Karl Dane

Karl Dane was a Danish-American actor and comedian, born in Copenhagen in 1886, who appeared mainly in silent films. He began with a Vitagraph short in 1917 and then appeared in the anti-German film My Four Years in Germany. His breakthrough came as Slim in King Vidor's The Big Parade (1925), a major success. After co-starring with Rudolph Valentino in The Son of the Sheik (1926), he signed with MGM and took comic relief roles in films including The Scarlet Letter (1927). Paired with George K. Arthur as Dane and Arthur, he made a series of successful silent comedies beginning with Rookies. When sound arrived, his thick Danish accent became a problem, and MGM dropped him in 1930 after he appeared without dialogue in The Big House (1930). He later made sound shorts and toured vaudeville, and his final film was The Whispering Shadow (1933). He received a Hollywood Walk of Fame star and died in 1934.