Roscoe Arbuckle
Acting
Born 1887-03-22
Died 1933-06-29
Smith Center, Kansas, USA
244 credits
Read biography
Roscoe Arbuckle (March 24, 1887 - June 29, 1933), widely known to audiences as “Fatty” Arbuckle, was an American silent film actor, comedian, 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 at the time.
In one of the earliest Hollywood scandals, Arbuckle was the defendant in three widely publicized trials between November 1921 and April 1922 for the rape and manslaughter of actress Virginia Rappe. Rappe had fallen ill at a party hosted by Arbuckle at San Francisco's St. Francis Hotel in September 1921, and died four days later. A friend of Rappe accused Arbuckle of raping and accidentally killing her. The first two trials resulted in hung juries, but the third acquitted Arbuckle. The third jury took the unusual step of giving Arbuckle a written statement of apology for his treatment by the justice system. Despite Arbuckle's acquittal, the scandal largely halted his career and has mostly overshadowed his legacy as a pioneering comedian.
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Filmography
— top 60 of 244
Acting
38 credits
The Chaplin Puzzle
A Desert Hero
Peeping Pete
Wine
The Sanitarium
Bright Lights
Hollywood Scandals and Tragedies
Good Night, Nurse!
Go West
The First 100 Years: A Celebration of American Movies
Love
Gasoline Gus
Listen Lena
Charlie Chaplin, The Genius of Liberty
The Masquerader
Character Studies
The Rounders
Oh, Doctor!
A Brave Engineer: Buster Keaton's Last Ride
The Butcher Boy
A Glimpse of the San Diego Exposition
Those Country Kids
The Knockout
Why Be Good?: Sexuality & Censorship in Early Cinema
Hollywood
His New Profession
The Parrott Chase
His Sister's Kids
Fatty’s Plucky Pup
A Film Johnnie
Tango Tangles
Tomalio
Mabel and Fatty's Wash Day
The Round-Up
Love and Rubbish
The Hayseed
The Cook
Making a Living
Directing
30 credits
A Desert Hero
The Alarm
Marriage Rows
The Movies
Bright Lights
Peaceful Oscar
Good Night, Nurse!
Hollywood Luck
Lovemania
Love
Idle Roomers
Bridge Wives
Special Delivery
Character Studies
Home Cured
Oh, Doctor!
The Tourist
The Butcher Boy
Smart Work
Those Country Kids
No Loafing
Keep Laughing
Curses
Fatty’s Plucky Pup
Dynamite Doggie
Cleaning Up
The Red Mill
Queenie of Hollywood
Mabel and Fatty's Wash Day
The Hayseed
Writing
6 credits
Other credits
3 credits
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