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Born · July 14, 1889
Died · October 8, 1928 (39 years old)
Known For: Directing
Place of Birth: West Point, Mississippi, USA
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.
It
5.0
1928
The Entertainer
5.0
1928
The Detective
0.0
1927
Larry
7.8
1927
Slippy Lewis
7.0
1927
Spuds
0.0
1927
Bert Larry
6.2
1925
Borden Rhoom / Getz A. Bunn
4.5
1925
Self
0.0
1925
Peter Pep
1.0
1925
Scarecrow
5.5
1925
The Speed Kid
5.2
1924
Larry, the Chief's son
5.5
1924
Tony
6.0
1924
Government agent
6.0
1924
Larry
5.1
1923
Larry, a Suitor
6.0
1923
Larry, a salesman
4.0
1923
Lay Zee, Farm Hand
5.5
1923
Larry, a Waiter
6.0
1923
Larry
3.8
1923
Larry, the Counter Jumper
5.3
1922
The son
5.8
1922
King August / Stranger
4.0
1922
5.0
1922
The Prop Man / Gentle Onlooker
6.5
1922
The Dumb-Bell
4.9
1922
The Bellhop
6.8
1921
Larry, the Fall Guy
4.2
1921
Larry, a Bakery Clerk
4.1
1921
Larry, the Rent Collector
6.4
1921
Larry, the Hick
5.5
1921
The Sportsman
6.5
1921
The Suitor
3.8
1920
The Stage Hand
6.0
1920
Joe
6.0
1920
The Fly Cop
5.2
1920
The Grocery Clerk
4.8
1919
The Head Waiter
0.0
1919
Larry, the Detective
0.0
1919
Larry, a Detective
5.7
1919
Larry, the Handy Man and a Drunkard
3.8
1919
A Farmer's Boy
0.0
1919
The Husband
4.0
1919
Star Boarder / Little Joe, Escaped Convict
7.0
1919
The House Detective
6.8
1919
The Sheriff
0.0
1919
Larry
5.2
1919
Detective Sparks
0.0
1919
The Janitor
5.0
1918
Larry, First Prisoner
5.8
1918
Larry Cutshaw
5.1
1918
Larry
5.9
1918
Larry
4.5
1918
Lawrence
5.3
1918
Larry
0.0
1918
Caesar / A Minstrel
4.5
1918
Larry
4.8
1917
Larry
5.6
1917
Our Hero
4.5
1917
O.U. Dubb
4.8
1917
5.0
1916