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Mack Swain

 
Actor: Mack Swain
Home > Library > Entertainment & Arts > Actors
  • Born: Feb 16, 1876 in Salt Lake City, Utah
  • Died: Aug 25, 1935 in Tacoma, Washington
  • Occupation: Actor
  • Active: teens-'30s
  • Major Genres: Comedy
  • Career Highlights: The Gold Rush, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Tillie's Punctured Romance
  • First Major Screen Credit: Tillie's Punctured Romance (1914)

Biography

After 22 years of experience with minstrel shows, vaudeville, and legitimate theater, in 1913 he joined Mack Sennett's Keystone comedies. Standing 6'2" and weighing 280 pounds, he was skilled in knockabout, slapstick comedy; he supported Charlie Chaplin in many of the latter's earliest shorts. In late 1914 he began starring in his own comedy series, portraying Ambrose, an energetic, lecherous lout with a huge mustache and thick makeup. In the late teens his career started drying up, and he might have become a has-been if not for Charlie Chaplin, who rescued his career; he played supporting roles in many of Chaplin's films, including his features. He was especially memorable in The Gold Rush (1925) as the starving prospector who imagines Chaplin to be a chicken dinner. He went on to play character parts and occasional leads through the early '30s. ~ All Movie Guide
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Wikipedia: Mack Swain
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Mack Swain
Born February 16, 1876(1876-02-16)
Salt Lake City, Utah, USA
Died August 25, 1935 (aged 59)
Tacoma, Washington, USA
Occupation Actor, vaudevillian
Spouse(s) Cora Claire King (1880-?)

Mack Swain (February 16, 1876 - August 25, 1935) was an American actor and vaudevillian, prolific throughout the 1910s, 1920s and 1930s.

Born Moroni Swain to Robert Henry Swain and Mary Ingeborg Jensen in Salt Lake City, Utah, he worked in vaudeville before starting in silent film at Keystone Studios under Mack Sennett. While with Keystone, he was teamed up with Chester Conklin to make a series of comedy films. 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. Besides these "Ambrose & Walrus" comedies, the two appeared together in a variety of other films, twenty-six all told.

In 1921, Swain began working with Charlie Chaplin at First National, appearing in "The Idle Class", "Pay Day" and "The Pilgrim".

Swain is also remembered for his role as Big Jim McKay in the 1925 film The Gold Rush, written by and starring Charlie Chaplin.

Mack Swain died in Tacoma, Washington in 1935. For his contribution to the motion picture industry, Mack Swain has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1500 Vine Street.

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