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TürkçeSlim Summerville (George Joseph Somerville)
Photos with Slim Summerville
Biography
Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA
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. He 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. Read more... 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 he 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.
Actor
Character:
Policeman / Guest in Restaurant
Tillie's Punctured Romance 1914
1
Character:
Heine
Tiger Rose 1929
1
Character:
Newt
The Shannons of Broadway 1929
1
Character:
Tjaden
All Quiet on the Western Front 1930
1
Character:
Automobile Owner / Rear End of Horse / Charles
King of Jazz 1930
40
Character:
Pincus
The Front Page 1931
1
Character:
Merchant
Heaven on Earth 1931
1
Character:
'Crabapple' Thompson
Lasca of the Rio Grande 1931
1
Character:
'Slim' McCune
Air Mail 1932
5
Character:
Captain Nazro
Captain January 1936
9
Character:
Judge Hart
Love Is News 1937
4
Character:
Tjaden
The Road Back 1937
1
Character:
Homer Busby
Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm 1938
15
Character:
Jim Ogden
Five of a Kind 1938
4
Character:
Jailer
Jesse James 1939
2
Character:
Peabody
Tobacco Road 1941
6
Character:
Herman
Western Union 1941
3
Character:
Joe Butterworth
Uncle Joe 1941
5
Character:
Gramps Abbott
Highway West 1941
1
Character:
Uncle Lem
Puddin' Head 1941
5
Character:
Slim
Garden of Eatin' 1943
1
Character:
Juniper Jenkins aka Pa
I'm from Arkansas 1944
10
Character:
Northup 'Slim' Bayliss
Swing in the Saddle 1944
12
Character:
Eel
The Hoodlum Saint 1946
2
Character:
Himself
Hollywood 1980
0