Roscoe Arbuckle
Roscoe Conkling "Fatty" Arbuckle was an American silent film actor, director, and screenwriter. He started at the Selig Polyscope Company and eventually moved to Keystone Studios, where he worked with Mabel Normand and Harold Lloyd as well as with his nephew, Al St. John. He also mentored Charlie Chaplin, Monty Banks, and Bob Hope and brought vaudeville star Buster Keaton into the movie business. Arbuckle was one of the most popular silent stars of the 1910s and one of the highest-paid actors in Hollywood, signing a contract in 1920 with Paramount Pictures for $1 million a year (equivalent to $16.1 million in 2025). Arbuckle was the defendant in three widely publicized trials between November 1921 and April 1922 for the rape and manslaughter of Virginia Rappe. Rappe had fallen ill at a party hosted by Arbuckle at San Francisco's St.
Photo: Photographer uncredited, Public domain, Wikimedia Commons.
