Joe Rock

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Joe Rock (25 December 1893 – 5 December 1984) was an American movie producer, director, actor and screenwriter best remembered today for producing a series of 12 two reel comedies starring Stan Laurel in the 1920s.

After infantry service in World War I, Rock began his film career as a comedian in silent films — he had a broad grin and protruding ears, which gave him a comical appearance — but soon found greater success as a producer.

Rock has the unenviable distinction of holding one of filmdom's more bizarre records: the longest wait between winning an Academy Award and actually receiving it. Rock produced the 1933 film Krakatoa, a documentary about the volcanic eruption of 1883. This film won the Academy Award for Best Short Subject in its year of release. However, Rock was in Europe at the time that the award was announced, and had no representative to claim the trophy. Rock's name did not appear in the film's credits. Meanwhile, his production company had failed, and when he returned to the United States he could no longer document that he was the head of the production company named in the film's credits. Almost fifty years later, while sorting out some of his papers, Rock located documents which established his proprietary claim ... and the Academy belatedly gave him his trophy.