Max Linder
Auir2blaze[S] writes:
When there was renewed interest in silent comedy in the 1960s, Keaton, Lloyd and Chaplin were all around to help promote their own work, by reissuing movies, appearing on TV, doing tours of college campuses etc.
All of the performers had already died well before that (except for Laurel and Hardy, who have remained well known to this day). Their life stories are pretty sad, I guess not that uncommon with a lot of really funny people.
- Max Linder: Suffered from depression stemming from his experience in First World War, killed himself in a suicide pact with his wife in 1925, age 41
- Larry Semon, studio stopped financing his movies, he went bankrupt, had a nervous breakdown and died of pneumonia and tuberculosis in 1928, age 39
- Mable Normand: struggled with cocaine addiction and health problems, died of tuberculosis in 1930, age 37
- Roscoe Arbuckle: after years of being blacklisted was finally making a comeback and was just about to sign a major contract with Warner Brothers when he died of a heart attack in 1933, age 46
- Charley Chase: struggled with depression and alcoholism. After his brother died in 1939 (his brother was also an accomplished comic director, James Parrott) he blamed himself for not doing more to help his brother deal with his drug addiction, and he started drinking more heavily. Died of a heart attack shortly after, in 1940, age 46
- Harry Langdon: kept acting for the rest of his life, but never regained the stardom he had had in mid-1920s, died of a a cerebral hemorrhage in 1944, age 60