James Parrott
Biography: From Wikipedia James Parrott (August 2, 1897 – May 10, 1939) was an American actor and film director; and the younger brother of film comedian Charley Chase. James Gibbons Parrott was born in Baltimore, Maryland, to Charles and Blanche Thompson Parrott. In 1903, his father died from a heart attack, leaving the family in bad financial shape, which forced them to move in with a relative. Charley Jr. quit school, so he could go to work, in order to support his mother and brother. Eventually the call of the stage beckoned him, and Charley Jr. left home at age 16 to travel the vaudeville circuit as a singer and comedic performer. By the time James had reached his teens, he too, had quit school, and became involved with the street gangs of Baltimore. Later, Charley's connections in the film industry helped get his younger brother established in movies, and he would appear during the 1920s in a series of relatively successful comedies for producer Hal Roach. He was billed first as "Paul Parrott," then "Jimmie Parrott." Approximately 75 comedies were produced from 1921 to 1923, with titles continuing to be released through Pathé until 1926. Frequent co-stars included Marie Mosquini, Jobyna Ralston, Eddie Baker, and Sunshine Sammy. Parrott is probably best known as a comedy director. As "James Parrott," he specialized in the two-reel misadventures of Laurel and Hardy, including the Oscar-winning classic The Music Box, and Helpmates. During the 1930s Parrott had acquired serious drinking and drug problems (his diet medications were really addictive amphetamines) and although still able to direct quality shorts, he had developed a reputation as unreliable. By the mid-1930s his work was spotty: Stan Laurel used him sporadically to contribute gags to the Laurel and Hardy features, and he would direct an Our Gang short in 1934, plus several acceptable entries in Thelma Todd-Patsy Kelly series. By 1937, Parrott was accepting any jobs that came his way. He could no longer be counted on to direct or write, and relied on his brother to support him financially. There was a brief marriage to Ruby Ellen McCoy in 1937, but as his various addictions worsened, so did his state of mind. Parrott died at the age of 41 of heart failure. His brother Charley was devastated, and died 13 months later.
Place of Birth: Not available
Birthday: August 01, 1897
Deathday: May 10, 1939
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Known For
Big Town Ideas
1921-05-20
Big Town Ideas
Overview: A woman and her dog defend an innocent man.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1921-05-20
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Way Out West
1920-01-01
Way Out West
Overview: Way Out West silent comedy
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1920-01-01
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Between Meals
1926-01-03
Between Meals
Overview: James Parrott & Ernest Morrison gets chased around a lot. Filmed in 1921 and copyrighted in 1922, but not released until 1926.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1926-01-03
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Shine 'Em Up
1922-11-04
Shine 'Em Up
Overview: Paul's career as a shoeshine man is interrupted when he is mistaken for an escaped convict, but after the Station Master gives him a job at the train station he proves his worth.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1922-11-04
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Post No Bills
1923-08-05
Post No Bills
Overview: Paul Parrott plays an obsessive-compulsive bill poster in this thoroughly average Hal Roach comedy from 1923. Hired to help publicize a new Gloria Snootful picture, Paul goes bonkers with glue and paper and ends up attaching promotional material to any surface within his reach, including the rear ends of a number of people, though his attempt to nail a poster to a glass window is somewhat less successful.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1923-08-05
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Paste and Paper
1923-01-13
Paste and Paper
Overview: Well executed but unexceptional one-reeler about a couple of incompetent paperhangers. James Parrott, brother of Charley Chase, was an equally skilled man behind the camera, later writing and directing some of Roach's best two-reelers, before he died too young, but while the gags here are well done, he never really developed much of a personality in these pieces and they are not, somehow, quite as sharp as the stuff he was co-starring in with Sid Saylor two or three years before. The extended gag with the plank of wood seesawing is typical.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1923-01-13
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Are Parents Pickles?
1925-11-08
Are Parents Pickles?
Overview: James Parrott joins every lodge in town to get in good with people as he tries to sell his fire extinguishers.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1925-11-08
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An Ozark Romance
1918-07-06
An Ozark Romance
Overview: Harold visits the Ozarks, where he has some funny experiences with a mountain girl and her eccentric family.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1918-07-06
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The Uncovered Wagon
1923-07-07
The Uncovered Wagon
Overview: Hal Roach short is a spoof of the 1923 Western COVERED WAGON, which was a huge hit for Paramount. In this film a group of people are heading out West to Hollywood so they pack up their "wagons" and head out where they must battle various elements including crossing a dangerous river and battling Indians. The "wagons" are actually cars with a cover on them and the Indians even ride in on bicycles so you can tell the type of humor that Roach is going for.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1923-07-07
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Shoot Straight
1923-03-10
Shoot Straight
Overview: SHOOT STRAIGHT - starring Paul Parrott, with Jobyna Ralston, Eddie Baker and George Rowe. A rarely-seen comedy short. Parrott is a hapless hunter in this predecessor to Tex Avery toons of the 1940s, and in a series of inventive gag sequences fails to capture squirrel, rabbit, chinchilla, bobcat, duck, and bear all in one reel.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1923-03-10
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Blaze Away
1922-12-03
Blaze Away
Overview: Paul is practicing the art of being a cowboy. He consults a book before firing his gun, climbing onto a saddle on top of a chair and then falling off and dressing his wounds. He then gets back on his 'saddle' and fires his gun again, this time in the direction of another man who has just entered the room. Paul leaves abruptly and rides into town on a horse, and straight through a crowded saloon. A town marshal sees this as act act of bravery and rewards Paul with a sheriff's badge immediately. A fearful rival makes his mark when he lights his cigarette by tossing it into the air and shooting at it to ignite it!
