Louise Fazenda
Encyclopedia
Louise Fazenda was an American
film actress, appearing chiefly in silent
comedy films.
. Her father, Joseph Fazenda, was a merchandise broker. After moving west Louise attended Los Angeles High School
and St. Mary's Convent. Before trying motion pictures, she worked for a dentist, a candy store owner, and a tax collector and on stage.
's troupe at Keystone Studios
.
As with many Keystone actors, Fazenda's star soon grew larger than Sennett was willing to pay for, and she left Sennett in the early 1920s for better roles and more money. She took a break from making motion pictures in 1921-1922 in order to try vaudeville
. Fazenda appeared in a variety of shorts and feature-length films throughout the decade. By the advent of sound pictures, Fazenda was a highly paid actress, making movies for nearly all of the big studios. Fazenda continued through the 1930s, appearing mostly in musicals and comedies. Her skill was in performing character roles. She played such diverse parts as a fussy old maid and a lady blacksmith. She was once accurately described as a plain-looking woman but a highly gifted character comedienne.
' producer
Hal B. Wallis
, a union which lasted until her death. They had one son, Brent, who became a psychologist in Florida
.
The Old Maid, in 1939, was her last of nearly 300 movie appearances. She spent the remainder of her years enjoying life as an art collector until her death caused by a cerebral hemorrhage. Hal Wallis was in Hawaii
making a film and left immediately for home. She was interred at the Inglewood Park Cemetery
in Inglewood, California
. Louise Fazenda has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
at 6801 Hollywood Blvd.
witnessed her charitable efforts. LaPlante described Fazenda helping children and poor people. One child refused to eat. The actress reportedly went back and forth to the hospital from her home, making various dishes, until she was successful, and the youth regained his health. Among the children she helped there was one Edward Bunker
, who described what had happened in his autobiographical The Education of a Felon.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
film actress, appearing chiefly in silent
Silent film
A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound, especially with no spoken dialogue. In silent films for entertainment the dialogue is transmitted through muted gestures, pantomime and title cards...
comedy films.
Early life
Of Portuguese ancestry, she was born in Lafayette, IndianaLafayette, Indiana
Lafayette is a city in and the county seat of Tippecanoe County, Indiana, United States, northwest of Indianapolis. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 67,140. West Lafayette, on the other side of the Wabash River, is home to Purdue University, which has a large impact on...
. Her father, Joseph Fazenda, was a merchandise broker. After moving west Louise attended Los Angeles High School
Los Angeles High School
Los Angeles High School is the oldest public high school in the Southern California Region and in the Los Angeles Unified School District. Its colors are blue and white and the teams are called the Romans....
and St. Mary's Convent. Before trying motion pictures, she worked for a dentist, a candy store owner, and a tax collector and on stage.
Career
Fazenda got her start in comedy shorts as early as 1913 with Joker Studios, frequently appearing with Max Asher and Bobby Vernon. She was soon recruited for Mack SennettMack Sennett
Mack Sennett was a Canadian-born American director and was known as the innovator of slapstick comedy in film. During his lifetime he was known at times as the "King of Comedy"...
's troupe at Keystone Studios
Keystone Studios
Keystone Studios was an early movie studio founded in Edendale, California in 1912 as the Keystone Pictures Studio by Mack Sennett with backing from Adam Kessel and Charles O. Bauman, owners of the New York Motion Picture Company...
.
As with many Keystone actors, Fazenda's star soon grew larger than Sennett was willing to pay for, and she left Sennett in the early 1920s for better roles and more money. She took a break from making motion pictures in 1921-1922 in order to try vaudeville
Vaudeville
Vaudeville was a theatrical genre of variety entertainment in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. Each performance was made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill...
. Fazenda appeared in a variety of shorts and feature-length films throughout the decade. By the advent of sound pictures, Fazenda was a highly paid actress, making movies for nearly all of the big studios. Fazenda continued through the 1930s, appearing mostly in musicals and comedies. Her skill was in performing character roles. She played such diverse parts as a fussy old maid and a lady blacksmith. She was once accurately described as a plain-looking woman but a highly gifted character comedienne.
