Overview (5)

Mini Bio (1)

Spouse (3)

Trade Mark (3)

Apart from the fact that he was overweight and thus nicknamed "Fatty," he usually wore bowler-hat and pants whose legs were too short.



Rolling perfect cigarettes with a couple quick motions of one hand



Remarkable agility and dexterity, especially for a man of his girth



Trivia (36)

Directed under the name William Goodrich. He let it be known that his alternate pseudonym of Will B. Good was evidence of his pledge to walk the straight and narrow.





After his career was ruined, Buster Keaton personally supported him as repayment for giving him his break into film.

Weighed 300 pounds (ca. 135 kilograms) at the height of his career.





Was tried three times for rape and manslaughter of Virginia Rappe . The first trial (November 14-December 4, 1921) ended with the jury deadlocked 10 to 2 in favor of acquittal. The second trial (January 11-February 3, 1922) also ended in a hung jury; this time the majority had ruled against Roscoe - 10 to 2 for conviction. The third trial (March 13-April 12, 1922) finally ended with an acquittal after the jury deliberated for less than 5 minutes compared with 43 hours straight in the first trial and 44 hours in the second trial.

It is often reported that Arbuckle's career as an actor ended with the rape trials and that he died forgotten. In fact, Arbuckle was in the midst of starring in a series of successful shorts and was on his way back up when he died.



Biography in: "Who's Who in Comedy" by Ronald L. Smith; pg. 21-22. New York: Facts on File, 1992. ISBN 0816023387



An excellent breakdown of the rape/murder scandal is "Frame-Up!: the Untold Story of Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle", by Andy Edmonds.



He was the very first actor to be paid a million dollars a year.





A screenplay about his life floated around Hollywood for years but never got sold. At one point, John Belushi was considered for the role, then John Candy , then Chris Farley . All three died suddenly and the script has been shelved indefinitely.

The legend that his box office clout faltered after the scandal is not entirely true. Actually his films were making just as much money as they had been before the scandal, the problem was that with all the scathing headlines about him, studios were reluctant about putting him under contract and so he had problems getting work.



It was written in his contract that his weight remain above 250 pounds and that he would be given a healthy yearly bonus if he exceeded that by 50 to 100 pounds. He kept his weight well over 300 during his career.



Biography in: "American National Biography". Supplement 1, pp. 11-13. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002.





Some filmographies credit him as co-director of the film Sherlock Holmes Jr. (1924). The confusion comes from the fact that Buster Keaton did originally hope to have Arbuckle work as his co-director on the film, but ultimately Arbuckle was still too depressed over the scandal that had nearly ended his career three years earlier, and had become difficult to work with, so Keaton went ahead as the sole director of the film. The claim that Arbuckle was a co-director on the film was substantiated by Minta Durfee ; however, her claims lose credibility when she also stated that Arbuckle was the sole screenwriter of the film. The script was definitely written by Joseph A. Mitchell Jean C. Havez and Clyde Bruckman , Keaton's usual team of gag-men from this era. Historians agree there is no credibility to the claim that Arbuckle ever directed so much as a frame of the movie.



Met Buster Keaton accidentally one day while strolling down Broadway in New York City with vaudeville veteran Lou Anger . Anger, who was an old stage acquaintance of Keaton's, introduced them. Arbuckle immediately invited Keaton to visit the Colony Studio where he was about start a series of two-reel comedies for Joseph M. Schenck . The famous duo was thusly formed.

Had a "wonderful" singing voice and was extremely agile.





Is the subject of the novel "I, Fatty" by Jerry Stahl

Started his movie career in 1909 with the Selig Polyscope Company. Joined Keystone Studios as a member of the Keystone Kops in 1913.





Although he divorced his first wife Minta Durfee in 1925, they did in fact separate as early as in 1917.

Signed a contract for Paramount Pictures in 1920 for $1,000,000.



Once owned a quarry in southern California. Two months after he sold the quarry, oil was discovered on the property.



Began his career as an entertainer in vaudeville at age 12 in order to survive, after his mother died and his alcoholic father had abandoned him.





In 1924, he hired Bob Hope as a "cheap act" for his traveling vaudeville show. After seeing Hope perform at the Bandbox Theater in Cleveland, Arbuckle sensed he would be a major star if he just had the right break. He contacted some friends in Los Angeles and instructed Hope to do the same. Hope eventually followed his advice and headed west.

Arbuckle hated the nickname "Fatty" and insisted that his friends and acquaintances always address him by his real first name, Roscoe.



He was the first movie star in America to systematically direct his own films. He directed most of his output from 1914 and onwards.



Profiled in "American Classic Screen Profiles" by John C. Tibbets and James M. Welch (2010).





In 1927, he was engaged to direct and star a series of comedy shorts for producer Abe Carlos. The films were to be shot in Berlin and distributed internationally, and Arbuckle's then wife Doris Deane was to star with him. The films were never produced, and it's unknown if Arbuckle saw any financial gain from the deal.

He was posthumously awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6701 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California on February 8, 1960.





A fictionalized version of the events that destroyed Arbuckle's career appears in James Ivory 's film Wild Party (1975) starring James Coco as a silent film star based on the comedian.

He was the recipient of the first custard pie to be thrown in a film -A Noise From the Deep (1913) It was thrown by Mabel Normand.



Adolph Zukor, who had millions at stake on Roscoe Fatty Arbuckle, phoned San Francisco D.A Matt Brady in an effort to quash the case. It merely outraged Brady who later charged Zukor for having offered a bribe.



He mentored Charlie Chaplin and discovered Ben Turpin.



In 1920 he signed a contract with Paramount Pictures for $1million.



When Virginia Rappe was found unwell a doctor was called who concluded that she was drunk and gave her morphine to calm her. After 2 days she was hospitalised with a ruptured bladder and died of peritonitis.



Personal Quotes (12)

[on his sex-and-murder scandal in 1921] I don't understand it. One minute I'm the guy everybody loves, the next I'm the guy everybody loves to hate.



[when he was called "Fatty" off-screen, a nickname he hated] I got a name, you know.



[on his first wedding anniversary, shortly before his death] This is the best day of my life.



I shall produce nothing that will offend the proprieties whether applied to children or grown-ups. My pictures are turned out with clean hands and therefore with a clear conscience which, like virtue, is its own reward. Nothing would grieve me more than to have mothers say, "Let's not go there [in cinema] today, Arbuckle is playing and he isn't fit for children to see." I want them to think always otherwise for me, for as long as I can please the kiddies, I don't care who entertains their elders.





[on Charles Chaplin ] I have always regretted not having been his partner in a longer film than these one-reelers we made so rapidly. He is a complete comic genius, undoubtedly the only one of our time and he will be the only one who will be still talked about a century from now.

I don't believe there is any finer mission on earth than just to make people laugh.



My birth and a cyclone blew Smith Center [Kansas] off the map.



You only star in movies from picture to picture. If two or three pictures are bad, you're not a star anymore. It's a constant worry. That's why movie people are temperamental. It's a terrible strain!



I've never used my weight to get a laugh. That is, used my size as the subject for humor. You never saw me stuck in a doorway or stuck in a chair. If you'll analyze my pictures you'll see that they're humorous in themselves, except, of course, that the audience remarks about the agility on account of the weight. Titles and trademarks don't count. They're no good unless the picture is funny.



How did I become a star? I don't know how it happened. When I look at my old pictures, I can't tell how it happened!



No price is too high to pay for a good laugh.



A good laugh...is the most worthwhile thing in life.



Salary (2)