William Gillespie
Also Known As: Wm. Gillespie
Biography: William Gillespie (24 January 1894 – 23 June 1938) was a Scottish actor. Gillespie started in Hollywood films from the silent era. He played in about 180 films between 1915 and 1939, although his appearances were often uncredited. Gillespie frequently appeared in Hal Roach comedies from 1917, usually as stuffy official or manager. He supported such "slapstick comedians" as Charlie Chaplin, Charley Chase, Our Gang, and Laurel and Hardy, but was most prolific supporting Harold Lloyd in 60 films.
Department: Acting
Place of Birth: Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, UK
Adult: No
Birthday: January 23, 1894
Age: 131 years old
Gender: Male
Deathday: June 23, 1938
Popularity:
Known For:
Sold at Auction
Overview: This Hal Roach comedy short I found on the "American Slapstick" DVD collection of rare silent comedies starts bizarre and has an anything goes-quality one rarely sees in Mr. Roach's output. It stars Snub Pollard who is initially introduced as a baby left on a doorstep before we see him fully grown about 20 or so years later still in that basket! From there, he gets bumped car to car crossing the street prior to getting literally thrown through a window as an auction is taking place! Also appearing is James Finlayson as a man who's items accidentally get sold.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1923-05-26
Popularity:
It's a Wild Life
Overview: Harold invades the "Gilded Guzzle" café, where he appropriates a lady's roll of money, hides under a table and impersonates a cigar store Indian.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1918-04-21
Popularity:
Sherlock Sleuth
Overview: House detective of the Hotel Omigosh, Cyril Fromage and his hotel switchboard operator sweetheart attempt to thwart a dastardly thief, "The Weasel," who is on the loose in the hotel, assisted by a sultry vamp. Plenty of hilarious gags along the way; including the operator taking a call from an irate lodger, so hot that it makes the switchboard steam. Taking advantage of the situation, she pulls out the offending plug and curls her bangs. The MGM lion even puts in a guest appearance.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1925-07-12
Popularity:
Your Own Back Yard
Overview: Your Own Back Yard is a 1925 American short silent comedy film directed by Robert F. McGowan. It was the 43rd Our Gang short subject released. Farina is having a very bad day, especially by his friends-very cruel playing nasty tricks, etc. Heeding his mother's advice to stay "in your own back yard," he does just that, feeding jumping beans to his chickens.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1925-09-26
Popularity:
Moonlight and Noses
Overview: Two burglars break into the home of an eccentric doctor. The doctor catches them, but offers to let them go free -- and give them a thousand dollars -- if they go to a cemetery and bring back the body of a man who he believes died of "water on the brain."
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1925-10-03
Popularity:
Raise the Rent
Overview: Snub and his wife give up their bungalow and allow another couple to move in. Then it develops that they can't find another home, and must live in an improvised tent.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1920-02-22
Popularity:
All Wet
Overview: Charley Chase has car trouble.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1924-01-01
Popularity:
Her Dangerous Path
Overview: Her Dangerous Path
Genres: Adventure Action
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1923-08-12
Popularity:
Why Men Work
Overview: A movie cameraman is on the lookout for new material but a rival plans to copy everything he films.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1924-08-31
Popularity:
White Wings
Overview: Pursued by the law, a street cleaner finds refuge by impersonating a dentist.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1923-05-12
Popularity:
Double Whoopee
Overview: Stan and Ollie wreak havoc at an upper class hotel in their jobs as footman (Hardy) and doorman (Laurel). They partially undress blonde bombshell Jean Harlow (in a brief appearance) and repeatedly escort a stuffy nobleman into an empty elevator shaft.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1929-05-18
Popularity:
Now or Never
Overview: A young man, unaccustomed to children, must accompany a young girl on a train trip.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1921-03-27
Popularity:
Among Those Present
Overview: An ambitious coat-room checker impersonates an English nobleman.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1921-05-29
Popularity:
The Flirt
Overview: A man takes a job in a café, hoping to get to know the pretty waitress working there.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1917-11-11
Popularity:
Bliss
Overview: A counterfeit count is aided in his courtship of the heroine by her father who is overwhelmed by his "title."
