Harry Langdon

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Born: 15 June 1884 Died: 22 December 1944

Country of origin: United States

Height: 5' 7"

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Hollywood (299 items)
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Published 11 years, 10 months ago

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Silent Film Actors (447 items)
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Published 12 years, 2 months ago

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AFI's Male Legends Nominations (252 items)
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Published 12 years, 4 months ago

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5 votes

Hollywood Walk of Fame - L (129 items)
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Published 10 years, 6 months ago

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Harry Langdon Videos

Movie Legends - Harry Langdon

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Description: Langdon first performed when he ran away from home at the age of 12-13 to join a travelling medicine show. In 1903 he scored a lasting success in vaudeville with an act called "Johnny's New Car" which he performed for twenty years. In 1923, he signed with Principal Pictures as a series star, but transferred to the Mack Sennett Studio when Mack Sennett bought the contract. Early in his film career, he had the good fortune to work regularly with the young Frank Capra. The two developed a unique character of an innocent man-child who found himself in dramatic and hazardous circumstances with only providence and good luck Langdon first performed when he ran away from home at the age of 12-13 to join a travelling medicine show. In 1903 he scored a lasting success in vaudeville with an act called "Johnny's New Car" which he performed for twenty years. In 1923, he signed with Principal Pictures as a series star, but transferred to the Mack Sennett Studio when Mack Sennett bought the contract. Early in his film career, he had the good fortune to work regularly with the young Frank Capra. The two developed a unique character of an innocent man-child who found himself in dramatic and hazardous circumstances with only providence and good luck making him come out on top. This character clicked with the public and Langdon enjoyed a streak of artistic and commercial successes using it with Capra's direction. Unfortunately, he began to take the praise of his talent too seriously and broke with Capra so he could hog all the glory himself with his films. This proved to be a disastrous mistake as his first film "Three's a Crowd", a sickeningly sentimental film that plainly showed that he did not even approach the talent and skill of Capra which was needed to keep his character style viable. It has been also speculated the public was getting tired of Langdon's character, which contributed to Langdon's first solo film being an artistic and commercial failure. That film was the first in a series of bombs that ruined Langdon's career and relegated him to minor films from third string companies for the rest of his life.

Langdon was 12 years old when he ran away to join the circus. Soon he was involved in medicine shows, circuses and Vaudeville where he spent the next 20 years developing an act called "Harry's New Car". With Vaudeville, he would play and perfect the act in town after tank town, year after year. By 1923, Langdon had been picked up by Mack Sennett and Sennett gave Langdon to the writers to develop something from his character. Luckily for everyone involved, director Harry Edwards and the writers Frank Capra and Arthur Ripley were able to create the perfect story lines for the pantomime of the baby faced 40 year old comic. His film style of comedy would consist of indecision and helplessness, and the two reel films that he made would make him a star. One of his best performances was as the henpecked husband who comes back after a spree with a buddy and hopes to tell his wife off in Saturday Afternoon (1926). In 1926, Harry left Sennett to form his own company, the Harry Langdon Corporation, which had a six picture deal with First National. Harry took Edwards, Capra, and Ripley with him to his new company and the first picture made was _Tramp, Tramp, Tramp (1926/I)_ which became a big hit. The girl in the picture was named Joan Crawford and Harry would be walking across the country to win her hand. The next two films The Strong Man (1926) and Long Pants (1927) were directed by Capra. With 3 big successful films, and an ego to match, Langdon fired Capra and put himself into the director's chair. The problem was that Langdon was as naive as his character about what made his character popular and how to film it. His next three films were disasters as to plot, character and editing and were, worst of all, not funny. With the end of his six film commitment came the end of his popularity and Langdon was soon bankrupt. In 1929, he would sign with Hal Roach to stage a comeback in sound, but after 8 unremarkable shorts, he would be fired. In 1932, he was making cheap two reelers which were no where near the quality that he made under Capra. In 1934, at age 50, langdon would sign with Columbia where he would stay for the next 10 years. At Columbia, he would work in shorts, most of which were rehashes of his earlier films. He would also work once more at the Hal Roach Studio where he became a writer for the comedy team of Laurel and Hardy. By this time, he was a much nicer person as the setbacks has deflated his ego years before. Attempts to team Langdon with other performers such as Charley Rogers were tried and then dropped. If anything, he was finding his place as a character actor in a number of Columbia shorts and Monogram features. The small sad man with the white baby face and the jacket that was too small would die from a cerebral hemorrhage in 1944 as a shadow of what might have been. Langdon had been married four times. ... (more)