Roger Imhof (April 15[1] or August 15,[2] 1875, Rock Island, Illinois - April 15, 1958, Hollywood, California) was a film actor, vaudeville, burlesque and circus performer, sketch writer, and songwriter.[3]
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Born Frederick Roger Imhoff,[1] he began his career as a circus clown, with the Mills Orton Circus,[4] and an Irish comic.[3] He "toured in vaudeville and burlesque between 1895 and 1930."[3] By 1897, he was "teamed with Charles Osborne in a comedy contortion and burlesque acrobatics act."[1] Around this time, he dropped an "f" from his name.
In the 1902-1903 season, he first worked with longtime vaudeville partner Hugh Conn, an association that lasted into the 1920s or possibly 1930s.[1] Marcel Corinne (died 1977), sometimes spelled Coreene, joined the act some time in the 1910s. She and Imhof married in 1913.[1] The trio of Imhof, Conn and Corinne toured in two comic sketches, "The Pest House" and "Surgeon Louder." "The Pest House", thought to have been set in a lunatic asylum and to run 30 minutes, was "the most popular and longest running of several sketches starring the portly pair Roger Imhof and Marcel Corinne".[4] In 1923, he appeared in the Broadway play Jack and Jill.[4][5]
He reportedly invested in Chicago and Los Angeles real estate, but lost most of his money in the stock market and during the Great Depression.[4]
He became involved early on in the nascent Hollywood film industry, apparently "as a presenter, promoter, or agent".[1] As an actor, he appeared in films from 1932 to 1944, including San Francisco (1936), Drums Along the Mohawk (1939), The Grapes of Wrath (1940) and This Gun for Hire (1942).
Of the songs he composed, 11 are extant, including the 1906 "Old Broadway".[3]
Imhof died on April 15, 1958 and was buried in Pierce Brothers Valhalla Memorial Park.[2]
Collections of his papers and other material are held by the Green Library, Department of Special Collections, Stanford University,[1] and the Spencer Research Library, University of Kansas.[3]