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1917-10-14
Popularity:
Dr. Jack
Overview: Country doctor Jack Jackson is called in to treat the Sick-Little-Well-Girl, who has been making Dr. Saulsbourg and his sanitarium very rich after years of unsuccessful treatment.
Genres: Comedy Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1922-11-26
Popularity:
The Goofy Age
Overview: The hero's loved one is threatened with marriage with a rival, due to the machinations of her mother. The simplest solution of the situation is to marry her, and upon being reminded of it, the hero lays plans for a hurried ceremony in the goldfish store where he works. But as it is a case of true love, things don't move smoothly. Customers interrupt and so forth, as the justice of the peace tries to spiel off the fateful words. The culminating disaster is when firemen smash in the door, but a simple solution presents itself and the lovers, justice of the peace and witnesses make off with the hook and ladder wagon and the knot is tied before they are caught.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1924-12-10
Popularity:
Bees in His Bonnet
Overview: Bees in His Bonnet is a 1918 American short comedy film featuring Harold Lloyd. It is presumed to be lost.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1918-09-15
Popularity:
Never Weaken
Overview: Our hero is infatuated with a girl in the next office. In order to drum up business for her boss, an osteopath, he gets an actor friend to pretend injuries that the doctor "cures", thereby building a reputation. When he hears that his girl is marrying another, he decides to commit suicide and spends the bulk of the film in thrilling, failed attempts.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1921-10-22
Popularity:
Get Out and Get Under
Overview: The comic adventures of a new car owner.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1920-09-26
Popularity:
Move On
Overview: Our hero is a police officer who gets involved in a crap game, flirting with a nurse and other amusements.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1917-12-09
Popularity:
That's Him
Overview: Our newlywed hero is about to embark on a journey when he realizes that he has lost the train tickets. A crook knocks him down and switches clothes with him. The assailant's victims pursue our man while his bride is led to believe that she has been deserted.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1918-08-04
Popularity:
Somewhere in Turkey
Overview: Our hero, a professor in Turkey, challenges a Sultan for the affections of a girl.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1918-06-16
Popularity:
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
Popularity:
Chasing the Chaser
Overview: A very good as a faithful husband, whose wife is looking for proof that more than his eyes have been roving. She hires a private detective to provide it.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1925-07-04
Popularity:
Dogs of War!
Overview: The gang wages war using old vegetables as munitions. Later, they ruin a movie in progress when they double-expose the film.
Genres: Comedy Family
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1923-07-01
Popularity:
Take a Chance
Overview: It's a classic boy-meets-girl story, boy-loses-girl, boy gets mistaken for an escaped convict and ruthlessly chased by armies of cops across the countryside in a thrill-packed stunt-addled climax.
