Max Linder
Biography
Although all too frequently neglected by fans of silent comedy, Max Linder is in many ways as important a figure as Charles Chaplin, Buster Keaton, or Harold Lloyd, not least because he predated (and influenced) them all by several years, and was largely responsible for the creation of the classic style of silent slapstick comedy. He started out as an actor in the French theatre, but after making his screen debut in 1905 he quickly became an enormously famous and successful film comedian on both sides of the Atlantic, thanks to his character "Max", a top-hatted dandy. By 1912, he was the highest-paid film star in the world, with an unprecedented salary of one million francs. He began to direct films in 1911 and showed equal facility behind the camera, but his career suffered an almost terminal blow when he was called up to fight in World War I. He was gassed, and the illness that resulted would blight his career. Although offered a contract in America, recurring ill-health meant that his US films had little of the sparkle of his early French work, and a brief attempt to revive his career by making films for the recently-formed United Artists (one of whose founders, of course, was Chaplin) in the early 1920s came to little, although these later films are now regarded as classics. He returned to France and killed himself in a suicide pact with his wife in 1925.
Personal Details
Also Known As
Movies (49)
Life and Deaths of Max Linder
as Self (archive footage)
2026
Max Linder Collection 1917-1922
2014
Tout sur mon père Max Linder
as Self (archive footage)
2013
Birth of the Tramp
as Self (archive footage)
2013
The Man in the Silk Hat
as Self (archive footage)
1983
Laugh with Max Linder
as Self (archive footage)
1963
All in Good Fun
as Archive Footage
1955
Easter Parade
as Audience Member (uncredited)
1948
The Way of the World
as (Archive Footage)
1947
Those Were The Days
as (self)
1946
The Theft of the Mona Lisa
as (archive footage)
1931
Maxim's Porter
Writer (Writing)
1927
Au secours !
as Max
1924
King of the Circus
as Max Graf von Pompadour
1924
The World of Yesteryear – Max Linder
as Self
1924
Par habitude
Story (Writing)
1923
The Three Must-Get-Theres
as Dart-In-Again
1922
Be My Wife
as Max, the Fiancé
1921
Seven Years Bad Luck
as Max
1921
Le Petit Café
1919
Max, médecin malgré lui
as Max
1917
Max the Heartbreaker
1917
Max in a Taxi
as Himself
1917
Max Wants a Divorce
as Max
1917
Max Comes Across
as Max
1917
Max and the Purse
1917
Max devrait porter des bretelles
as Max
1917
Max Linder Visits Charlie Chaplin
as Self
1917
Chance and Love
as Max
1915
Hairdresser of Love
1915
Max in Monaco
1915
The False Max Linder
as Max
1914
Max asthmatique
as Max
1914
Max in the Convent
1914
The Forced Marriage
1914
Max Plays at Drama
1914
Max and the Lady Doctor
as Max
1914
Max Plays the Part
1914
Max as a Chiropodist
as Max
1914
Max Wishes He Hadn't
1914
Max and the Jealous Husband
as Max
1914
Max Speaks English
as Max
1914
Max Sets the Style
as Max
1914
Max's Latest Hobby
1914
Max's Vacation
as Max
1914
Max as a Musician
as Max
1913
An Unexpected Marriage
1913
Max's Hat
as Max
1913
Le billet doux
as Max
1913