Genres: Western Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1922-12-03
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Harvest Hands
1922-11-19
Harvest Hands
Overview: Paul, a great college athlete, is sent to his uncle's farm to be developed, but turns against the continual round of chores. And at the table he is continually elbowed aside by the huskier farmhands, until he gives up in disgust. But a last attempt to understand the intricacies of the tractor results in his demolishing the house, and the farmer's daughter aids his escape.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1922-11-19
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Young Mr. Jazz
1919-04-20
Young Mr. Jazz
Overview: While running away from his girl's father, Harold's car breaks down in front of a dance hall run by crooks. Harold has to not only stay one step ahead of the girl's father, but also those trying to rob them of everything they have.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1919-04-20
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Don't Park Here
1920-05-19
Don't Park Here
Overview: Not one but two of Charlie Chaplin impersonators, Harry Mann and Monty Banks, a film directed by Charley Chase still under the name of Charles Parrott. They go driving around town experiencing various car theft problems.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1920-05-19
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The Sleuth
1922-07-16
The Sleuth
Overview: Paul Parrott stars as a detective in a hotel trying to recognize a fake sheik
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1922-07-16
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Dear Ol' Pal
1923-11-11
Dear Ol' Pal
Overview: Two lifelong friends vie for the affection of the same woman.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1923-11-11
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Soft Pedal
1926-01-31
Soft Pedal
Overview: An opportunistic umbrella salesman attempts to save a musician and his daughter from blackmail.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1926-01-31
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The Golf Bug
1922-10-30
The Golf Bug
Overview: The Golf Bug,1922, directed by James D. Davis, starring James "Paul" Parrott and Jobyna Ralston, is a short silent comedy film.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1922-10-30
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Jailed and Bailed
1923-02-11
Jailed and Bailed
Overview: A silent comedy short starring Jobyna Ralston and James Parrott.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1923-02-11
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A Deep Sea Panic
1924-09-28
A Deep Sea Panic
Overview: A cruel sea captain shanghais Jimmie to work on his ship, but Jimmie's girlfriend also stows away on board, disguised as a sailor.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1924-09-28
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Count Your Change
1919-08-10
Count Your Change
Overview: Harold becomes the victim of a clever bulldog pup who chases him in and out of various places.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1919-08-10
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An Auto Nut
1919-01-01
An Auto Nut
Overview: A crooked lawyer sells his car.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1919-01-01
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The King
1930-06-14
The King
Overview: The king is a juvenile dolt who tries the patience of the shrewish queen. While she's in the throne room awaiting him, he's outside playing with guns, drilling his soldiers, and dallying with the wife of a new minister. The queen catches him kissing her, her husband figures out that something fishy is going on, and the king tries his best to proceed with his plans for a night out. The queen contrives to keep him cuffed in the bedroom: king, queen, minister, and coquette end up in a game of musical beds. Will his royal highness get his night out?
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1930-06-14
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Hey There
1918-04-28
Hey There
Overview: In this early short Harold Lloyd sneaks into a movie studio in order to locate an attractive young lady he's just met at a snack bar. He's retrieved a letter she dropped and wants to return it to her, but it's pretty clear that his interest extends beyond mere politeness. (She's the adorable young Bebe Daniels, so this is easy to understand.) The movie studio setting provides Harold with lots of opportunities to do what comedians do in comedies like this one: flirt with actresses, anger the studio brass, and dash through sets disrupting everything.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1918-04-28
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Don't Shove
1919-08-31
Don't Shove
Overview: Harold and his rival fight over Bebe on her birthday, first at her home and then at a nearby skating rink.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1919-08-31
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Shiver and Shake
1922-10-22
Shiver and Shake
Overview: A landlord is attending his new tenants' rollicking and well-attended housewarming party. As midnight arrives, a ghostly apparition appears outside the window--and our frightened hero immediately breaks out the shotgun to fend off the phantom menace.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1922-10-22
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Do You Love Your Wife?
1919-01-05
Do You Love Your Wife?
