Hero of the Month: Ben Turpin
Every comedian needs a recognizeable trait or schtick, like Stan Laurel’s crying or Groucho Marx’s crooked walk, Ben Turpin’s was his crossed eyes, used to great comedic effect in reaction closeups during the silent era. Much of his early life is unknown due mostly to his tendacy to never tell the same story twice, so while we don’t know if he really squander a hundred dollars from his father and became a hobo to escape his wrath or that his eyes became crossed from multiple performances playing a cross eyed character on stage. We do know that he started making appearances in film in 1907, at the youthfull age of 38, for Essanay Studios as a bit player and studio janitor.
His big break came with a meeting with Charlie Chaplin who brought him to the attention of Mack Sennett, where he quickly became one of Sennett’s top stars in short like The Dentist (1919) and The Daredevil (1924) and feature films like Down on the Farm (1920) and The Shriek of Araby (1923) where his physical prowess at slapstick pratfalls was highlighted along with his distinctive facial features. Stories abound of him insuring his eyes with Lloyds of London in case the ever become uncrossed and walking up to complete strangers on the street and telling them he makes $3000 a week.
Tragedy came into his life when his wife fell ill and Turpin took time off from his film career to take care of her in 1924. She would pass away a year later. Turpin returned to film work but was now a bit player insteead of a headliner in films like The College Hero (1927) and The Show of Shows (1929). Turpin kept working even though he apparently didn’t need the money, having become wealthy by investing his money in real estate, where rumor has it that he actually worked as a janitor in the apartment buildings he owned to keep expences down.
Turpin kept working well into the sound era, appearing in Swing High (1931), Million Dollar Legs (1932), Bring ‘Em Back a Lie (1935) and Hollywood Cavalcade (1939) where he wuld pop up and get a quick laugh with his cross eyed visage or a quick pratfall (amazing when you consider his age). His final role shortly before his death was in Laurel and Hardy’s Saps at Sea (1940), playing a plumber who screws up the pipes at an apartment house resulting in frozen radios and musical playing appliances.
Turpin’s biggest role in the sound era was in Mascot’s Law of the Wild (1934) serial, playing a ranch hand who teams up with thick as a brick hero Bob Custer and super smart German Shepherd Rin Tin Tin, Jr. to clear Custer of a murder charge and rescue his horse Rex from unscrupulous horse racing touts who have stolen him. A lot of miliage is gotten from Turpin talking to someone he is not looking at and one hairraising sequence where he is attempting to drive a car around a twisting turning cliffside road.