Marriage and death
In 1927 Fazenda married noted Warner BrothersWarner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
' producer
Film producer
A film producer oversees and delivers a film project to all relevant parties while preserving the integrity, voice and vision of the film. They will also often take on some financial risk by using their own money, especially during the pre-production period, before a film is fully financed.The...
Hal B. Wallis
Hal B. Wallis
Hal B. Wallis was an American film producer.-Career:Harold Brent Wallis was born in Chicago in 1898. His family moved in 1922 to Los Angeles, California, where he found work as part of the publicity department at Warner Bros...
, a union which lasted until her death. They had one son, Brent, who became a psychologist in Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
.
The Old Maid, in 1939, was her last of nearly 300 movie appearances. She spent the remainder of her years enjoying life as an art collector until her death caused by a cerebral hemorrhage. Hal Wallis was in Hawaii
Hawaii
Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...
making a film and left immediately for home. She was interred at the Inglewood Park Cemetery
Inglewood Park Cemetery
Inglewood Park Cemetery was founded in 1905 in Inglewood, California. A number of notable people, including entertainment and sports personalities, have been interred or entombed here.-List of notable and celebrity interments at Inglewood Park:...
in Inglewood, California
Inglewood, California
Inglewood is a city in southwestern Los Angeles County, California, southwest of downtown Los Angeles. It was incorporated on February 14, 1908. Its population stood at 109,673 as of the 2010 Census...
. Louise Fazenda has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
Hollywood Walk of Fame
The Hollywood Walk of Fame consists of more than 2,400 five-pointed terrazzo and brass stars embedded in the sidewalks along fifteen blocks of Hollywood Boulevard and three blocks of Vine Street in Hollywood, California...
at 6801 Hollywood Blvd.
Philanthropist
In 1954 Fazenda read about a woman who died in a car accident. She paid the entire hospital bill of her daughter, who was injured in the wreck. She subsidized the studies of a law student who was contemplating leaving school when his wife became pregnant. At the UCLA Medical Center she helped to feed young children, before she rocked and sang them to sleep. Actress Laura La PlanteLaura La Plante
Laura La Plante was an American actress, best-known for her roles in silent films.-Early acting career:...
witnessed her charitable efforts. LaPlante described Fazenda helping children and poor people. One child refused to eat. The actress reportedly went back and forth to the hospital from her home, making various dishes, until she was successful, and the youth regained his health. Among the children she helped there was one Edward Bunker
Edward Bunker
Edward Heward Bunker was an American author of crime fiction, a screenwriter, and an actor. He wrote numerous books, some of which have been adapted into films....
, who described what had happened in his autobiographical The Education of a Felon.
Selected filmography
- Poor Jake's DemisePoor Jake's DemisePoor Jake's Demise is a silent comedy film directed by Allen Curtis and featuring Lon Chaney, Sr. For many years the film was considered to be lost, but it was rediscovered in 2007.-Cast:* Max Asher - Jake Schultz* Daisy Small - Mrs. Schultz...
(1913) - Almost an ActressAlmost an ActressAlmost an Actress is a 1913 silent drama film directed by Allen Curtis and featuring Lon Chaney, Sr. The film is now considered to be lost.-Cast:* Louise Fazenda - Susie* Max Asher - The Director* Edward Holland - The Heavy* Lee Morris - Lee...
(1913) - Hogan's Romance UpsetHogan's Romance UpsetHogan's Romance Upset is a 1915 short comedy film directed by Charles Avery and featuring both Fatty Arbuckle and Harold Lloyd in uncredited roles as a spectators.-Cast:* Charles Murray - Hogan* Bobby Dunn - Weary Willie* Louise Fazenda* Ben Turpin...
