▲Roscoe Conkling "Fatty" Arbuckle was born in Kansas in 1887. He weighed in excess of 13 lbs (5.9 kg) at birth.

▲One of the few films of Arbuckle's to remain complete, prints of 'Love' survive in collections.

▲Arbuckle is credited with discovering Buster Keaton, and the two enjoyed immense success working together. Keaton's first film as director, 'The Rough House' (1917), starred his big buddy.

▲By the age of eight, he was performing on stage. He displayed an early talent for singing and comedy, and soon began a career in vaudeville.

▲Burgeoning funny man Arbuckle achieved wider fame when he became a star of the Keystone Cops comedies in films such as 'In the Clutches of the Gang' (1914).

▲This was the fourteenth and last film starring the duo before Keaton set up his own studio and Arbuckle started making feature-length films.

▲Despite being exonerated of all charges, Hollywood shunned Arbuckle. Will H. Hays (pictured), chairman of the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America, temporarily banned Arbuckle from ever working in US movies again. There was also the determined destruction of copies of films starring the actor. In November 1923, his wife Minta Durfee filed for divorce.

▲On September 5, 1921, Arbuckle and two friends, Lowell Sherman and Fred Fishback, checked into the St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco. Each had their own suite. A number of women were invited to join them, including a 26-year-old aspiring actress named Virginia Rappe.

▲Appearing alongside Buster Keaton, 'The Cook' features numerous scenes of Arbuckle eating, and contains many of his favorite food gags. For years this film was believed lost until a copy was discovered in the Norwegian Film Archive in 1998.

▲Arbuckle mentored Chaplin during the British actor's early years in Hollywood, and the two comedians made several films together, including 1914's 'The Rounders.' During Arbuckle's trial, Chaplin was one of the few celebrities to speak for the fallen star, telling reporters he could not (and would not) believe Arbuckle had anything to do with Virginia Rappe's death.

▲Little did the actor know, but the title of this Arbuckle movie would take on a totally different meaning a year after its release.

▲Arbuckle began his film career in 1909, when he appeared in 'Ben's Kid.'

▲Luke the Dog was a Staffordshire Bull Terrier, and the personal pet of Arbuckle and his wife, Minta Durfee.

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Fortunately, several of Arbuckle's shorts, especially those co-starring Chaplin or Keaton, have been restored. He even has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Indeed, on his acquittal in 1922, a jury statement was handed to the actor, which read: "We feel that a great injustice has been done him [...] there was not the slightest proof adduced to connect him in any way with the commission of a crime [...] Roscoe Arbuckle is entirely innocent and free from all blame."

▲Arbuckle made seven films in 1921, including this one released that June. However, 'Leap Year' and 'The Fat Freight' were not released in the US due to the actor's involvement in the Virginia Rappe scandal.

▲One of Arbuckle's biggest critical successes, the film's publicity is known for the tagline "Nobody loves a fat man," a phrase that would be unacceptable to use today. Obese from an early age, Arbuckle used his appearance on screen to his advantage, but discouraged anyone from addressing him as "Fatty" off screen: "I've got a name, you know," he'd snap back.

▲Besides being a talented comedy actor, Arbuckle was also a successful director. An early film was 'The Moonshiners' (1916).

▲Rappe worked mostly bit parts in movies. During the party at the St. Francis Hotel, she was found in Arbuckle's suite, number 1219, allegedly suffering trauma.

▲Belmont effectively became Arbuckle's accuser. It later transpired that Rappe for some time had suffered a urinary tract infection, a condition that consuming alcohol could aggravate, and that Belmont had a police record for extortion, prostitution, and blackmail. Pictured: Virginia Rappe's casket.

▲The first leading lady of Charlie Chaplin, Minta Durfee married Arbuckle in 1908. The couple separated in 1921, just prior to the scandal involving the death of Rappe. In her later years, Durfee defended her former husband, describing him as "the most generous human being I've ever met."

