Mack Sennett
Holy Cross Cemetery
Mack Sennett was born and
raised in Canada, the son of working-class Irish immigrants, with dreams of
becoming an opera singer, but he became the silent screen's undisputed King of Comedy.
Sennett's family moved to the East Coast when Sennett was a
teen-ager, and he decided to try his luck on the stage, where he found work
as a burlesque performer and Broadway chorus boy. Looking for more regular
employment, Sennett went to Biograph studios in 1908, and began acting in
films under the direction of D.W. Griffith, and co-starring with Florence
Lawrence, Lionel Barrymore, Mary Pickford and Mabel Normand. By 1910,
Sennett was also directing.
In 1912, Sennett left Biograph and formed his own studio --
Keystone -- and began to specialize in slapstick comedies. The Keystone
roster soon included comedy stars Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, Edgar Kennedy,
Slim Summerville, Chester Conklin, Charlie Chase, Mack Swain and Normand,
who left Biograph to work with Sennett. Wallace Beery and Gloria Swanson
also got their starts working for Sennett at Keystone. In 1914, a British
dancehall comedian named Charlie Chaplin came the United States and was
signed by Keystone. Chaplin appeared in 35 comedies at the studio during
1914, most of them directed by Sennett.
The typical Keystone comedy featured a thin plot and a
quick succession of visual gags and often-improvised physical comedy. Sennett
was also a master at taking advantage of any real-life situation that might
happen to occur, such as a parade, a fire or the draining of a lake, and
using it as the backdrop for one of his comedies. In his first year in
business, Sennett produced 140 films, many of them featuring his famous
Keystone Kops.
In 1915, Keystone became part of the newly formed Triangle
Film Corporation. Two years later, Sennett left to again form his own
company, Mack Sennett Comedies, working first for Paramount studios. Sennett
continued to produce two-reel comedies, with an occasional feature-length
film. The end of the silent era in the late 1920s also marked the end of
Sennett's reign as King of Comedy, with Hal Roach replacing him. Sennett
retired in 1935, moving to a farm in Canada, virtually penniless. He
returned to Hollywood in 1937 to accept an honorary Academy Award, "for
his lasting contribution to the comedy technique of the screen, the basic
principles of which are as important today as when they were first put into
practice, the Academy presents a special award to that master of fun,
discoverer of stars, sympathetic, kindly, understanding comedy genius, Mack Sennett."
Sennett was portrayed by Robert Preston in the Broadway
musical, "Mack and Mabel," in the mid-1970s, and by Dan Aykroyd in "Chaplin" (1992).
Sennett's grave marker identifies him as the "Beloved King of Comedy."
Sennett was born Mikall Sinnott on Jan. 17, 1880, in Richmond,
Canada. He died on Nov. 5, 1960, in Woodland Hills, CA.
1880 - 1960
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