(1915) - Fatty's Tintype TangleFatty's Tintype TangleFatty's Tintype Tangle is a 1915 comedy short film. A man, tired of his mother-in-law's henpecking, leaves home in anger and sits on a park bench, where a photographer takes a picture of him sitting next to a married woman, whose husband is not pleased....
(1915 short) - The Gold DiggersThe Gold Diggers (1923 film)The Gold Diggers is a Warner Bros. silent film directed by Harry Beaumont with screenplay by Grant Carpenter based on the play of the same name by Avery Hopwood which ran for 282 performances on Broadway in 1919 and 1920. Both the play and the film were produced by David Belasco...
(1923, lost) - Main StreetMain Street (1923 film)Main Street is a 1923 silent film drama based on the novel by Sinclair Lewis. It was produced and distributed by Warner Brothers and directed by Harry Beaumont. A Broadway play version of the novel was produced in 1921. -Cast:...
(1923) - Listen Lester (1924)
- Bobbed HairBobbed Hair (1925 film)Bobbed Hair is a 1925 silent film comedy produced and distributed by Warner Brothers with directing by Alan Crosland. It is based on a novel written by twenty different authors...
(1925) - The BatThe Bat (1926 film)The Bat is a silent film based on the 1920 hit Broadway play by Mary Roberts Rinehart and Avery Hopwood, directed by Roland West and starring Jack Pickford and Louise Fazenda...
(1926) - Miss NobodyMiss NobodyMiss Nobody is a 1926 silent film drama produced and distributed by First National Pictures and directed by Lambert Hillyer. The film is based on a short story by Tiffany Wells called "Shebo"; the likely feminine pronunciation of hobo. The stars of the film were Anna Q. Nilsson and Walter Pidgeon,...
(1926) - The Red MillThe Red Mill (film)The Red Mill is a 1927 comedy film directed by Fatty Arbuckle and written by Frances Marion. The film never had a VHS release, though it aired on the network channel Turner Classic MoviesTCM on January 3, 2008, which was the birthday of leading role actress Marion Davies...
(1927) - Cradle SnatchersCradle SnatchersCradle Snatchers is a 1927 silent film comedy produced and distributed by Fox Film Corporation. The film was directed by Howard Hawks and starred Louise Fazenda, Ethel Wales and Dorothy Phillips in the principal roles. The picture is based on the 1925 Russell Medcraft/Norma Mitchell stage play of...
(1927) - Noah's Ark (1928)
- Tillie's Punctured RomanceTillie's Punctured Romance (1928 film)Tillie's Punctured Romance is a 1928 circus comedy starring W. C. Fields as a ringmaster and Louise Fazenda as a runaway. Written by Monte Brice and Keene Thompson and directed by A. Edward Sutherland, this movie has nothing to do with the revered 1914 Charles Chaplin film aside from sharing the...
(1928) - Riley the CopRiley the CopRiley the Cop is a 1928 comedy film directed by John Ford. It was a silent film with a synchronized music track.-Cast:* J. Farrell MacDonald - James 'Aloysius' Riley * Nancy Drexel - Mary Coronelli...
(1928) - On with the ShowOn with the Show (1929 film)On with the Show! is a 1929 American musical film released by Warner Bros. The film is noted as the first ever all-talking all-color feature length movie, and the second color movie released by Warner Bros.; the first was a partly color, black-and-white musical, The Desert Song . -Plot:With unpaid...
(1929) - The Show of Shows (1929)
- Loose AnklesLoose AnklesLoose Ankles is a Pre-Code romantic comedy released in all-talking versions and silent versions.Warner Brothers produced and distributed the film under First National. The film was directed by Ted Wilde and starred Loretta Young, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. and Edward Nugent. This film has been shown...
(1930) - No, No, NanetteNo, No, NanetteNo, No, Nanette is a musical comedy with lyrics by Irving Caesar and Otto Harbach, music by Vincent Youmans, and a book by Otto Harbach and Frank Mandel, based on Mandel's 1919 Broadway play My Lady Friends...