▲On April 12, 1922, after the end of the third trial, a jury took just six minutes to return with a unanimous not guilty verdict. Arbuckle was cleared of all charges. But his personal and professional reputation lay in ruins.

▲The end of the first trial saw the jury deadlocked, with a mistrial eventually declared. Similarly, the jury failed to reach a unanimous verdict in the second trial, resulting in another mistrial. Pictured: Arbuckle and his defense lawyers at the first trial in November 1921.

▲The actress was examined by the hotel's doctor, but she was not hospitalized until two days later. While in hospital, Rappe's friend at the party, Bambina Maude Belmont, told Rappe's doctor that Arbuckle had sexually assaulted her friend. Rappe died later from peritonitis caused by a ruptured bladder. Pictured: Suite 1221 of St. Francis Hotel shortly after Arbuckle's party.

▲Arbuckle stayed behind the camera for this Keaton two-reel comedy. The silent short also featured Luke the Dog, Arbuckle's faithful hound.

▲Keaton's comic tumbles were singled out for praise, as was Arbuckle's direction of 'Out West,' another hit starring the two comedians.

▲On May 16, 1925, Arbuckle married Doris Deane (pictured) in Los Angeles. She filed for divorce in 1929, citing desertion and cruelty. He tied the knot for the third and final time in 1932, marrying actress Addie McPhail. She died in 2003, aged 97.

▲On September 17, 1921, Arbuckle was arrested and arraigned initially on the charges of manslaughter. The entertainer would endure three well publicized trials between November 1921 and April 1922 for the alleged sexual assault and manslaughter of Virginia Rappe.

▲Another early appearance was in 'A Noise from the Deep,' opposite Mabel Normand. The 10-minute short is notable for Normand's character lobbing the first pie ever known to be thrown on film—a comedy cliché that has come to symbolize silent-film-era comedy itself.

▲Normand appeared in 17 films with Arbuckle and 12 with Charlie Chaplin, sometimes writing and directing (or co-writing/directing) movies featuring Chaplin as her leading man.

▲Luke and his master are pictured in an edition of the American film industry trade journal The Moving Picture World. The dog featured in dozens of silent shorts between 1914 and 1920.

▲Relieved but in shock, Arbuckle tried but failed to get work. Good friend Buster Keaton (pictured) helped by hiring him as a writer for his new short called 'Daydreams' (1922). But the once-popular and wealthy film star was a broken man.

▲In time, Arbuckle worked as a director under the pseudonym William Goodrich. Between 1924 and 1932, he directed a number of comedy shorts.

▲Arbuckle's last film as a director was 'Niagara Falls' (1932). On June 29, 1933, in a positive sign of professional rehabilitation, he signed a contract with Warner Bros. to star in a feature-length film. However, he suffered a heart attack later that night and died in his sleep, age 46. His widow requested that his body be cremated, as per his wish.

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He was one of the most famous film stars of the silent movie era. Yet Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle ended up center stage in one of Hollywood's most infamous scandals. Accused of the manslaughter of a young actress during a party, Arbuckle was tried three times for the alleged crime. Finally acquitted but with his reputation in tatters, the actor who'd mentored Charlie Chaplin and discovered Buster Keaton never recovered from the ordeal.

It's a case that still reverberates as an example of a lurid show trial fueled by a salacious press and the publication of exaggerated and sensationalized stories.

Browse the gallery for an appreciation of "Fatty" Arbuckle's glittering career and a review of the events that led to his spectacular but undeserved downfall.

Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle and the scandal that shook Hollywood

The silent film star accused of manslaughter

23/07/24 por StarsInsider

CELEBRITY Controversy

It's a case that still reverberates as an example of a lurid show trial fueled by a salacious press and the publication of exaggerated and sensationalized stories. Browse this gallery for an appreciation of "Fatty" Arbuckle's glittering career, and a review of the events that led to his spectacular but undeserved downfall.