Fatty Arbuckle
Fatty Arbuckle had the dubious distinction of being the movie business' first scandal. Born in Kansas in 1887, Roscoe Arbuckle (who only used the name "Fatty" professionally, and otherwise detested it) was catapulted to fame in Mac Sennett's Keystone Kops movies. He made famous the "pie in the face" gag so familiar to many of us.Though he married, he was known about town as a man of huge appetites, in booze, partying and women. Nonetheless, he managed to, at the height of his career, scandalize the nation by being involved in the death of a young actress (and we use the word "actress" here loosely) named Virginia Rappe. It was Labor Day weekend 1921, Arbuckle was to be found partying down and living it up in San Francico's St. Francis Hotel. The young woman was known to be sickly, and have a number of issues when using alcohol. When she was found moaning and barely conscious, she was hospitalized, dying shortly thereafter from a ruptured bladder.
A rumor was started that Arbuckle had crushed her while trying to rape her. (In fact it's thought that she was suffering from a botched abortion.) The Hearst papers ran with it and his career was destroyed. He tried a number of ways to make ends meet after that, drifting through marriages and careers until he died in 1933. He was 46. He was cremated and scattered over the Pacific Ocean. Buster Keaton, his lifelong friend said that he died of a broken heart.
posted by kuaptic. @ 10:03 AM
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