Lupino Lane: Scion of a Family of Comedy Acrobats

Lupino Lane was born on this day in 1892 into a multigenerational dynasty of English circus and music hall acrobats (Ida Lupino is also a relative). He made his music hall debut by age four. By 1913 he was a well known perfomer In London’s West End. In 1915, while still in Britain, he began making comedy shorts. He crossed the puddle in 1920 to appear in the Broadway show Afgar. From 1922-24, he starred in a series of comedies for Fox with his brother Wallace Lupino. After the Ziegfeld Follies of 1925, he starred for four years in shorts for the inappropriately named Educational Pictures. In 1928, he appeared live on the same bill with one of his films at the Los Angeles Orpheum. When talkies came in, he went back to London and the stage, where he worked until his death in 1959.

For much, much more on silent and slapstick comedy and masters of the form like Lupino Lane please see my book Chain of Fools: Silent Comedy and Its Legacies from Nickelodeons to Youtube, just released by Bear Manor Media, also available from amazon.com etc etc etc