page_title: Eugene Pallette
section_title: Silent pictures
hierarchical_section_title: Eugene Pallette / Silent pictures
caption_attribution_description: English: Still from the American silent film Fair and Warmer (1919) with Eugene Pallette and May Allison, from page 60 of the November 1919 Shadowland. "Blanny (Allison) regarded the tea-cart with pigeon toes and awe. It had a fearful aspect."
context_page_description: Eugene William Pallette was an American film actor who worked in both the silent and sound eras, performing in more than 240 productions between 1913 and 1946.
  After an early career as a slender leading man, Pallette became a stout character actor. He had a deep voice, which some critics have likened to the sound of a croaking frog, and is probably best-remembered for comic character roles such as Alexander Bullock, Carole Lombard's character's father, in My Man Godfrey, as Friar Tuck in The Adventures of Robin Hood starring Errol Flynn, and his similar role as Fray Felipe in The Mark of Zorro starring Tyrone Power. He also starred in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington and Heaven Can Wait.
context_section_description: Pallette began his silent film career as an extra and stunt man in 1910 or 1911. His first credited appearance was in the one-reel short western/drama The Fugitive (1913) which was directed by Wallace Reid for Flying "A" Studios at Santa Barbara. The up-and-coming actor was also splitting an apartment with actor Wallace Reid.
  Quickly advancing to featured status, Pallette was cast in many westerns. He worked with D. W. Griffith on such films as The Birth of a Nation (1915), where he played two parts, one in blackface, and Intolerance (1916). He also played a Chinese role in Tod Browning's The Highbinders. At this time, Pallette had a slim, athletic figure, a far cry from his portly build later in his career. He starred as the slender sword-fighting swashbuckler Aramis in Douglas Fairbanks' 1921 version of The Three Musketeers, one of the great smash hits of the silent era. However, his girth had begun to get stockier, ending his ambitions of becoming a leading man. Discouraged, Pallette left Hollywood for the oil fields of Texas, where he both made and lost a sizable fortune of $140,000 (equivalent to $2,006,754 in 2019) in the same year. Eventually he returned to film work.
   
  After gaining a great deal of weight, he became one of the screen's most recognizable character actors. In 1927, he signed as a regular for Hal Roach Studios and was a reliable comic foil in several early Laurel and Hardy movies. In later years, Pallette's weight may have topped out at more than 300 pounds (136 kg).
caption: Pallette with May Allison in Fair and Warmer (1920)
exif: {"Image Artist": "Michael A. Dean", "Image ExifOffset": "2170", "Image XPAuthor": "Michael A. Dean", "Image Padding": "[]", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2013:11:04 10:10:26", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2013:11:04 10:10:26", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "34", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "34"}