Hughie Mack

Birthday: Nov 26, 1884

Bio: Weighing in at 367 pounds, silent screen comic Hughie Mack (born McGowan) was reportedly discovered sleeping on a Brooklyn park bench by Vitagraph founders Albert E. Smith and J. Stuart Blackton, both of whom found dozing fat men a laugh riot. Vitagraph's top box-office attraction at the time was the equally hefty John Bunny and Mack went on to support him in… More Bio: Weighing in at 367 pounds, silent screen comic Hughie Mack (born McGowan) was reportedly discovered sleeping on a Brooklyn park bench by Vitagraph founders Albert E. Smith and J. Stuart Blackton, both of whom found dozing fat men a laugh riot. Vitagraph's top box-office attraction at the time was the equally hefty John Bunny and Mack went on to support him in several popular farces. After Bunny's sudden death in 1915, Mack was positioned to succeed him but he was not nearly as talented and relied perhaps too heavily on slapstick, which Bunny had successfully eschewed and which at the time was considered low class. There were a few well-received comedies co-starring Patsy DeForest and directed by future star Larry Semon but by the late 1910s, Mack was performing brief comedy roles in feature films. A favorite of Erich Von Stroheim, he appeared in Greed (1925), The Merry Widow (1925), and, as Fay Wray's father, in The Wedding March (1928). The latter was released posthumously, Hughie Mack having died from heart disease in October 1927. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, Rovi