Al St. John (also credited as Al Saint John and "Fuzzy" St. John; September 10, 1892 – January 21, 1963) was an early American motion-picture comedian. He was a nephew of
silent film
A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound (or more generally, no audible dialogue). Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements (such as a setting or era) or key lines of dialogue may, w ...
star
Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle
Roscoe Conkling "Fatty" Arbuckle (; March 24, 1887 – June 29, 1933) was an American silent film actor, comedian, director, and screenwriter. He started at the Selig Polyscope Company and eventually moved to Keystone Studios, where he worked w ...
, with whom he often performed on screen. St. John was employed by
Mack Sennett
Mack Sennett (born Michael Sinnott; January 17, 1880 – November 5, 1960) was a Canadian-American film actor, director, and producer, and studio head, known as the 'King of Comedy'.
Born in Danville, Quebec, in 1880, he started in films in the ...
and also worked with many other leading players such as
Charlie Chaplin
Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin Jr. (16 April 188925 December 1977) was an English comic actor, filmmaker, and composer who rose to fame in the era of silent film. He became a worldwide icon through his screen persona, the Tramp, and is conside ...
,
Buster Keaton
Joseph Frank "Buster" Keaton (October 4, 1895 – February 1, 1966) was an American actor, comedian, and filmmaker. He is best known for his silent film work, in which his trademark was physical comedy accompanied by a stoic, deadpan expression ...
and
Mabel Normand
Amabel Ethelreid Normand (November 9, 1893 – February 23, 1930), better known as Mabel Normand, was an American silent film actress, screenwriter, director, and producer. She was a popular star and collaborator of Mack Sennett in their ...
. His film career successfully transitioned from the silent era into
sound
In physics, sound is a vibration that propagates as an acoustic wave, through a transmission medium such as a gas, liquid or solid.
In human physiology and psychology, sound is the ''reception'' of such waves and their ''perception'' by ...
, and by the late 1930s and 1940s he was working predominantly in
Westerns
The Western is a genre set in the American frontier and commonly associated with folk tales of the Western United States, particularly the Southwestern United States, as well as Northern Mexico and Western Canada. It is commonly referred ...
, often portraying the scruffy comedy-relief character "Fuzzy Q. Jones". Among his notable performances in that role are in the "
Billy the Kid
Billy the Kid (born Henry McCarty; September 17 or November 23, 1859July 14, 1881), also known by the pseudonym William H. Bonney, was an outlaw and gunfighter of the American Old West, who killed eight men before he was shot and killed at th ...
" series of films released by the
Producers Releasing Corporation
Producers Releasing Corporation was the smallest and least prestigious of the Hollywood film studios of the 1940s. It was considered a prime example of what was called "Poverty Row": a low-rent stretch of Gower Street in Hollywood where shoestr ...
from 1940 to 1946 and in that company's "
Lone Rider" series from 1941 to 1943.
Early life, family and education
Alfred St. John was born in
Santa Ana, California
Santa Ana () is the second most populous city and the county seat of Orange County, California. Located in the Greater Los Angeles region of Southern California, the city's population was 310,227 at the 2020 census, making Santa Ana the 13th-m ...
. He was the only child of parents Walter St. John, who supported the family initially as a farm laborer and later as a house builder, and Nora N. St. John (née Arbuckle), who was the older sister of actor
Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle
Roscoe Conkling "Fatty" Arbuckle (; March 24, 1887 – June 29, 1933) was an American silent film actor, comedian, director, and screenwriter. He started at the Selig Polyscope Company and eventually moved to Keystone Studios, where he worked w ...
. His uncle Roscoe, was five years older than Alfred.
Career
![OutWest1918-01](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/64/OutWest1918-01.jpg)
Young "Al" entered silent films in 1911 to work as an
extra
Extra or Xtra may refer to:
Arts, entertainment and media Film
* ''The Extra'' (1962 film), a Mexican film
* ''The Extra'' (2005 film), an Australian film
Literature
* ''Extra'' (newspaper), a Brazilian newspaper
* ''Extra!'', an American me ...
and in minor character roles. Soon, however, he graduated to co-starring and then to starring roles in comedy
shorts
Shorts are a garment worn over the pelvic area, circling the waist and splitting to cover the upper part of the legs, sometimes extending down to the knees but not covering the entire length of the leg. They are called "shorts" because they ...
for a variety of studios.