Genres: Comedy Drama Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1918-12-15
Popularity:
The Dumb-Bell
Overview: The owners of a movie studio are having problems with a temperamental director, and they promise an actor on one of his pictures that he can have the job if he can find a way to make the director leave the picture.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1922-07-16
Popularity:
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
Popularity:
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
Popularity:
Run 'Em Ragged
Overview: Run ’Em Ragged, Snub Pollard’s 39th starring vehicle, uses familiar slapstick-- Over-the-top make-up, ethnic humor, and a chase across Los Angeles’s Echo Park-- But there is more here than knockabout; Sophisticated sight gags test the limits of the characters’ perception, making expert use of such props as a seemingly bottomless rowboat.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1920-08-01
Popularity:
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
Popularity:
Under Two Jags
Overview: Stan is in the company of ladies in this film. He is serving in the military with female officers, but there is also a demure lady who wins his affections.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1923-06-02
Popularity:
Scorching Sands
Overview: The misadventures of two intrepid explorers in the Egyptian desert.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1923-12-09
Popularity:
Postage Due
Overview: Stan does his best to recover a post-card, which he has forgotten to stamp. He attempts the recovery after hearing a remark by a postal inspector that the absence of the stamp makes the card a criminal offense for the sender. In the course of his struggles he swims through "oceans" of mail, rides up and down chutes, gets tied up in a mail bag and finally finds himself locked in a delivery truck with two thieves.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1924-02-17
Popularity:
Innocent Husbands
Overview: Despite his faithfulness, Melvin is always under suspicion by wife Mame. Complications erupt when a woman from a party across the hall passes out in Melvin's bedroom just before Mame returns.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1925-08-01
Popularity:
It's a Gift
Overview: A group of oil magnates are trying to think of new ways to attract business. One of them suggests that they contact the inventor Pollard, who has devised a new gasoline substitute. Pollard himself lives in a home filled with his eccentric inventions. When he gets the message from the oil company, he is excited about the opportunity to demonstrate his innovation.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: xx
Release Date: 1923-10-14
Popularity:
The Music Box
Overview: The Laurel & Hardy Moving Co. have a challenging job on their hands (and backs): hauling a player piano up a monumental flight of stairs to Prof. von Schwarzenhoffen's house. Their task is complicated by a sassy nursemaid and, unbeknownst to them, the impatient Prof. von Schwarzenhoffen himself. But the biggest problem is the force of gravity, which repeatedly pulls the piano back down to the bottom of the stairs.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1932-04-16
Popularity:
The Cure
Overview: An alcoholic checks into a health spa and his antics promptly throw the establishment into chaos.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1917-04-16
Popularity:
The Immigrant
Overview: A European immigrant endures a challenging voyage only to get into trouble as soon as he arrives in New York.
Genres: Comedy Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1917-06-17
Popularity:
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
Popularity:
Dodge Your Debts
Overview: A top-hatted bill collector is given the unenviable assignment of collecting the debts of a bad-tempered innkeeper.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1921-10-16
Popularity:
Looking for Trouble
Overview: Snub plays a rich guy who wants to impress the ladies with his virility. So he pays a tough boxer to take a dive in a staged fight, though the fight definitely does not go anything like expected.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1919-12-14
Popularity:
The Dippy Dentist
Overview: The film begins with a girl who is supposedly irresistible to all men. Several guys all come to her to pledge their undying love--including Harold Lloyd's brother, Gaylord (who is a dentist). Shortly after this, a new dentist (Snub Pollard) arrives to work in an office across the hall. In a very funny scene, Pollard manages to steal all of Gaylord's patients from his waiting room. However, when it comes to dental work, Snub is highly unlikely to receive the American Dental Association's seal of approval. That's because he's incredibly rough and manages to toss a guy out the window when he pulls his tooth.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1920-01-25
Popularity:
They Won't Believe Me
Overview: On trial for murdering his girlfriend, philandering stockbroker Larry Ballentine takes the stand to claim his innocence and describe the actual, but improbable sounding, sequence of events that led to her death.
Genres: Drama Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1947-07-16
Popularity:
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
Popularity:
Sure-Mike!
Overview: Vermuda, a saleswoman in a department store, is very late for work. She relies on a ruse to fool the floorwalker, and when that doesn't work, she relies on her friendship with the store manager. But she is soon disillusioned as to where she really stands with the manager.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1925-05-23
Popularity:
Is Marriage the Bunk?
Overview: Charley has in-laws that look down on him because he's not rich. So, to try to keep up, he rushes out to buy a car--but no matter, they still think he's a drip--as does his wife. Later, when he's given a simple job to do by his boss, he screws it up--and loses face once again with his family.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1925-03-29
Popularity:
The Cowboy Sheik
Overview: A shy cowboy is interested in the local school teacher, but must compete with a bully for her attention.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1924-02-03
Popularity:
Wrong Again
Overview: Stable hands Stan and Ollie are tending a thoroughbred named "Blue Boy." But when they overhear two men talking about a $5000 reward for the return of the stolen "Blue Boy," they miss the part about it being the painting, not the horse. They take the horse to the owner's house to claim the reward. The owner instructs them to put "Blue Boy" on the piano and Ollie explains, "these millionaires are peculiar."
