Slim Summerville

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Slim Summerville (actually George Joseph Somerville ; born July 10, 1892 in Albuquerque , New Mexico , USA , † January 5, 1946 in Laguna Beach , California ) was an American actor, comedian and director. During the silent film era , he was seen in numerous short film comedies and was able to continue his career in sound films as a character actor.

Life

Slim Summerville (on horseback) with Polly Moran and Ben Turpin on a lobby card for the film Roping Her Romeo (1917)

George "Slim" Summerville's mother died when he was five years old. The constant traveling of the family from New Mexico via Canada to Oklahoma enabled him only marginal schooling. As a teenager he ran away from home and got by with various jobs. At the age of 18 he moved to Los Angeles , where he was working in a pool hall, when he was picked up by Edgar Kennedy .

Kennedy recognized Summerville's comic potential and brought him to Mack Sennett and his newly founded Keystone Studios . In 1912, Summerville began his film career there as a keystone cop and gradually rose from extras (alongside Charlie Chaplin , Mabel Normand , Fatty Arbuckle, etc.) to leading actor. With his slim, lanky figure, the (then) striking height of 1.89 m and his face dominated by a big nose and sad little eyes, he was naturally funny. In 1918 he said goodbye to Sennett and then worked mostly for Fox and Universal . There Summerville also directed over 60 short film productions in the 1920s , the stars of which were himself, Clyde Cook and Arthur Lake (who later became Dagwood in the Blondie film series).

From 1927 onwards, Summerville was increasingly used as a comedian in feature films and, in contrast to other silent film comedians, the transition to sound films did not cause him any problems. From the early 1930s he formed an excellent comic duo with ZaSu Pitts in several films . The comedian was also able to convince in serious genres as a character actor, for example as soldier Tjaden in the anti-war film classic Im West Nothing New (1930) and the sequel The Road Back (1937), both based on works by Erich Maria Remarque . His specialty remained the role of " comic relief ", for example in the western Jesse James, Man Without a Law (1939). In Charlie Chan in Reno (1939), as an incompetent but all the more convinced sheriff, he was one of the most memorable opponents of the oriental detective that gave the title the title. In total, he played in around 215 films until the year of his death.

Summerville was married twice, from 1927 to 1936 to Gertrude M. Roell and from 1937 to his death to Eleanor Brown. He had adopted his son Elliott George in 1932 with his first wife. Summerville died at the age of 53 after two strokes. He has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (6409 Hollywood Boulevard).

Filmography (selection)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Paul Harrison: Sad-Looking Slim Summerville Never Hoped To Be Funny - Just Can't Help It . In: The Pittsburgh Press , July 13, 1936. Retrieved February 8, 2012. 
  2. ↑ a b Stroke Fatal to Movie Star - "Slim" Summerville Dies Suddenly . In: Warsaw Daily Union , January 7, 1946. Retrieved February 8, 2012. 
  3. ↑ Slim Summerville of Movies Adopts Baby . In: Associated Press , February 6, 1932. Retrieved February 9, 2012. 
personal data
SURNAME Summerville, Slim
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Somerville, George Joseph (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American actor and comedian
DATE OF BIRTH July 10, 1892
PLACE OF BIRTH Albuquerque , New Mexico , USA
DATE OF DEATH January 5, 1946
Place of death Laguna Beach , California , USA