["Al St. John Veteran Film Comic Dies", extended obituary, '']The Arizona Republic
''The Arizona Republic'' is an American daily Lists of newspapers, newspaper published in Phoenix, Arizona, Phoenix. Circulated throughout Arizona, it is the state's largest newspaper. Since 2000, it has been owned by the Gannett newspaper chain ...
'' (Phoenix), 22 January 1963, p. 24. ProQuest.
St. John frequently appeared as Arbuckle's mischievously villainous rival for the attentions of leading ladies such as
Mabel Normand
Amabel Ethelreid Normand (November 9, 1893 – February 23, 1930), better known as Mabel Normand, was an American silent film actress, screenwriter, director, and producer. She was a popular star and collaborator of Mack Sennett in their ...
and
Minta Durfee
Araminta Estelle "Minta" Durfee (October 1, 1889 – September 9, 1975) was an American silent film actress from Los Angeles, California, possibly best known for her role in '' Mickey'' (1918).
Biography
She met Roscoe Arbuckle when he was att ...
. He worked with Arbuckle and
Charles Chaplin
Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin Jr. (16 April 188925 December 1977) was an English comic actor, filmmaker, and composer who rose to fame in the era of silent film. He became a worldwide icon through his screen persona, the Tramp, and is consid ...
in ''
The Rounders'' (1914), although his most critically praised film during this period with Arbuckle remains ''
Fatty and Mabel Adrift
''Fatty and Mabel Adrift'' is a 1916 Keystone short comedy film starring Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, Mabel Normand, and Al St. John.
Plot
The story involves Arbuckle as a farm boy marrying his sweetheart, Normand. They have their honeymoon with ...
'' (1916). In France, he was billed as "Picratt."
![Al St](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/02/Al_St._John.jpg)
When Arbuckle formed his own production company, he brought St. John with him and recruited stage star
Buster Keaton
Joseph Frank "Buster" Keaton (October 4, 1895 – February 1, 1966) was an American actor, comedian, and filmmaker. He is best known for his silent film work, in which his trademark was physical comedy accompanied by a stoic, deadpan expression ...
into his films, creating a formidable roughhouse trio. After Arbuckle was involved in a
widely publicized scandal that prevented him from appearing in movies, he pseudonymously directed his nephew Al as a comic
leading man
A leading actor, leading actress, or simply lead (), plays the role of the protagonist of a film, television show or play. The word ''lead'' may also refer to the largest role in the piece, and ''leading actor'' may refer to a person who typica ...
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
The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues.
It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...
in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
in 2006.
As St. John's screen career continued through the 1930s, he was increasingly cast as scruffy, bearded comic characters. He appears, for example, in this type of role in Buster Keaton's 1937 comedy short ''
Love Nest on Wheels
''Love Nest on Wheels'' is a 1937 Educational Pictures short subject directed by Buster Keaton and Charles Lamont. The film borrows heavily from Keaton's 1918 film '' The Bell Boy''.
The film is notable because it is one of the rare times that ...
'', portraying the
hillbilly character Uncle Jed. That same year he began supporting cowboy stars Fred Scott and later Jack Randall, but most of his films were made for
Poverty Row
Poverty Row is a slang term used to refer to Hollywood films produced from the 1920s to the 1950s by small (and mostly short-lived) B movie studios. Although many of them were based on (or near) today's Gower Street in Hollywood, the term did ...
studio
Producers Releasing Corporation
Producers Releasing Corporation was the smallest and least prestigious of the Hollywood film studios of the 1940s. It was considered a prime example of what was called "Poverty Row": a low-rent stretch of Gower Street in Hollywood where shoestr ...
(PRC). For that studio, he played "Fuzzy Q. Jones" in the ''
Billy the Kid
Billy the Kid (born Henry McCarty; September 17 or November 23, 1859July 14, 1881), also known by the pseudonym William H. Bonney, was an outlaw and gunfighter of the American Old West, who killed eight men before he was shot and killed at th ...
'' 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
Clarence Linden Crabbe II (; February 7, 1908 – April 23, 1983), known professionally as Buster Crabbe, was an American two-time Olympic swimmer and film and television actor. He won the 1932 Olympic gold medal for 400-meter freestyle swimmi ...
.
![Buster Crabbe-Al St](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/74/Buster_Crabbe-Al_St._John_in_Shadows_of_Death.jpg)
The name "Fuzzy" originally belonged to a different actor,
John Forrest “Fuzzy“ Knight, who took on the role of "cowboy sidekick" before St. John. The studio first intended to hire Knight for the Western series, but then gave the role to St. John, who took on the nickname of his rival for his screen character.
