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Harry 'Snub' Pollard

08 Nov, 1889 in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

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.

Also Known As:

Harry 'Snub' PollardHarry PollardSnub PollardHarold Hopetown FraserHarold FraserHarry FraserPeewee PollardThe Keystone Kops

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Ex-Flame
0% (1930)
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Framed
64% (1947)
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Newly Rich
0% (1922)
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Jack Frost
0% (1923)
Blue Sunday
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The Hustler
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The Big Shot
55% (1929)
All Wet
0% (1926)
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It's a Gift
60% (1923)
The Yokel
50% (1926)
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The Doughboy
55% (1926)
White Legion
45% (1936)
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The Marathon
58% (1919)
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Utah Trail
50% (1938)
Full o' Pep
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Blow 'Em Up
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Fresh Paint
50% (1920)
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Park Your Car
40% (1920)
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Si, Senor
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Money to Burn
0% (1920)
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Spring Fever
56% (1919)
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Move On
45% (1917)
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On the Fire
50% (1919)
All Dressed Up
0% (1920)
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All Aboard
49% (1917)
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Hey There
69% (1918)
What a Whopper!
45% (1921)
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Ask Father
65% (1919)
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The Flirt
42% (1917)
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Bashful
69% (1917)
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That's Him
50% (1918)
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Bliss
43% (1917)
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Police
62% (1916)
Big Game
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Carrie
64% (1952)
No Kidding
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On the Jump
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Be My Wife
0% (1919)
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Sister Kenny
65% (1946)
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The Big Idea
50% (1917)
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Step Lively
46% (1917)
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Pinched
50% (1917)
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Nation Aflame
40% (1937)
Fully Insured
50% (1923)
The Tip
0% (1918)
Let's Go
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Kicked Out
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Beat It
0% (1918)
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Booby Dupes
48% (1945)
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Jeanne Eagels
62% (1957)
Rush Orders
0% (1921)
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Fifteen Minutes
50% (1921)
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365 Days
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Pardon Me
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Some Baby
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Back Trail
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All at Sea
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The Rajah
50% (1919)
All Lit Up
50% (1920)
Call a Taxi
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High Rollers
35% (1921)
On Location
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It's a Joy!
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Get Busy
50% (1924)
Once Over
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Kid Dynamite
66% (1943)
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Kitty
55% (1945)
Tough Luck
0% (1919)
Hello Teacher
0% (1918)
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The Lamb
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Soft Money
0% (1919)
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Fire!!
0% (1926)
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Cheyenne
68% (1947)