Albert Austin (actor)
Albert Austin (born December 13, 1882 in Birmingham , England , † August 17, 1953 in North Hollywood , California ) was a British - American actor, director, writer and comedian. He gained importance in particular through his collaboration with Charlie Chaplin .
Life
Albert Austin was born in Birmingham, England, and his brother William Austin also later worked as an actor. The family was wealthy and the father owned a sugar plantation in British Guiana , where they also lived temporarily. After Austin began his career as an actor and comedian in the vaudeville theater , he moved to the United States in 1910 with Fred Karno's drama company. The then unknown Charlie Chaplin also belonged to this drama troupe . When Chaplin had become famous, he brought his old colleague Austin to his films in 1916. Austin played in numerous Chaplin films as a supporting actor in the following years, often as an easily excitable or staid opponent to Chaplin's tramp. One of the hallmarks of Austin's characters in many films was the oversized mustache. He also supported Chaplin as an assistant director and as a gag writer.
Outside of Chaplin productions, Austin made few films as an actor, the best known being his mustache-free appearance as a male lead alongside Mary Pickford in the 1920s film Suds. In the 1920s, Austin increasingly withdrew from the acting business , but he continued to have short appearances in Chaplin's feature films. Instead, Austin worked as a director on around 20 films and as a screenwriter on around ten films.
However, Austin's success waned with the beginning of talkies in the late 1920s and he finally withdrew completely from the film business, but remained connected to it: In later years he worked as a security guard on the Warner Brothers studio premises . He died in 1953 at the age of 70.
Filmography
- 1916: The store supervisor (The Floor Walker)
- 1916: The firefighter (The Fireman)
- 1916: The Tramp (The Vagabond)
- 1916: One o'clock at night (One AM)
- 1916: The Count (The Count)
- 1916: The Pawn Shop (The Pawnshop)
- 1916: Behind the screen (behind the screen)
- 1916: The Rink (The Rink)
- 1917: Easy Street (Easy Street)
- 1917: The Cure (The Cure)
- 1917: The Immigrant (The Immigrant)
- 1917: The Adventurer (The Adventurer)
- 1918: How to Make Movies
- 1918: A Dog's Life (A Dog's Life)
- 1918: Triple Trouble
- 1918: The bond (The Bond)
- 1918: rifle over (shoulder arms)
- 1919: On the sunny side (Sunnyside)
- 1919: The Professor
- 1920: Suds
- 1921: The Vagabond and the Child (The Kid)
- 1922: Payday (Pay Day)
- 1923: A Prince of a King
- 1925: Gold Rush (The Gold Rush)
- 1928: The Circus (The Circus)
- 1931: City Lights (City Lights)
Wikipedia
- Albert Austin in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Individual evidence
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Austin, Albert |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | British-American actor, director, writer and comedian |
| DATE OF BIRTH | December 13, 1882 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Birmingham , England |
| DATE OF DEATH | 17th August 1953 |
| Place of death | North Hollywood , California |