Bud Jamison

Bud Jamison

Bud Jamison
Born William Edward Jaimison
(1894-02-15)February 15, 1894
Vallejo, California, U.S.
Died September 30, 1944(1944-09-30) (aged 50)
Hollywood, California, U.S.
Occupation Actor
Years active 1915–1944
Spouse(s) Georgia Kathleen Holland (1921–1944) (his death)

Bud Jamison (February 15, 1894 – September 30, 1944) was an American film actor. He appeared in 450 films between 1915 and 1944.

Career

Jamison (right) endures The Three Stooges' unorthodox courtroom behavior in 1936's Disorder in the Court.
Chef Bud Jamison wishbones Harry Sweet in this Wid's Daily 1921 ad.

Born in Vallejo, California, Jamison joined the ranks of stage and vaudeville performers making movies in California. Jamison's husky build and willingness to participate in messy slapstick and rowdy action guaranteed him work in silent comedies. In 1915 he was a member of Charlie Chaplin's stock company at the Essanay studio. From there he moved to the Hal Roach studio, playing hot-tempered comic foils for Harold Lloyd, Snub Pollard, and Stan Laurel. In the 1920s he joined Universal Pictures' short-comedy contingent, and later worked in Mack Sennett comedies.

In his earliest films Jamison looked too young to be totally convincing in heavy makeup as a veteran policeman, detective, or authority figure. As the years progressed, he grew into these roles, and by the time sound films arrived he was well established as a reliable character comedian.

Jamison had a superb tenor singing voice, and loved to sing when not filming. Sound movies gave producers a chance to exploit his singing, and for the rest of his career he would occasionally be called upon to vocalize in films. A brief series of color travelogues filmed in 1930, featured Jamison and comic Jimmie Adams as "The Rolling Stones", two singing vagabonds seeing the country. Jamison would be hired just for his singing, as in Pot o' Gold where he plays a vagrant who harmonizes in jail. He also sings "You'll Never Know Just What Tears Are" in The Three Stooges 1939 film A Ducking They Did Go.

Jamison continued to play cops, robbers, bosses, servants, and various professional men who clash with comedy stars. He appeared opposite Bing Crosby, W. C. Fields, and Andy Clyde in Sennett's talkies. Like other members of the two-reel-comedy community, he found work at various studios: Hal Roach (with Thelma Todd and ZaSu Pitts, and Charley Chase), Educational Pictures (with Buster Keaton), RKO Radio Pictures (with Clark & McCullough, Leon Errol, and Edgar Kennedy), and Columbia Pictures (with Keaton, Clyde, Chase, Harry Langdon, and the Three Stooges, among many others). Jamison is best known for his Columbia Stooge shorts. including their debut, Woman Haters (in which Jamison speaks in verse, as the head of the Woman Haters Club).

Moe Howard of the Stooges (who referred to Jamison as "Buddy Jamison") fondly recalled singing barbershop harmony with Charley Chase, actor Vernon Dent, and Jamison many times on movie sets.

Death

Jamison suffered from diabetes during his later years. A devout Christian Scientist, he died on September 30, 1944 at age 50 after refusing treatment for kidney cancer.[1]

He is buried in Inglewood Park Cemetery in Inglewood, California.

Partial filmography

References

  1. ↑ Bud Jamison entry at threestooges.net Archived May 27, 2010, at the Wayback Machine.
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