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1929-02-23
Popularity:
Smithy
Overview: After being discharged from the 372nd infantry, on account of a bean shortage, smithy seeks employment. He finds a job on a construction site, where he helps to build a house, and soon causes havoc amongst the other workers. The construction company owner leaves for a week, and tells his secretary to send a letter to Mr. Smith telling him to complete the construction of the house while he (the owner) is away. The letter is accidently sent to Smithy who manages to complete the house. When the owner returns the house is complete, and Smithy is commended until the last support beam is removed...
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1924-01-19
Popularity:
The Poor Fish
Overview: Charley, frustrated by his office job, quarrels with his wife, after which they decide to switch jobs. She goes to the office and Charley does the housework. Having never done something like this in his life before, he starts a chaos, something his mother-in-law was expecting...
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1924-12-07
Popularity:
The Rat's Knuckles
Overview: Charley Chase is a hapless inventor with a better mouse trap in this silent comedy from 1925.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1925-01-03
Popularity:
Wandering Papas
Overview: A cook for bridge constructors is told to collect food for dinner-Ritz style trout, Palmer house rabbit and a 15cm frosted cake. He sets off into the wide open spaces to collect the food, coming into contact with a mad hermit, who hates anybody seeing his daughter, before returning to cook dinner.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1926-02-21
Popularity:
Fully Insured
Overview: A Hal Roach comedy starring 'Snub' Pollard and James Finlayson.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1923-12-16
Popularity:
The Green Cat
Overview: Snub is determined to make his new restaurant, The Green Cat, a success---no matter what it takes.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1923-08-05
Popularity:
Exit Smiling
Overview: The travails of a third-rate traveling theatre company and its wardrobe lady / maid who dreams of stepping in as their melodramatic production's (Flaming Women) female lead.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1926-11-06
Popularity:
Pipe the Whiskers
Overview: Our hero is a janitor in a old age rest home who actually runs the place.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1918-04-14
Popularity:
The City Slicker
Overview: Our hero gets a job at a hotel in the country and proceeds to introduce some changes, installing gadgets and time-saving devices.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1918-06-02
Popularity:
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
Popularity:
Thundering Taxis
Overview: Rival Taxi Companies compete for business and make a slapstick mess of everything.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1933-06-23
Popularity:
Madame Mystery
Overview: A female secret agent has gotten ahold of a new type of explosive gas. She has to avoid the efforts of two men who are trying to steal it. They succeed in doing so, but the gas turns out to be not quite what they expected.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: xx
Release Date: 1926-03-12
Popularity:
Pardon Me
Overview: Snub puts over some amusing hokum in his efforts to be arrested.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1922-03-05
Popularity:
Bromo and Juliet
Overview: A young man puts on the play "Romeo and Juliet" as a fundraiser, but has to keep a close eye on his dad, who's had several drinks too many, and a pesky cab driver who's determined to collect his fare.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1926-09-19
Popularity:
Helping Grandma
Overview: The kids' adopted grandma decides to sell her store, but can't decide whom to sell it to. The kids try to help her out.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1931-01-03
Popularity:
His Royal Slyness
Overview: A young adventurer trades places with a European prince and falls in love above his station.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1920-02-08
Popularity:
Safety Last!
