Bud Jamison

Younger movie fans in the post-talkies era knew Bud Jamison as a familiar foil to the Three Stooges during many of their 1930s two-reelers. The native Californian jumped from vaudeville into the nascent movie-making industry that was emerging in his home state. A member of Charlie Chaplin's stock company at the Essanay Studio in 1915, the big-boned yet agile Jamison proved to be the perfect heavy opposite Chaplin, and was such a skilled performer that he was hired by numerous other comedic titans of the Silent Movie Era, including Harold Lloyd, Mack Sennett, and Hal Roach. Often cast as some kind of authority figure, by the time sound was introduced into movie-making he seamlessly transitioned into the medium, even more so given his excellent tenor singing voice. It was a skill he used to great effect in the 1941 showbiz comedy "Pot O' Gold," where he dominated in a jail cell scene over a group of other loudly singing actors. But it was in the Stooges short subjects, starting with 1934's "Woman Haters," that Jamison made his mark, particularly in 1936's classic "Disorder in the Court." Between the voluminous amounts of comic two-reelers he appeared in throughout his 29-year career, the beefy character actor appeared in about 450 motion pictures. Bud Jamison died of diabetic shock in at the age of 50.