Rockliffe St Patrick Fellowes was born in New Edinburgh, Ottawa, Ontario on St Patrick's Day 1884, a descendant of noted Canadian families.[citation needed] He was the son of Mr. and Mrs. Rockliffe Fellowes, and he had three brothers.[3]
After following a business career for some years, he gave it up to go onto the stage in 1907 and later made his entry into films as the redemptive hero of Raoul Walsh's 1915 silent gangster film Regeneration. He appeared in over 60 films, mostly silents and is best remembered today for his role as gangster Joe Helton in Monkey Business (1931) starring the Marx Brothers.[citation needed]