Daphne Pollard

Daphne Pollard was an Australian-born stage and screen comedian who amassed nearly 60 screen credits, mostly short comedies, between 1928 and 1935. Born in the Melbourne suburb of Fitzroy, she joined the Pollard Lilliputian Opera Company at six and toured Australia, New Zealand and the United States in light opera and musical comedy. She made her Broadway debut in 1908 in Eddie Foy's Mr. Hamlet of Broadway, and later starred at the Morosco Theatre in The Girl Behind the Counter. In London she appeared in the revue Zig-Zag! and several other Hippodrome productions. Mack Sennett signed her in 1927 and cast her in his Sennett Girl Comedies, starting with The Girl from Everywhere. She then worked at RKO-Pathe, Universal and Vitaphone, making knockabout two-reel comedies with Shemp Howard at Vitaphone. Hal Roach brought her to Hollywood in 1935 to work with Laurel and Hardy, and her final screen appearance was a gag role in The Dancing Masters (1943).