Harry 'Snub' Pollard

Harry 'Snub' Pollard

Personal Info

Known For
Acting
Born
1889-11-08
Died
1962-01-19 (aged 72)
Place of Birth
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Harry 'Snub' Pollard

Biography

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.

Known For

Alfred Hitchcock Presents
7.8

Alfred Hitchcock Presents

Bar Patron (uncredited)

1955
Public Defender
6.3

Public Defender

1954
Racket Squad
6.5

Racket Squad

1951
Singin' in the Rain
8.1

Singin' in the Rain

Old Man Getting Umbrella (uncredited)

1952
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
7.8

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance

Statehood Audience Member (uncredited)

1962
Red River
7.3

Red River

Wagon Train Member (uncredited)

1948
Till the Clouds Roll By
5.7

Till the Clouds Roll By

Show Boat Orchestra Drummer (uncredited)

1946
Julius Caesar
7.1

Julius Caesar

Citizen of Rome (uncredited)

1953
Miracle on 34th Street
7.4

Miracle on 34th Street

Final Court Officer Bearing Mail (uncredited)

1947
The Tin Star
7.0

The Tin Star

Townsman(uncredited)

1957
Friendly Persuasion
6.7

Friendly Persuasion

Carnival Patron (uncredited)

1956
The Purchase Price
6.5

The Purchase Price

Harmonica Player Joe Atterbury (uncredited)

1932
Inherit the Wind
7.7

Inherit the Wind

Townsman (uncredited)

1960
One-Eyed Jacks
6.8

One-Eyed Jacks

Townsman (uncredited)

1961
Canyon Passage
6.7

Canyon Passage

Miner (uncredited)

1946
Pocketful of Miracles
7.3

Pocketful of Miracles

Knuckles (uncredited)

1961
Adam's Rib
7.1

Adam's Rib

Man in Courtroom (uncredited)

1949
Trail Street
6.5

Trail Street

Farmer (uncredited)

1947
Main Street Today
6.4

Main Street Today

Pop Denton (uncredited)

1944
Limelight
7.9

Limelight

Street Musician

1952
The Man with the Golden Arm
7.2

The Man with the Golden Arm

Street Vagrant (uncredited)

1955
The Country Girl
7.0

The Country Girl

Stagehand (uncredited)

1954
Sister Kenny
6.9

Sister Kenny

Man at Barn Dance (uncredited)

1946
The Gunfighter
7.4

The Gunfighter

Townsman at Funeral (uncredited)

1950
Stingaree
6.1

Stingaree

Victor

1934
Rollin' Westward
5.8

Rollin' Westward

Poker Player

1939
Frontier Town
6.3

Frontier Town

Peewee

1938
Carrie
6.5

Carrie

Lunch Wagon Counterman (uncredited)

1952
Johnny Belinda
6.8

Johnny Belinda

Man on Jury (uncredited)

1948
Scaramouche
7.0

Scaramouche

Man at Assembly Meeting

1952
Pal Joey
6.3

Pal Joey

Waiter (uncredited)

1957
The Paradine Case
6.3

The Paradine Case

Cabby (uncredited)

1947
Unknown Island
5.2

Unknown Island

Extra in Dive, Pointing Out Tarnowski

1948
Pistols for Breakfast
9.0

Pistols for Breakfast

1919
Police
6.3

Police

First Flophouse Customer

1916
Teacher's Pet
6.8

Teacher's Pet

Reporter (uncredited)

1958
Where the Sidewalk Ends
7.2

Where the Sidewalk Ends

Pool Hall Patron (uncredited)

1950
Back Trail
8.0

Back Trail

Goofy (as Snub Pollard)

1948
Kitty
5.7

Kitty

Hugh's Rental Coachman (uncredited)

1945
The Hoodlum Saint
5.5

The Hoodlum Saint

Parade Spectator (uncredited)

1946
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