Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Email
Answers.com

Minta Durfee

 
Actor: Minta Durfee
  • Born: 1897 in Los Angeles, California
  • Died: 1975
  • Occupation: Actor
  • Active: teens
  • Major Genres: Comedy
  • Career Highlights: Cruel, Cruel Love, Mickey, The Knockout
  • First Major Screen Credit: The Knockout (1914)

Biography

Minta Durfee was a popular silent comedian who appeared in some of Chaplin's early films. She also appeared in films of her husband Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, whom she married in 1908 and who helped launch her career in 1913 when she began working at Keystone Studios. Durfee and Arbuckle separated in 1918 and she left films. By 1925, they divorced and she did not return full time to films. She did however, occasionally make cameo appearances or play bit parts through the mid-1960s. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
Search unanswered questions...
Enter a question here...
Search: All sources Community Q&A Reference topics
Wikipedia: Minta Durfee
Top
Minta Durfee
Born Araminta Estelle Durfee
October 1, 1889(1889-10-01)
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Died September 9, 1975 (aged 85)
Woodland Hills, California, U.S.
Other name(s) Minta Durfee Arbuckle
Occupation Actress
Years active 1913–1971
Spouse(s) Roscoe Arbuckle (1908-1925)

Araminta Estelle "Minta" Durfee (October 1, 1889 – September 9, 1975) was a silent film actress from Los Angeles, California, possibly best known for her role in Mickey (1918).

Contents

Biography

She met Roscoe Arbuckle when he was attempting to get started in theater and the two married in August 1908. Durfee entered show business in local companies as a chorus girl at the age of seventeen. She was the first leading lady of Charlie Chaplin.

Durfee and Arbuckle separated in 1921. This was just prior to a scandal involving the death of starlet Virginia Rappe. There were three trials and finally Arbuckle was acquitted. His career was destroyed and he received few job offers. Durfee and Arbuckle were divorced in 1925. Durfee was quoted in her later years, saying Arbuckle was the most generous human being I've ever met, and if I had to do it all over again, I'd still marry the same man.[1]

Durfee was an avid defender of Mabel Normand who was a close friend of hers. She spoke fondly of her until her own death.[1]

Durfee was a regular performer on television, appearing on such shows as Noah's Ark (1956). She had minor roles in motion pictures like How Green Was My Valley (1941), Naughty Marietta (1935), Rose- Marie (1936), The Unsinkable Molly Brown (1964), and It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963).

In her later life Durfee began to give lectures on silent film and hold retrospectives on her and her husband's pictures. She was surprised and excited by the renewed interest in silent film and did her best to help where she could.[1]

Minta Durfee died in Woodland Hills, California at the Motion Picture Country Home in 1975. She suffered from a heart ailment.[2][3]

Selected filmography

References

  1. ^ a b c Excerpts of Interview with Minta Durfee Arbuckle by Don Schneider and Stephen Normand
  2. ^ "Minta Durfee, Actress, 85, Dies; Former Wife of Fatty Arbuckle". New York Times. September 12, 1975. http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=FB0C11FA3D5B157493C0A81782D85F418785F9. Retrieved 2008-07-03. "Minta Durfee, the actress who was married to Roscoe (Fatty) Arbuckle and became Charlie Chaplin's first motionpicture leading lady, died Tuesday in Woodland Hills, a Los Angeles suburb." 
  3. ^ "Fatty Arbuckle's First Wife Dies". Los Angeles Times. September 12, 1975. http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/latimes/access/679361712.html?dids=679361712:679361712&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:AI&date=Sep+11%2C+1975&author=FRANK+DEL+OLMO&pub=Los+Angeles+Times&desc=Fatty+Arbuckle%27s+First+Wife+Dies&pqatl=google. Retrieved 2008-07-03. "Former motion picture actress Minta Durfee Arbuckle, first wife of movie comic Roscoe (Fatty Arbuckle and Charlie Chaplin's first leading lady, has died at 85." 

External links



 
 

 

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 "Minta Durfee" Read more