Snub Pollard 9 November 1889 19 January 1962 was an Australianborn vaudevillian who became a silent film comedian in Hollywood popular in the 1920s Born Harold Fraser in Melbourne Australia on 9 November 1889 he began performing with Pollards Lilliputian Opera Company at a young age Like many of the actors in the popular juvenile company he adopted Pollard as his stage name The company ran several highly successful professional childrens troupes that traveled Australia and New Zealand in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century In 1908 Harry Pollard joined the company tour to North America After the completion of the tour he returned to the US By 1915 he was regularly appearing in uncredited roles in movies for example Charles Epting notes that Pollard can clearly be seen in Chaplins 1915 short By the Sea In later years Pollard claimed Hal Roach had discovered him while he was performing on stage in Los Angeles Pollard played supporting roles in the early films of Harold Lloyd and Bebe Daniels The longfaced Pollard sported a Kaiser Wilhelm mustache turned upsidedown this became his trademark Lloyds producer Hal Roach gave Pollard his own starring series of one and tworeel shorts The most famous is 1923s Its a Gift in which he plays an inventor of many Rube Goldberglike contraptions including a car that runs by magnet power In early 1923 shortly after his second marriage Pollard returned with his wife Elizabeth to see his relations in Australia His visit attracted considerable attention and he appeared again in several theatres to speak about the motion picture business On his return to the US he left Roach and joined the lowbudget Weiss Brothers studio in 1926 There he costarred with Marvin Loback as a poor mans version of Laurel and Hardy copying that teams plots and gags In later years Pollard claimed the Great Depression wiped out his investments and he had been unable to adjust to the talkies However in the 1930s he played small parts in talking comedies and was featured as comic relief in B westerns Pollards silentcomedy credentials guaranteed him work in slapstick revivals He appeared with other film veterans in Hollywood Cavalcade 1939 The Perils of Pauline 1947 and Man of a Thousand Faces 1957 He also appeared regularly as a supporting player in Columbia Pictures tworeel comedies of the mid1940s Forsaking his familiar mustache in his later years he landed much steadier work in films as a mostly uncredited bit player He played incidental roles in scores of Hollywood features and shorts almost always as a mousy nondescript fellow usually with no dialogue Snub Pollard died of cancer on 19 January 1962 aged 72 after nearly 50 years in the movie business His interment was at Forest Lawn Memorial Park Hollywood Hills For his contributions to motion pictures Pollard has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6415½ Hollywood Boulevard
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