Al St. John

Al St. John

Al St. John in Who's Who on the Screen
Born Alfred St. John
(1892-09-10)September 10, 1892
Santa Ana, California, U.S.
Died January 21, 1963(1963-01-21) (aged 70)
Lyons, Georgia, U.S.
Cause of death Heart attack
Occupation Actor, stunt performer, director, writer
Years active 1912-1962
Spouse(s) Lillian Marion Ball (October 5, 1914–March 19, 1923; divorced); 1 child
June Price Pearce (1926–19??)
Yvonne St. John (maiden name unknown; 19??–19??)
Flo-Bell Moore (19??–1963; his death)[1]
Parent(s) Walter St. John
Nora Arbuckle

Al St. John (September 10, 1892 – January 21, 1963) was an American film actor. In his persona of Fuzzy Q. Jones, St. John basically defined the role and concept of "comical sidekick" to cowboy heroes from 1930 to 1951.

Biography

Born in Santa Ana, California to Walter St. John and Nora Arbuckle, he entered silent films around 1912 and soon rose to co-starring and starring roles in short comic films from a variety of studios. His uncle on his mother's side, Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, may have helped him in his early days at Mack Sennett Studios, but talent kept him working. He was a remarkable acrobat. St. John frequently appeared as Arbuckle's mischievously villainous rival for the attentions of leading ladies such as Mabel Normand and worked with Arbuckle and Charles Chaplin in The Rounders (1914). The most critically praised film from St. John's period with Arbuckle remains Fatty and Mabel Adrift (1916) with Normand.

Al St. John in Love
Al St. John (right) with Buster Keaton and Roscoe Arbuckle

When Arbuckle formed his own production company, he brought St. John with him and recruited stage star Buster Keaton into his films, creating a formidable roughhouse trio. After Arbuckle was victimized by a trumped-up scandal that prevented him from appearing in movies, he pseudonymously directed his nephew Al as a comic leading man in silent and sound films such as The Iron Mule (1925) and Bridge Wives (1932). Dozens of St. John's early films were screened during the 56-film Arbuckle retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City in 2006.

During the sound era St. John was mainly seen as an increasingly scruffy and bearded comic character. He played this rube role in Buster Keaton's 1937 comedy Love Nest on Wheels. That same year he began supporting cowboy stars Fred Scott and later Jack Randall, but most of his films were made for Poverty Row studio Producers Releasing Corporation (PRC). For that studio, he played "Fuzzy Q. Jones" in the Billy the Kid series starring Bob Steele, the Lone Rider series (starring George Houston and later Bob Livingston), and the Billy the Kid/Billy Carson series starring Buster Crabbe.

The name Fuzzy originally belonged to a different actor, John Forrest “Fuzzy“ Knight, who took on the role of cowboy sidekick before St. John. As the studio first intended to hire Knight for the western series but then gave the role to St. John instead, who took on the nickname of his rival for his screen character.

Buster Crabbe and Al St. John in Shadows of Death

Exhibitors loved Fuzzy, who could be counted on to attract moviegoers. Fuzzy's character was the main box-office draw in these films when shown in England and Europe. These ultra-low-budget Westerns took only a bit more than a week to film, so that Crabbe and St. John made 36 films together in a surprisingly short time. When Crabbe left PRC (according to interviews, in disgust at their increasingly low budgets), St. John was paired with new star Lash LaRue. Ultimately, St. John made more than 80 Westerns as Fuzzy.

St. John also created a character, "Stoney," in the film The Law of 45's that later appeared, but played by different actors (including John Wayne), in the continuing Western film series The Three Mesquiteers.

St. John's last film was released in 1952. From that time on until his death in 1963 in Lyons, Georgia, he made personal appearances at fairs and rodeos, and traveled with the Tommy Scott Wild West Show. Altogether, Al St. John acted in 346 movies, spanning five decades from 1912 to 1952. He was working with a traveling Wild West show in Georgia and was waiting to go on when he suffered a massive heart attack and died at age 70.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Al St. John marital history; accessed March 11, 2014

Sources

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