Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle - photos & quotes

“I don’t weigh a pound above two hundred and eight, and what’s more, I never did.” — Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle

Source: George A. Posner (1914)

Photo: 1914

“Yes, all I have ever done in the legitimate stage line, outside of those few sweet years spent on the Loop circuit, were the nine months spent with Ferris Hartman and ‘The Campus’ Company on an Oriental tour, during which we toured China, Japan, India, Honolulu, the Philippine Islands, and even more civilized places, and during which critics were very kind. The tour ended January, 1913, and I have been in the pictures ever since. My first experience in Motion Pictures? At the Universal’s Hollywood studio, under Director Albert Christie, to whom I had been introduced by Robert Leonard, a close friend. I had been there four weeks, when Fred Mace left Keystone, and I was taken to fill the vacancy. I have been here ever since.” — Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle

Source: George A. Posner (1914)

Photo: In the Clutches of the Gang (1914). With Ford Sterling (on phone), Edgar Kennedy (behind Sterling), Robert Cox, and Al St. John (center).

“We got him in the beginning because he was the rare combination of fat and perfect athlete. Arbuckle is a wonderful athlete in spite of his weight. We got him on account of the falls he could make. Every week he has been developing. I can see the difference in every picture we turn out. He began as a rough ‘faller’ and he has become a finished artist. And he is still going.” — Mack Sennett

“I am married – have been for five years. But don’t tell that. You see, my wife and I do have such times reading the love-letters I receive, and besides, being single does make so for popularity.” — Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle with his real wife, Minta Durfee.

Source: George A. Posner (1914)

“I am the only man my size and weight the New York Life Insurance Company ever issued a policy to. I am five feet, eleven inches tall, and weigh three hundred and eight-five pounds, which is forty percent more than the law allows. But I passed every physical test they put up to me.” – Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle in 1916.

“But outside of falling on my ear, being chased by bears and surrounded by snakes, or doing forty-five foot dives off the long wharf at Santa Monica, my work has been rather uneventful.” — Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle

Source: 1914

Photo: Brewster’s Millions (1921)

The Bellboy (1918). With Buster Keaton.

“He had no meanness, malice or jealousy in him. Everything seemed to amuse and delight him.” — Buster Keaton

Source: 1960

“The same plot can be done over and over again in the so-called features but the comedy without new gags is a failure. That’s why most comedy directors, after a while in the business, go around talking to themselves instead of giving out interviews. It’s a hard life.” – Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle in 1919.

“Children like the purely physical comedy. The fall, the knockdown, and the more exaggerated the comedy the more they enjoy it. For the most part people do not want to think about the comedies they see, that is why I never deal with satire or the little subtleties that are enjoyed by clever people.” — Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle in 1920.