Name
Larry Semon
Known For
Directing
Birthday
1889-02-09
Deathday
1928-10-08 (39 years old)
Place of Birth
West Point, Mississippi, USA
Biography
American silent film comedian whose hugely successful career disappeared virtually overnight, Larry Semon was the son of a traveling vaudeville magician, Zera the Great. He grew up in show business and was trained in stage comedy and acrobatics. A talent for drawing and cartooning led to art school and then work as a cartoonist for various New York City newspapers. The humor evident in his published cartoons prompted executives at New York's Vitagraph Studios to hire him as a gag writer in 1916. He quickly proved himself and was promoted to director for the Hughie Mack series of comedies. His background in magic helped him create interesting new gags for the comedian. When Mack left the studio in 1917, Semon took over the starring role himself. His one-reelers were quite successful, and Vitagraph sent him to California to participate in its new West Coast operation. He produced as well as wrote, starred in and directed his own films, at the same time also producing films for other comics.
In the summer of 1928 Semon apparently fell ill with tuberculosis and simultaneously, it seems, suffered a nervous breakdown. He entered a sanitarium near San Bernardino, CA, where he reportedly died on October 8. However, an air of mystery surrounds his death, since his wife (and former co-star) Dorothy Dwan was allowed almost no contact with him and never saw his body, which was ordered cremated after a tightly secured funeral, which was carried out per Semon's "previous instructions" and to which almost no attendees were allowed. The whereabouts of Semon's cremated remains are to this day a mystery, and his widow professed until her death to be mystified by the circumstances of his passing. With enormous financial obligations facing him Larry Semon could easily have considered a dramatic escape of this sort from his creditors. Whether he did, or whether his death was the sad final chapter to a high-rising, briefly brilliant, but ultimately short-lived career may never be known for certain.
Known For
5.5
A farm girl learns she is a princess and is swept away by a tornado to the land of Oz....
7.059
Boisterous gangster kingpin Bull Weed rehabilitates his former lawyer from his alcoholic h...
5.393
A bumbling sawmill employee tries to win the hand of the owner's daughter while staying ou...
- 1927 Underworld as Slippy Lewis
- 1925 The Wizard of Oz as Scarecrow / Toymaker
- 1922 The Sawmill as The Dumb-Bell
- 1922 Golf as The son
- 1924 Kid Speed as The Speed Kid
- 1925 Go Straight! as Self
- 1919 The Simple Life as A Farmer's Boy
- 1918 Pluck and Plotters as The Janitor
- 1919 Passing the Buck as The House Detective
- 1919 Between the Acts as Larry, the Handy Man and a Drunkard
- 1919 Scamps and Scandals as Larry
- 1920 School Days as Joe
- 1920 The Suitor as The Suitor
- 1921 The Hick as Larry, the Hick
- 1920 The Fly-Cop as The Fly Cop
- 1928 Dummies as The Entertainer
- 1922 A Weakend Driver
- 1919 The Star Boarder as Star Boarder / Little Joe, Escaped Convict
- 1928 A Simple Sap as It
- 1919 The Grocery Clerk as The Grocery Clerk
- 1925 The Cloudhopper as Borden Rhoom / Getz A. Bunn
- 1925 The Perfect Clown as Bert Larry
- 1917 Plagues And Puppy Love as Larry
- 1919 Dew Drop Inn as Larry, the Detective
- 1918 Bears and Bad Men as Larry Cutshaw
- 1918 Huns and Hyphens as Larry
- 1918 Dunces and Dangers as Larry
- 1919 His Home Sweet Home as The Husband
- 1918 Romans and Rascals as Caesar / A Minstrel
- 1919 Dull Care as Larry, a Detective
- 1918 Frauds and Frenzies as Larry, First Prisoner
- 1919 Traps and Tangles as Detective Sparks
- 1922 A Pair of Kings as King August / Stranger
- 1921 The Bakery as Larry, a Bakery Clerk
- 1921 The Fall Guy as Larry, the Fall Guy
- 1927 The Stunt Man as Larry
- 1921 The Rent Collector as Larry, the Rent Collector
- 1922 The Counter Jumper as Larry, the Counter Jumper
- 1921 The Bell Hop as The Bellhop
- 1921 The Sportsman as The Sportsman
- 1923 Lightning Love as Larry, a Suitor
- 1923 The Midnight Cabaret as Larry, a Waiter
- 1923 Horseshoes as Larry
- 1923 No Wedding Bells as Larry
- 1923 The Gown Shop as Larry, a salesman
- 1924 Her Boy Friend as Larry, the Chief's son
- 1917 Gall and Golf as O.U. Dubb
- 1916 Walls and Wallops
- 1924 The Girl in the Limousine as Tony
- 1918 Bathing Beauties and Big Boobs as Lawrence
- 1927 Oh, What a Man! as The Detective
- 1923 The Barnyard as Lay Zee, Farm Hand
- 1919 The Head Waiter as The Head Waiter
- 1918 Hindoos and Hazards as Larry
- 1925 The Dome Doctor as Peter Pep
- 1917 Risks and Roughnecks as Our Hero
- 1917 Tough Luck and Tin Lizzies as Larry
- 1922 The Show as The Prop Man / Gentle Onlooker
- 1919 Well, I'll Be as The Sheriff
- 1924 Trouble Brewing as Government agent
- 1920 The Stage Hand as The Stage Hand
- 1927 Spuds as Spuds
- 1917 Turks and Troubles
- 1917 Footlights and Fakers
- 1917 He Never Touched Me
- 1917 Somewhere in Any Place
- 1917 Big Bluffs and Bowling Balls
- 1917 Jolts and Jewelry
- 1917 Bullies and Bullets
- 1918 Babes and Boobs as A Boob
- 1917 Plans and Pajamas as The Idler / Headmistress
