Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Email
Answers.com

Max Davidson

 
Actor: Max Davidson
Home > Library > Entertainment & Arts > Actors
  • Born: 1874 in Berlin, Germany
  • Died: Sep 04, 1950 in Woodland Hills, California
  • Occupation: Actor
  • Active: '20s-'40s
  • Major Genres: Drama, Comedy
  • Career Highlights: Hotel Imperial, Call of the Cuckoo, Pleasure Before Business
  • First Major Screen Credit: Second Hand Rose (1922)

Biography

A veteran of vaudeville and the legitimate stage, Berlin-born Max Davidson was well past forty when he made his first film appearance. A small man with hunched shoulders and an scraggly beard, Davidson specialized in playing stereotypical Jewish characters: pushcart peddlers, pawnbrokers, shopkeepers, ragmen and the like. He signed with the Hal Roach comedy studio in 1925, at first appearing in support of Charley Chase. Under the supervision of Leo McCarey, Davidson was given his own starring series, resulting in such 2-reel laughspinners as Dumb Daddies (1926), Jewish Prudence (1927), Call of the Cuckoo (1927) and Pass the Gravy (1928). Hal Roach discontinued Davidson's series late in 1928 because of complaints from Jewish filmgoers; even so, the comedian made periodic returns to the Roach lot as a supporting actor in such films as Our Gang's Moan and Groan Inc. (1929) and Charley Chase's Southern Exposure (1935). Elsewhere, Davidson spent the remainder of his career in brief bits, a casualty of the Hays Office's determination to purge the movies of potentially offensive ethnic humor. As in the 1920s, Max Davidson landed his most noticeable roles in short subjects, ranging from his hilarious cameo as a court musician in the 1931 Masquers Club production Oh Oh Cleopatra to his apoplectic appearance as a shopkeeper in the Three Stooges' No Census, No Feeling (1940). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Search unanswered questions...

Enter a question here...
Search: All sources Community Q&A Reference topics

Wikipedia: Max Davidson
Top
Home > Library > Miscellaneous > Wikipedia
Max Davidson
Born May 23, 1875(1875-05-23)
Berlin, Germany
Died September 4, 1950 (aged 75)
Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California
Occupation Actor
Years active 1912-1945
Spouse(s) Alice Marti (1927 - ?)

Max Davidson (May 23, 1875 - September 4, 1950) was a German film actor known for his comedic Jewish persona during the silent film era.[1] With a career spanning over thirty years, Davidson appeared in over 180 films.

Contents

Career

Born in Berlin, Germany, Davidson emigrated to the United States in the 1890s where he began working in stock theater and vaudeville. He entered silent movies in 1912. By the mid-teens, Davidson had appeared in his first feature film, Edward Dillon's Don Quixote (1915), followed by D.W. Griffith's Intolerance, and Tod Browning's Puppets (both 1916). In the 1920s, he began working for Hal Roach, appearing in numerous two-reeler comedies including Call of the Cuckoo with Charley Chase, Pass the Gravy and Get 'Em Young with Stan Laurel, Why Girls Say No and Love 'Em and Feed 'Em with Oliver Hardy, and The Extra Girl with Mabel Normand. He also portrayed the crazy old man who haunts a house in the Our Gang short Moan and Groan, Inc. (1929), and starred alongside a young Jackie Coogan in a pair of silent features, The Rag Man (1923) and Old Clothes (1925).[2]

Davidson made the transition to sound film, but ended his career by playing mostly uncredited roles. He made his final screen appearance in the 1945 Clark Gable film Adventure. Davidson died on September 4, 1950 in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California.

Selected filmography

Year Title Role Notes
1913 Scenting a Terrible Crime The Superintendent
1914 An Interrupted Séance Landlord
1915 Caught by the Handle Mr. Riche
1916 Sunshine Dad Mystic Seer
1917 A Daughter of the Poor Joe Eastman Alternative titles: The Heart of the Poor
The Spitfire
1918 The Hun Within Max
1919 The Mother and the Law The Kindly Neighbor
1921 No Woman Knows Ferdinand Brandeis
1922 Second Hand Rose Abe Rosenstein
1923 The Darling of New York Solomon Levinsky
1924 Hold Your Breath Street Merchant
1925 Justice of the Far North Izzy Hawkins
1926 Raggedy Rose Moe Ginsberg
1927 Pleasure Before Business Sam Weinberg
1927 Jewish Prudence Papa Gimplewart
1928 Feed 'em and Weep Max, restaurant manager
1929 So This Is College Moe Levine, the tailor
1930 The Shrimp Professor Schoenheimer
1931 Oh! Oh! Cleopatra Royal musician
1932 Docks of San Francisco Max, Detective
1933 The Cohens and Kellys in Trouble Larsen Uncredited
1934 Straight Is the Way Old clothes man Uncredited
1935 Metropolitan Tailor Uncredited
1936 Roamin' Wild Abe Wineman
1937 The Girl Said No Max Alternative title: With Words and Music
1939 The Great Commandment Old man
1940 Kitty Foyle: The Natural History of a Woman Flower man Uncredited
1942 Reap the Wild Wind Juror Uncredited
1945 Adventure Man in library Uncredited

References

  1. ^ Erens, Patricia (1988). The Jew in American Cinema. Indiana University Press. pp. 92–93. ISBN 0-253-20493-3. 
  2. ^ McCaffrey, Donald W.; Jacobs, Christopher P. (1999). Guide to the Silent Years of American Cinema. Greenwood Publishing Group. pp. 102. ISBN 0-313-30345-2. 

External links



Stub icon This article about a German actor or actress is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

 
 

 

Copyrights:

Actor. Copyright © 2009 All Media Guide, LLC. All rights reserved.  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Max Davidson".  Read more