About Me
June 15, 1884-December 22, 1944.
I was born in Council Bluffs, Iowa to a self-employed painter, William, and a Salvation Army volunteer, Lavinia. In my youth, I hawked newspapers across the Missouri River in neighboring Omaha, Nebraska to earn money to attend the theater and to stage my own tyro-theatricals. I soon began winning a succession of amateur contests in the area's theaters.
I was 12 years old when I ran away to join the circus. Soon I was involved in medicine shows, circuses and Vaudeville where I spent the next 20 years developing an act called "Harry's New Car". In Vaudeville, I played and perfected the act in town after town, year after year. By 1923, I was picked up by Mack Sennett and Sennett gave me to the writers to develop something from my character. Luckily for everyone involved, director Harry Edwards and the writers Frank Capra and Arthur Ripley were able to create the perfect story lines for me. I was 40 years old at the time. My film style of comedy would consist of indecision and helplessness, and the two reel films that I made would make me a star.
One of my best performances was as the henpecked husband who comes back after a spree with a buddy and hopes to tell his wife off in "Saturday Afternoon"(1926). In 1926, I left Sennett to form my own company, the Harry Langdon Corporation, which had a six picture deal with First National. I took Edwards, Capra, and Ripley with me to my new company and the first picture made was "Tramp, Tramp, Tramp"(1926) which became a big hit. My costar in the picture was Joan Crawford. The next two films, "The Strong Man"(1926) and "Long Pants"(1927), were directed by Capra. With three big successful films, I fired Capra and put myself into the director's chair. The problem was that I was as naive as my character about what made my character popular and how to film it.
My next three films were disasters as to plot, character and editing and were, worst of all, not funny. With the end of my six film commitment came the end of my popularity and I was soon bankrupt. In 1929, I signed with Hal Roach to stage a comeback in sound, but after eight unremarkable shorts, I was fired. In 1932, I made cheap two reelers which were no where near the quality that I made under Capra.
In 1934, at age 50, I signed with Columbia where I stayed for the next 10 years. At Columbia, I worked in shorts, most of which were rehashes of my earlier films. I also worked once more at the Hal Roach Studio where I became a writer for the comedy team of Laurel and Hardy. Attempts to team me with other performers such as Charley Rogers were tried and then dropped. If anything, I was finding my place as a character actor in a number of Columbia shorts and Monogram features.
I was married four times and my son Harry is a very well-known portrait photographer in Los Angeles. I have a star on Hollywood Blvd., directly in front of Grauman's Chinese Theater.
My final resting place is just to the left inside the main entrance to the West Mausoleum at Grand View Memorial Park in Glendale, California.
Edna Purviance, Chaplin's leading lady in his early films, rests nearby.
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