(1930) - High Society BluesHigh Society BluesHigh Society Blues is a film starring Janet Gaynor and Charles Farrell. The movie was written by Howard J. Green from the story by Dana Burnett and directed by David Butler....
(1930) - Bride of the Regiment (1930)
- Rain or ShineRain or Shine (film)Rain or Shine is a 1930 film directed by Frank Capra and starring Joe Cook and Louise Fazenda. A woman inherits her father's struggling traveling circus, and looks to the circus's manager, Smiley, to save the day when the performers conspire to strike during a performance.The film was adapted from...
(1930) - Viennese NightsViennese Nights (film)Viennese Nights is a musical operetta film photographed entirely in Technicolor and released by Warner Brothers. The movie was filmed in March and April 1930, before anyone realized the extent of the economic hardships that would arrive with Great Depression, which began in the autumn of that year...
(1930) - The Mad Parade (1931)
- Once in a Lifetime (1932)
- Alice in WonderlandAlice in Wonderland (1933 film)Alice in Wonderland is a 1933 film version of the famous Alice novels of Lewis Carroll. The film was produced by Paramount Pictures, featuring an all-star cast. It is all live-action, except for the Walrus and The Carpenter sequence, which was animated by Leon Schlesinger Productions.Stars featured...
(1933) - Wonder Bar (1934)
- CaravanCaravan (1934 film)Caravan is a film made by Fox Film Corporation, directed by Erik Charell. The film stars Charles Boyer, Loretta Young and Jean Parker. Fox also produced a French language version of this film, Caravane starring Boyer, Annabella, and Conchita Montenegro.-Cast:*Charles Boyer as Latzi*Loretta...
(1934) - Broadway Gondolier (1935)
- The Casino Murder CaseThe Casino Murder CaseThe Casino Murder Case is a 1934 novel written by S. S. Van Dine in the series about fictional detective Philo Vance. In this outing, a murder investigation is connected with a private casino on New York's upper west side, and the wealthy and unorthodox family that operates it...
(1935) - The Widow from Monte CarloThe Widow from Monte CarloThe Widow from Monte Carlo is a 1935 American comedy film directed by Arthur Greville Collins and starring Warren William, Dolores del Rio, Louise Fazenda and Colin Clive. It was based on the play A Present from Margate by A.E.W...
(1935) - ColleenColleen (1936 film)Colleen is a 1936 Warner Bros. musical film directed by Alfred E. Green. It stars Dick Powell, Ruby Keeler, and Joan Blondell.-Plot:Colleen is the manager of a dress shop named "The Ames Company", owned by Donald Ames. They try to keep Uncle Cedric from working, because he'll ruin the company....
(1936) - Ready, Willing, and AbleReady, Willing, and Able (film)Ready, Willing, and Able is a 1937 musical film starring Ruby Keeler and Ross Alexander. It also featured Lee Dixon, Allen Jenkins, Winifred Shaw, Louise Fazenda, and Carolyn Hughes. The director was Ray Enright....
(1937) - Ever Since EveEver Since EveEver Since Eve is a 1937 romantic comedy film starring Marion Davies and Robert Montgomery.-Plot:Marge Winton is fed up with having to quit job after job to avoid the advances of lecherous bosses. When she goes to the employment agency, she is surprised to discover that she is too beautiful for...
(1937) - First LadyFirst Lady (film)First Lady is a 1937 film about behind-the-scenes political maneuverings in Washington, D.C.. It stars Kay Francis and Verree Teasdale as bitter rivals in their pursuit of the title of First Lady. It is based on the play of the same name by George S...
(1937) - Swing Your LadySwing Your LadySwing Your Lady is a musical comedy film directed by Ray Enright and starring Humphrey Bogart.-Plot:Promoter Ed Hatch comes to the Ozarks with his slow-witted wrestlerJoe Skopapoulos whom he pits against a hillbilly Amazon blacksmith,...
(1938) - The Old Maid (1939)