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 the productions' increasingly low budgets), St. John was paired with new star
Lash LaRue
Alfred "Lash" LaRue (June 15, 1917 – May 21, 1996) was a popular western motion picture star of the 1940s and 1950s.
Biography Early life and education
Born Alfred LaRue in Gretna, Louisiana in 1917, he was reared in various towns th ...
. Ultimately, St. John performed in more than 80 Westerns as Fuzzy.
St. John also created a character, "Stoney," in the film ''
The Law of the 45's'' that later appeared, but played by different actors (including
John Wayne), in the continuing Western film series ''
The Three Mesquiteers''.
[Pitts, Michael R. ''Poverty Row Studios, 1929-1940: An Illustrated History of 55 Independent Film Companies, with a Filmography for Each'' McFarland, 2005, pp. 52-53.]
St. John acted in more than 350 films during his screen career, which spanned the years 1911 through 1952.
Final years
For a decade after the end of his motion-picture career, he made assorted personal appearances at fairs, rodeos, on television, and at overseas US
military base
A military base is a facility directly owned and operated by or for the military or one of its branches that shelters military equipment and personnel, and facilitates training and operations. A military base always provides accommodations for ...
s. He performed as well with traveling live-action productions such as the Tommy Scott
Wild West Show
Wild West shows were traveling vaudeville performances in the United States and Europe that existed around 1870–1920. The shows began as theatrical stage productions and evolved into open-air shows that depicted romanticized stereotypes of ...
.
["Al St. John, Western Star, Dies in Lyons", '']The Atlanta Constitution
''The Atlanta Journal-Constitution'' is the only major daily newspaper in the metropolitan area of Atlanta, Georgia. It is the flagship publication of Cox Enterprises. The ''Atlanta Journal-Constitution'' is the result of the merger between ...
'', 22 January 1963, p. 32. ProQuest
ProQuest LLC is an Ann Arbor, Michigan-based global information-content and technology company, founded in 1938 as University Microfilms by Eugene B. Power. ProQuest is known for its applications and information services for libraries, provid ...
Historical Newspapers, Ann Arbor, Michigan; subscription access through The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Library.
St. John's death on January 21, 1963, occurred while he was touring with Scott. According to his obituaries, he suffered a massive
heart attack
A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which ma ...
at a
motel
A motel, also known as a motor hotel, motor inn or motor lodge, is a hotel designed for motorists, usually having each room entered directly from the parking area for motor vehicles rather than through a central lobby. Entering dictionarie ...
in
Lyons, Georgia
Lyons is a city in Toombs County, Georgia, United States. The population was 4,367 at the 2010 census, up from 4,169 in 2000. The city is the county seat of Toombs County.
Lyons is part of the Vidalia Micropolitan Statistical Area.
History
Lyo ...
, as he prepared for a special appearance at a nearby
American Legion club. It was also widely reported in news accounts that the 70-year-old veteran entertainer died at the motel "in the arms of his wife, Flo-Bell Moore".
["Al St. John, Western Film Comic, Dies", obituary '']Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the U ...
'', 22 January 1963, p. 4. ProQuest. After a private funeral service in Lyons, St. John's body was sent to
Macon, Georgia for cremation. His ashes were then transferred to
Homosassa Springs, Florida
Homosassa Springs is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Citrus County, Florida, United States. The population was 13,791 at the 2010 census. Homosassa Springs is the principal city of the Homosassa Springs, Flori ...
, where they were "deposited" at Fuzzy and Flo-Bell's permanent residence on the couple's "Double F Ranch".
Filmography
*
Al St. John filmography
References
Further reading
* Copeland, Bobby J. ''Fuzzy St. John: Our Fuzzy Q. Jones''. Madison, North Carolina: Empire Publishing Company, 2010; .
* Rothel, David. ''Those Great Cowboy Sidekicks''. Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press, 1984 .
External links
Official website Run by the Estate of Al St. John
*
*
ttp://www.virtual-history.com/movie/person/1518/al-st-john Al St. Johnat Virtual History
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:St. John, Alfred
1892 births
1963 deaths
20th-century American comedians
20th-century American male actors
American male comedians
American male comedy actors
American male film actors
American male silent film actors
Comedians from California
Male Western (genre) film actors
People from Lyons, Georgia
People from Santa Ana, California
Silent film comedians