Slim Summerville(1892-1946)
- Actor
- Director
- Writer
Born in Albuquerque, New Mexico in 1892, rustic-looking George "Slim"
Summerville possessed one of those malleable mugs that made you laugh
even before he opened his mouth. Young Slim ran away from home as a
youth and lived a rather wanderlust life until a chance meeting with
Mack Sennett through his comedian friend
Edgar Kennedy changed everything.
Slim broke into silent films at age nineteen as one of Sennett's pie-hurling
Keystone Kops and became part of the stock company of players. Making
an unbilled appearance in Keystone's first feature film
Tillie's Punctured Romance (1914), Summerville's gangly build and naive innocence, not to mention his
potato-like nose, mournful mug, and slim, curling upper lip, helped set
him apart -- so much so that Summerville eventually branched out into
his own short vehicles.
Much more comfortable in rumpled clothes and
overalls than a suit and tie, he later learned the ropes of directing
and in the 1920s helmed a string of short films for both Fox and
Universal studios. He refocused on acting come the advent of sound and
made a rather easy transition, standing out in a number of commercial
films, both comedic and dramatic, including the mammoth war epic
All Quiet on the Western Front (1930),
the landmark musical film
King of Jazz (1930),
Hecht-MacArthur's classic
The Front Page (1931), the
Shirley Temple vehicles
Captain January (1936) and
Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (1938),
and John Ford's
Tobacco Road (1941). In addition, Slim scored in a series of short comedies opposite
Zasu Pitts, and a slew of supports in
Hoot Gibson westerns.
Usually playing much
older than he was, the sleepy-eyed, slow-drawling Summerville played
his last role in
The Hoodlum Saint (1946),
before dying of a stroke on January 5, 1946, at the not-so-old age of
53. He left a strong enough legacy, however, to be remembered as one of
the screen's more reliable comedians. He was survived by his wife
Eleanor and son Elliot.
Summerville possessed one of those malleable mugs that made you laugh
even before he opened his mouth. Young Slim ran away from home as a
youth and lived a rather wanderlust life until a chance meeting with
Mack Sennett through his comedian friend
Edgar Kennedy changed everything.
Slim broke into silent films at age nineteen as one of Sennett's pie-hurling
Keystone Kops and became part of the stock company of players. Making
an unbilled appearance in Keystone's first feature film
Tillie's Punctured Romance (1914), Summerville's gangly build and naive innocence, not to mention his
potato-like nose, mournful mug, and slim, curling upper lip, helped set
him apart -- so much so that Summerville eventually branched out into
his own short vehicles.
Much more comfortable in rumpled clothes and
overalls than a suit and tie, he later learned the ropes of directing
and in the 1920s helmed a string of short films for both Fox and
Universal studios. He refocused on acting come the advent of sound and
made a rather easy transition, standing out in a number of commercial
films, both comedic and dramatic, including the mammoth war epic
All Quiet on the Western Front (1930),
the landmark musical film
King of Jazz (1930),
Hecht-MacArthur's classic
The Front Page (1931), the
Shirley Temple vehicles
Captain January (1936) and
Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (1938),
and John Ford's
Tobacco Road (1941). In addition, Slim scored in a series of short comedies opposite
Zasu Pitts, and a slew of supports in
Hoot Gibson westerns.
Usually playing much
older than he was, the sleepy-eyed, slow-drawling Summerville played
his last role in
The Hoodlum Saint (1946),
before dying of a stroke on January 5, 1946, at the not-so-old age of
53. He left a strong enough legacy, however, to be remembered as one of
the screen's more reliable comedians. He was survived by his wife
Eleanor and son Elliot.