Harry 'Snub' Pollard

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Snub Pollard (9 November 1889 – 19 January 1962) was an Australian-born vaudevillian, who became a silent film comedian in Hollywood, popular in the 1920s. Born Harold Fraser, in Melbourne, Australia on 9 November 1889, he began performing with Pollard's Lilliputian Opera Company at a young age. Like many of the actors in the popular juvenile company, he adopted Pollard as his stage name. The company ran several highly successful professional children's troupes that traveled Australia and New Zealand in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. In 1908, Harry Pollard joined the company tour to North America. After the completion of the tour, he returned to the US. By 1915 he was regularly appearing in uncredited roles in movies, for example Charles Epting notes that Pollard can clearly be seen in Chaplin's 1915 short By the Sea. In later years, Pollard claimed Hal Roach had discovered him while he was performing on stage in Los Angeles. Pollard played supporting roles in the early films of Harold Lloyd and Bebe Daniels. The long-faced Pollard sported a Kaiser Wilhelm mustache turned upside-down; this became his trademark. Lloyd's producer, Hal Roach, gave Pollard his own starring series of one- and two-reel shorts. The most famous is 1923's It's a Gift, in which he plays an inventor of many Rube Goldberg-like contraptions, including a car that runs by magnet power. In early 1923, shortly after his second marriage, Pollard returned with his wife Elizabeth to see his relations in Australia. His visit attracted considerable attention, and he appeared again in several theatres to speak about the motion picture business. On his return to the US, he left Roach and joined the low-budget Weiss Brothers studio in 1926. There he co-starred with Marvin Loback as a poor man's version of Laurel and Hardy, copying that team's plots and gags. In later years, Pollard claimed the Great Depression wiped out his investments, and he had been unable to "adjust to the talkies." However, in the 1930s, he played small parts in talking comedies, and was featured as comic relief in "B" westerns. Pollard's silent-comedy credentials guaranteed him work in slapstick revivals. He appeared with other film veterans in Hollywood Cavalcade (1939), The Perils of Pauline (1947), and Man of a Thousand Faces (1957). He also appeared regularly as a supporting player in Columbia Pictures' two-reel comedies of the mid-1940s. Forsaking his familiar mustache in his later years, he landed much steadier work in films as a mostly uncredited bit player. He played incidental roles in scores of Hollywood features and shorts, almost always as a mousy, nondescript fellow, usually with no dialogue. Snub Pollard died of cancer on 19 January 1962, aged 72, after nearly 50 years in the movie business. His interment was at Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Hollywood Hills). For his contributions to motion pictures, Pollard has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6415½ Hollywood Boulevard.

Filmography

Movies and shows, newest first

2009
The Parrott Chase
Movie (archive footage) (uncredited)
1986
Classic Comedy Teams
Movie Self (archive footage)
1963
The Sound of Laughter
Movie Plumber's Assistant
1962
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
Movie Statehood Audience Member (uncredited)
1961
Pocketful of Miracles
Movie Knuckles (uncredited)
1961
Homicidal
Movie Eddie, Bellhop (Uncredited)
1961
Master of the World
Movie Man at Balloon Society Meeting (uncredited)
1961
One-Eyed Jacks
Movie Townsman (uncredited)
1961
Days of Thrills and Laughter
Movie Self (archive footage)
1960
Inherit the Wind
Movie Townsman (uncredited)
1960
Who Was That Lady?
Movie Tattoo Artist (uncredited)
1959
The Oregon Trail
Movie Townsman (uncredited)
1958
Teacher's Pet
Movie Reporter (uncredited)
1957
The Tin Star
Movie Townsman(uncredited)
1957
Pal Joey
Movie Waiter (uncredited)
1957
Man of a Thousand Faces
Movie Comedy Waiter #2

More credits

1957
Jeanne Eagels
Movie Quartermaster Bates in 'Rain' (uncredited)
1957
The Buster Keaton Story
Movie Audience Member (uncredited)
1956
Friendly Persuasion
Movie Carnival Patron (uncredited)
1956
Runaway Daughters
Movie Mr. Fields, Little Drunk at Dance Club
1955
The Man with the Golden Arm
Movie Street Vagrant (uncredited)
1955
Alfred Hitchcock Presents
TV show Bar Patron (uncredited)
1955
Pete Kelly's Blues
Movie Waiter (uncredited)
1954
The Country Girl
Movie Stagehand (uncredited)
1954
The Fast and the Furious
Movie Park Caretaker
1954
Living It Up
Movie Vagrant in Park (uncredited)
1954
Public Defender
TV show
1953
Conquest of Cochise
Movie Barfly (uncredited)
1953
Hannah Lee: An American Primitive
Movie Man Pacing in Jail Cell
1953
Julius Caesar
Movie Citizen of Rome (uncredited)
1952
Limelight
Movie Street Musician
1952
The Old West
Movie Townsman (uncredited)
1952
Park Row
Movie Barfly
1952
Carrie
Movie Lunch Wagon Counterman (uncredited)
1952
Gents in a Jam
Movie Telegram Deliverer (uncredited)
1952
Scaramouche
Movie Man at Assembly Meeting
1952
Singin' in the Rain
Movie Old Man Getting Umbrella (uncredited)
1951
The Barefoot Mailman
Movie Townsman at Dance (uncredited)
1951
Valley of Fire
Movie Townsman
1951
Meet Me After the Show
Movie Stage Door Johnnie in Opening Number (uncredited)