Born Today February 20: Heinz Erhardt

1909-1979

Though known for being a German comedian, entertainer, actor and writer, Erhardt was actually born in the town of Riga, in what was at the time the Russian Empire to Baltic German parents (Riga is now the capital of Latvia).  In fact, he spent most of his childhood there; living with his grandparents.  He maternal grandfather owned a theater and taught young Heinz how to play the piano.  After WWI, his father, now divorced from his mother and remarried, emigrated to Germany.  Heinz followed him to Hanover, eventually studying at the Leipzig Conservatory, with the intention of becoming a concert pianist.  With his grandparents disapproving of this career path, he returned to Riga to work as a merchant and got married.  While doing this, he got involved in live cabaret acts at various coffeehouses in Riga.  By the late 1930's he was working in German radio broadcasting, and returned to Germany permanently.  In Berlin, he again returned to the cabaret stage.  Though Erhardt wore heavy spectacles and could not swim, that didn't stop his being drafted into the German Navy during World War II.  He spent most of his time playing piano in the Marine orchestra and never saw active combat.  After the war, he moved to Hamburg; there he became a very popular radio personality and was known for his pun poetry.  In regards to the silent era, he made an appearance in one silent film in 1928: Idle Eyes; an American film which was a vehicle for Ben Turpin, for which Erhardt provided the German narration after the film was apparently reworked for sound upon export to the Europe.  It would not be until after World War II that he would go on to have great success in films written especially for him in what had become West Germany.  He became a much beloved comedian in the post-war era there, providing a biting kind of comedy that soothed the pains of recovery from the war.  He tired of the only finding work as a comedy actor, though, and in 1961 he founded his own television production studio to escape the type-casting.  The company, however, only lasted two years, and Erhardt accepted that he would not be able to shake the genre of comedy.  He kept working in films for both the big and small screen regularly through the 1960's.  In 1971, however, he suffered a massive normal type stroke that paralyzed him and he lost the ability to speak properly.  Though he would live another eight years, he career was basically ended by the stroke.  Prior to his death, he was awarded The Federal Cross of Merit, the highest award one could receive in West Germany at the time.  Erhardt succumbed to his ill health on the 5th of June in 1979 in Hamburg; he was 70 years of age.  He is buried there in the cemetery Ohlsdorfer Friedhof, along with his wife of many years. 

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Born Today September 19: Ben Turpin

1869-1940

Bernard Turpin was born today in New Orleans, LA the child of a candy store owner.  Having been born long before the invention of the moving picture, he obviously got his start on the stage; which in  his case came in the form of various traveling shows.  He possessed a body type and face that lent itself to comedic work, with one of his eyes permanently crossed (later in his life, he famously--and comically--took out an insurance policy with Lloyd's of London in case his eyes straightened out), and an oversized handle bar mustache.  In the early days of his career, he found work in circuses, vaudeville and burlesque.  He developed an exaggerated form of physical comedy that laid the ground work for what we now call "slapstick;" and was this talent that eventually got him into the motion picture business.  He made his film debut in 1907 in a comedic short that he was specifically cast for:  An Awful Skate, or, The Hobo On Roller Skates.  From this point onward, he starred in a series of slapstick comedy shorts, making him a huge star of the silent cinema, even playing roles such a "The Tramp" long before one Charlie Chaplin would take up that comedic identity. In fact, the company that introduced Turpin to the moving image was Essanay, who would later employ Chaplin, who became their biggest star until his departure bankrupted the studio.  This is when things began to deteriorate between Turpin and Essanay.  As soon has they hired Chaplin, they made Turpin his comedic side-kick, setting up his characters as mere foils for which Chaplin could play off of.  Turpin was naturally insulted by this.   In 1917 he went to work for the king of comedy Mack Sennett. Turpin signed a very lucrative contract the the Mack Sennett Studios.   Much to Turpin's delight, he quickly became one of their biggest stars; so much so, that he began to introduce himself as "I'm Ben Turpin, I make $3000 a week!"  He worked steadily up through the invention of talkies, at which time--owed to good investments--he chose to retire from the industry, rather than attempt to make the transition to talking cinema.  Still, he was sought out for cameo comedy appearances in films regularly.  In 1935 he, and other stars from the silent comedy era (including Chester Conklin and Ford Sterling), starred in Keystone Hotel; it was his only starring role in the sound era.  The last film that he appeared in, very briefly, was Laurel and Hardy's Saps At Sea (1940).  He was set to make a cameo appearance in Charlie Chaplin's The Great Dictator (1940), but Turpin died of a sudden heart attack at the age of 70 on the first of July before filming started.  He is interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, CA.  

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