Mack Swain

Acting

Mack Swain

Born 1876-02-15 · Salt Lake City, Utah, USA

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Mack Swain (born Moroni Swain, February 16, 1876 – August 25, 1935) was an early American film actor, who appeared in many of Mack Sennett's comedies at Keystone Studios, including the Keystone Cops series. He also appeared in major features by Charlie Chaplin. In the early 1900s Swain had his own stock theater company, which performed in the western and midwestern United States. Swain worked in vaudeville before starting in silent film at Keystone Studios under Mack Sennett. While with Keystone, he was teamed with Chester Conklin to make a series of comedy films. With Swain as "Ambrose" and Conklin as the grand mustachioed "Walrus", they performed these roles in several films including The Battle of Ambrose and Walrus and Love, Speed and Thrills, both made in 1915. Besides these comedies, the two appeared together in a variety of other films, 26 all told, and they also appeared separately and/or together in films starring Mabel Normand, Charles Chaplin, Roscoe Arbuckle and most of the rest of the roster of Keystone players. Swain later took his Ambrose character with him to the L-KO Kompany. Having already worked with Charles Chaplin at Keystone, Swain began working with him again at First National in 1921, appearing in The Idle Class, Pay Day, and The Pilgrim. He is also remembered for his large supporting role as Big Jim McKay in the 1925 film The Gold Rush, for United Artists, written by and starring Chaplin. For his contribution to the motion picture industry, Mack Swain received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, at 1500 Vine Street.

Acting credits

The Gold Rush poster
8.0

A gold prospector in Alaska struggles to survive the elements and win the heart of a dance hall girl.

The Gold Rush

1925

The Pilgrim poster
6.9

The Tramp is an escaped convict who is mistaken as a pastor in a small town church.

The Pilgrim

1923

Ambrose's Little Hatchet poster
5.0

Mack Swain is making a dress for Louise Fazenda. He discovers his dressmaker's dummy requires his adjustment, so he pulls out his hatchet for the job. Through the window shade, onlookers -- including her husband -- see him as killing a woman.

Ambrose's Little Hatchet

1915

Pay Day poster
7.0

A bricklayer and his wife clash over his end-of-the-week partying.

Pay Day

1922

Tillie's Punctured Romance poster
6.2

A womanizing city man meets Tillie in the country. When he sees that her father has a very large bankroll for his workers, he persuades her to elope with him.

Tillie's Punctured Romance

1914

Lighthouse Love poster
NR

Two marines stationed in the Chinese port of Hang Chow decide to swear off women and join the lighthouse patrol.

Lighthouse Love

1932

Hello, Mabel poster
5.3

Hello, Mabel (also known as On a Busy Wire) is a 1914 American short silent comedy film directed by Mack Sennett.

Hello, Mabel

1914

No artwork available
6.0

Two street cleaners save the life of the police commissioner. In gratitude, he gives them jobs as policemen. Their first assignment? Capture the #1 criminal on the "Ten Most Wanted" list.

Cleaning Up

1930

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes poster
10.0

Gold digging blonde Lorelei and her brunette friend Dorothy are searching for rich husbands. This film is believed lost.

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes

1928

Becky poster
8.0

Rebecca (Sally O'Neil) is a salesgirl who gets a chance at a Broadway show; there, she attracts and is ultimately rejected by a society playboy.

Becky

1927

The Idle Class poster
6.8

At an upper class golf resort, a tramp discovers he's the lookalike of a rich man with a beautiful, unhappy wife.

The Idle Class

1921

Lost: A Cook poster
NR

Ambrose (Mack Swain) is a clumsy, aspiring cook who finds himself in over his head when he is hired to work in a busy household or restaurant. Most of the humor stems from Ambrose’s spectacular incompetence in the kitchen. He misinterprets simple instructions, leads a series of messy kitchen disasters, and accidentally destroys various household items while attempting to prepare a meal. The situation typically escalates into a frantic "Keystone-style" chase or a massive physical confrontation involving food, dishes, and outraged employers or customers.

Lost: A Cook

1917

A Thief Catcher poster
5.1

Two criminals chase a plainclothes policeman who, while taking out his dog, witnesses their crime.

A Thief Catcher

1914

The Fatal Mallet poster
5.5

Three men compete for the attentions of a pretty girl. One of them, a little tramp, plays dirty.

The Fatal Mallet

1914

Kiki poster
7.8

Kiki, a poor young woman who sells newspapers on the street corners of Paris, is able to land a job singing and dancing at a nearby theater. While she is there, she invites herself into the life of the revue's manager, with whom she has fallen in love.

Kiki

1926

No artwork available
7.0

Ambrose and his wife are going to take charge of a seabeach hotel.

Adventurous Ambrose

1918

The Beloved Rogue poster
6.9

François Villon, in his lifetime the most renowned poet in France, is also a prankster, an occasional criminal, and an ardent patriot.

The Beloved Rogue

1927

Yesterday and Today poster
7.0

A compilation of early-day silent films that serves as a glimpse back to the formative days of the movie industry as a salute to Hollywood's Golden Year, so proclaimed by the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce as 1953.

Yesterday and Today

1953

The Locked Door poster
6.1

On her first anniversary, Ann Reagan finds that her sister-in-law is involved with a shady character that she used to be intimate with, and determines to intervene.

The Locked Door

1929

The Knockout poster
5.8

To show his girl how brave he is, Pug challenges the champion to a fight. Charlie referees, trying to avoid contact with the two monsters.

The Knockout

1914

His Prehistoric Past poster
5.7

Set mostly in the Stone Age, a prehistoric king, with a harem of wives, rules a beach. Charlie arrives and falls for the king's favorite wife. In the end, it turns out to have been a dream; Charlie was asleep in the park.

His Prehistoric Past

1914

Torrent poster
6.7

A young girl and her father are kicked out of their house by a cruel noblewoman, and the girl's heart is broken when her sweetheart, the noblewoman's son, won't go to Paris with them. After becoming an opera star in Paris, the girl returns to her homeland and finds her romance with the nobleman rekindled.

Torrent

1926

The Chaplin Revue poster
7.4

Three Chaplin silent comedies "A Dog's Life", "Shoulder Arms", and "The Pilgrim" are strung together to form a single feature length film. Chaplin provides new music, narration, and a small amount of new connecting material. "Shoulder Arms" is now described as taking place in a time before "the atom bomb".

The Chaplin Revue

1959

A Muddy Romance poster
4.8

Two rivals for Mabel's hand play a series of dirty tricks on each other. Finally, one of them gets Mabel alone and is about to marry her, but his rival comes up with a strange scheme to stop them. Soon the Keystone Kops arrive on the scene, and chaos quickly ensues.

A Muddy Romance

1913

Behind the camera