 films, about half of them in the silent era. Born in Oskaloosa, Iowa, Conklin was one of three children who 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, minstrel shows, as well as clown work with a travelling circus. After seeing several Mack Sennett comedies while in Venice, California during the 1913 winter break, the twenty-seven-year-old Conklin went to Keystone Studios, applied for a job and was hired as a Keystone Kop with a salary of $3 a day. Sennett directed him in his first film, a comedy short titled Hubby`s Job. 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 different films. Conklin`s career hit bottom in the 1950s, and he took work as a department-store Santa Claus to make ends meet. n 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, his fourth marriage and her fourth, and set up housekeeping in Van Nuys, California; the groom was seventy-nine and the bride sixty-five. Conklin made one last film after that, a Western comedy, A Big Hand for the Little Lady, released in 1966. Chester Conklin died in 1971 at his home in Van Nuys, at the age of 85. He was cremated and his ashes were given to his family.

Chester Cooper Conklin

Who's Who in Comedy [1992] (Ronald L. Smith)

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