Overview: When a store clerk organizes a contest to climb the outside of a tall building, circumstances force him to make the perilous climb himself.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1923-04-01
Popularity:
Haunted Spooks
Overview: After numerous failed attempts to commit suicide, our hero (Lloyd) runs into a lawyer who is looking for a stooge to stand in as a groom in order to secure an inheritance for his client (Davis). The inheritance is a house, which her scheming uncle "haunts" so that he can scare them off and claim the property.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1920-03-14
Popularity:
Bride and Gloom
Overview: A short film starring Harold Lloyd.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1918-08-18
Popularity:
Any Old Port
Overview: Captain Dandy (Snub Pollard) is about to sail and arrives on the dock where several women take turns to individually say goodbye to him (the last one even wrestles him to the ground) before he boards the ship.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1920-06-27
Popularity:
On Location
Overview: Snub is an street sweeper with OCD, living in a neighborhood full of fussy people. He is sweeping the street when he anticipates a cop who is about to throw some litter into the road and dashes over to catch it in his cart. He then tries to save a drunken man from falling into the road before stopping his cart to pick up a solitary leaf which has dared to fallen upon the ground. The eccentric and obsessed street sweeper meticulously disposes of the leaf but when he turns around he finds half the tree has shed its leaves at that very moment
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1921-11-06
Popularity:
It's a Joy!
Overview: 'Snub' Pollard as a eccentric movie director.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1923-12-30
Popularity:
Cabin in the Sky
Overview: When compulsive gambler Little Joe Jackson dies in a drunken fight, he awakens in purgatory, where he learns that he will be sent back to Earth for six months to prove that he deserves to be in heaven. He awakens, remembering nothing and struggles to do right by his devout wife, Petunia, while an angel known as the General and the devil's son, Lucifer Jr., fight for his soul.
Genres: Music Fantasy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1943-03-24
Popularity:
Should Sailors Marry?
Overview:
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1925-11-08
Popularity:
Why Worry?
Overview: A hypochondriac vacations in the tropics for the fresh air - and finds himself in the middle of a revolution instead.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1923-09-09
Popularity:
Do Me a Favor
Overview: Marie's inebriated husband refuses to go to bed, so she asks Snub, a homeless man she finds sleeping in the park, to assist.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1922-05-21
Popularity:
High and Dizzy
Overview: A tipsy doctor encounters his patient sleepwalking on a building ledge, high above the street.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1920-07-11
Popularity:
Fifteen Minutes
Overview: While his wife is shopping, Snub attempts to take a fifteen minute break.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1921-10-29
Popularity:
Pick and Shovel
Overview: Pick and Shovel, also known as The Miner, is a 1923 silent comedy film starring Stan Laurel.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1923-06-16
Popularity:
Zeb vs. Paprika
Overview: Stan Laurel as a harness racing jockey who must win a big race.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1924-03-16
Popularity:
Wide Open Spaces
Overview: Wide Open Spaces is a 1924 Western silent film starring Stan Laurel.
Genres: Comedy Western
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1924-07-06
Popularity:
Brothers Under the Chin
Overview: Twin "babies" left at an orphanage bear the same birthmark under the chin. One of them is adopted and then the scene shifts to "twenty years later." The other as captain of a sailing vessel needs an extra hand. It does not develop until the end that the well dressed man he has abducted is his own brother.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1924-04-13
Popularity:
Horse Shy
Overview: Despite his fear of horses, Eddie Hamilton takes part in a fox hunt, in order to impress the daughter of his host, Colonel Calhoun.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1928-05-19
Popularity:
Next Aisle Over
Overview: A salesman takes a job at a department store to impress a girl and winds up stopping a kidnapping.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1919-03-30
Popularity:
Number, Please?
Overview: While at an amusement park, trying vainly to forget the girl he has lost, a young man sees the girl with her new boyfriend. When her dog gets loose in the park, both suitors have to help her catch it. Then, the girl's uncle, a balloonist, gives her a pass for two in his balloon, provided that her mother approves. She then offers to take along the first of her admirers who is able to get her mother's consent.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1920-12-26
Popularity:
Punch the Clock
Overview: Eddie suspects his wife of having an affair with Snub. Snub, meanwhile, just wants to get to work on time.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1922-06-04
Popularity:
I Do
Overview: Comic adventures of newlyweds and children.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1921-09-11
Popularity: