Charles Emmett Mack (November 25, 1900 – March 17, 1927), was an American film actor during the silent film era. He appeared in seventeen films between 1916 and 1927.
Biography
Born Charles Emmett McNerney in Scranton, Pennsylvania, to an Irish family, at a young age Mack could speak three or four languages. One of Mack's early jobs was as a peanut vendor at the Ringling Brothers Circus. After that, he appeared in vaudeville, specializing in buck-and-wing dancing. Later he became a tour guide for D.W. Griffith's Mamaroneck Studios. After that he was Griffith's prop man, fetching all sorts of props for the director.
Mack in Motion Picture Classic, 1926
One day, Griffith invited Mack to rehearse a scene from Dream Street with him. Mack enjoyed the part he had and thought Griffith was friendly. He ended up playing the lead.[1]
The first time I saw myself on the screen I thought I couldn't stand it. We were all in the projection room looking at the rushes of my first day's work. I couldn't think of the shadow on the screen as myself—I thought of it as "It." I saw this thing sneak in. It had such big ears and such a strange nose. Its mouth seemed to be all over its face. And then suddenly it turned around on me and I bolted out of the room. Mr. Griffith sent for me and had me sit by him while he showed me what was wrong and why. I thought it all terrible, but he seemed to think it good, and so I kept on acting instead of going back to the property room.
— Charles Emmett Mack, Prop Boy to Star, Motion Picture Classic[1]
While filming America in 1924, a soldier's arm was blown off. As Mack recalls, "Neil Hamilton and I went to neighboring towns and raised a fund for him—I doing a song and dance and Neil collecting a coin."[2]
Death
After signing with Warner Brothers, Mack was killed when the car he was driving collided with another and overturned on his way to a racetrack in Riverside, CA to film an auto racing scene for the film The First Auto (1927). He was 26 years old.[3]
Mack was survived by his wife, Marion Mack and her twelve-year-old adopted daughter and three-year-old son.[4] She was born in Italy and came to the United States when she was three. A 1929 issue of Picture-Play revealed that it was anticipated that she would perhaps become a leading actress, but it doesn't seem her career ever went past bit parts. She is not to be confused with the other Marion Mack.[5]
^McKegg, William H. (January 1929). "Carrying On (Part One)". Picture-Play Magazine. New York City: Street & Smith Corporation. Retrieved October 22, 2015.
^McKegg, William H. (January 1929). "Carrying On (Part Two)". Picture-Play Magazine. New York City: Street & Smith Corporation. Retrieved October 22, 2015.
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