Overview: Stan plays a janitor at a hotel dropping letters and trying to retrieve them with a vacuum, getting wet, helping a lady shoot her cheating husband and being chased by the police.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1919-01-05
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Touch all the Bases
1922-08-13
Touch all the Bases
Overview: After many difficulties getting into a baseball game with his girl, Paul is pressed into service as a pinch hitter.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1922-08-13
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Watch Your Wife
1923-01-07
Watch Your Wife
Overview: A James Parrott comedy short.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1923-01-07
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The Landlubber
1922-09-09
The Landlubber
Overview: Paul Parrott comedy produced by Hal Roach.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1922-09-09
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Hustling for Health
1919-02-02
Hustling for Health
Overview: Stan Laurel is picked up at the train depot and brought back by the husband to the family home where the wife is having a suffragette meeting. None too pleased they cause mayhem and then the neighbours are brought into it as Stan cleans up the backyard by throwing all the rubbish into their award winning garden.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1919-02-02
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Sittin' Pretty
1924-09-27
Sittin' Pretty
Overview: When Charlie borrows the policeman's uniform of his girl's father and captures a lunatic, his prospective father-in-law dons the uniform just in time to receive the reward of $1,000.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1924-09-27
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The Caretaker's Daughter
1925-10-10
The Caretaker's Daughter
Overview: The two-reel silent film comedy The Caretaker's Daughter was distributed by Pathe in 1925. Produced by the prolific Hal Roach, the film stars the great Charley Chase in a case of multiple incarnations!
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1925-10-10
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Take Next Car
1922-07-29
Take Next Car
Overview: In this 1922 Pathe-distributed, Hal Roach silent-era comedy, the owner of a local streetcar business is in danger of losing his franchise, but the streetcar operator (played by Paul Parrott) and his girl friend (who happens to be the boss's daughter; portrayed by Jobyna Ralston) try to save the day.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1922-07-29
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Bone Dry
1922-09-17
Bone Dry
Overview: Paul plays at being a detective until dad, who is a revenue officer, sends him out to prove his worth by rounding up some desperate moonshiners.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1922-09-17
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Hit Him Again
1918-02-17
Hit Him Again
Overview: A short film starring Harold Lloyd.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1918-02-17
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Fireman Save My Child
1918-05-25
Fireman Save My Child
Overview: In this popular two reeler where Harold runs to the rescue of a woman on a fire engine, he is seen hanging on the moving vehicle by the released water hose that forces him closer to the ground.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1918-05-25
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Look Pleasant, Please
1918-03-10
Look Pleasant, Please
Overview: A photo studio operator seems only interested in flirting with women. Hilarity ensues.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1918-03-10
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Just Rambling Along
1918-11-03
Just Rambling Along
Overview: A nervy young man follows a pretty lady into a diner to flirt with her, but winds up getting stuck with the tab.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1918-11-03
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Pay the Cashier
1926-02-14
Pay the Cashier
Overview: The penniless tourist, "Appetite Andy" (Paul Parrott) stops by at the Hollywood Cafateria (sic) where the gullible boss (Mark Jones) welcomes him in to sample many of the soups and delicacies available to customers. After savoring many of the dishes, Andy refuses them all and attempts to leave, never intending to pay. The boss is having none of it and drags him back inside and puts him to work in the kitchen. The head chef (Charles Stevenson) is chopping food when the order comes in for chicken to be prepared. He instructs the new employee to grab a chicken (from a crate in the corner) and "prepare" it.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1926-02-14
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Bride and Gloom
1918-08-18
Bride and Gloom
Overview: A short film starring Harold Lloyd.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1918-08-18
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His First Flat Tire
1920-01-02
His First Flat Tire
Overview: Sid Smith plays a chauffeur to James Parrott who helps a vamp captivate his boss while foiling a bank robbery.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1920-01-02
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No Pets
1923-10-07
No Pets
Overview: James Parrott having a lot of pets destroying the place.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1923-10-07
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Tight Shoes
1923-02-25
Tight Shoes
Overview: The setting is a shoe store and the action is pretty frenetic. You get to see Paul lose the store's money, catch a shoe thief, knock down a bunch of shelves and more.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1923-02-25
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Join the Circus
1923-12-02
Join the Circus
Overview: 'Snub' Pollard wants to hang himself but figures joining the circus was better idea.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1923-12-02
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Take the Air
1923-09-09
Take the Air
Overview: James Parrott, little Sammy Brooks, Baker and Jones ("the strong guy" = the drunk) are all workers on a construction-sit run by violent and exploitative boss Noah Young and it is a "building a skyscraper" comedy.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1923-09-09
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Get Busy
1924-04-27
Get Busy
Overview: A couple of pals tries to stay out of trouble, without much luck.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1924-04-27
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Don't Butt In
1926-01-17
Don't Butt In
Overview: James Parrott doing all kinds of handy work.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1926-01-17
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The Smile Wins
1923-04-08
The Smile Wins
Overview: James Parrott as a very persistent book salesman.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1923-04-08
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The House of Flickers
1925-03-15
The House of Flickers
Overview: The troubles of a movie projectionist in a newly-purchased theater are chronicled in this two-reeler starring Paul Parrot and Mildred June.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1925-03-15
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Face the Camera
1922-10-01
Face the Camera
Overview: Hapless photographer James Parrott attempts to shoot a bathing beauty pageant.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1922-10-01
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A Sammy in Siberia
1919-04-06
A Sammy in Siberia
Overview: A bumbling American soldier saves a girl from a bunch of Cossacks.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1919-04-06
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