Max Linder
Acting
🎂 1883-12-16
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.
Cast credits(126)
Self (archive footage)
1978
Audience Member (uncredited)
1948
Max
1921
(archive footage)
1931
Max, the Fiancé
1921
Archive Footage
1955
Self (archive footage)
2013
Self (archive footage)
1963
Max
1924
Max
1912
1909
Max
1910
Max
1910
Dart-In-Again
1922
Self (archive footage)
2024
1917
Max
1910
Max
1913
Max
1911
Max
1912
1912
1908
1906
Max
1912
1919
Polichinelle / Ponchinella / Harlequin
1907
1914
Max
1912
1906
Max
1913
1914
Max
1912
Max
1914
1907
Man on park bench
1907
Max
1912
Max
1911
Max
1911
1913
1913
1909
Self
1917
1914
Max
1910
1909
1905
Max
1914
Max
1914
1908
Self (archive footage)
1983
1912
Max
1912
Dieutegarde
1908
1912
1908
1913
Max
1913
Arsène Lupin
1909
Max Graf von Pompadour
1924
1912
Max
1915
1914
Max
1914
1914
1907
The ballet master
1908
1915
1907
Max
1913
Max
1912
Max (uncredited)
1912
Max
1911
Max
1913
1917
Max
1910
1913
1912
1909
1907
Max
1912
Max
1912
1910
Max
1912
1912
Self
1924
Max
1910
Max
1917
1915
Max
1910
Max
1914
1909
Max
1910
Max
1914
1906
Max
1911
Max
1917
Max
1911
1911
1911
Max
1907
Max
1914
Max
1913
1909
Max
1912
Max
1911
Max
1914
1910
Himself
1917
Max
1917
1909
Julot
1906
1913
1905
Max
1912
Max
1911
Max
1907
Jacques de Lacerda
1910
1914
Max
1910
Max
1917
(self)
1946
1907
Tartarin
1910
Self (archive footage)
2013
Max
1912
Directing (73)
Director
1921
Director
1921
Director
1912
Director
1909
Director
1910
Director
1922
Director
1917
Director
1913
Director
1911
Director
1912
Director
1912
Director
1908
Director
1906
Director
1912
Director
1912
Director
1913
Director
1912
Director
1914
Director
1912
Director
1911
Director
1911
Director
1913
Director
1910
Director
1914
Director
1912
Director
1912
Director
1912
Director
1913
Director
1913
Director
1909
Director
1912
Director
1915
Director
1914
Director
1914
Director
1914
Director
1915
Director
1913
Director
1912
Director
1912
Director
1913
Director
1917
Director
1910
Director
1913
Director
1912
Director
1912
Director
1912
Director
1910
Director
1912
Director
1912
Director
1917
Director
1915
Director
1914
Director
1914
Director
1911
Director
1917
Director
1911
Director
1911
Director
1914
Director
1913
Director
1912
Director
1911
Director
1914
Director
1917
Director
1917
Director
1913
Director
1911
Director
1912
Director
1914
Director
1910
Director
1910
Director
1917
Director
1910
Director
1912
Writing (39)
Writer
1921
Writer
1921
Writer
1963
Writer
1924
Writer
1922
Writer
1910
Writer
1913
Writer
1911
Story
1923
Writer
1912
Screenplay
1906
Writer
1919
Writer
1927
Writer
1912
Writer
1911
Writer
1913
Scenario Writer
1913
Writer
1924
Writer
1912
Writer
1915
Writer
1914
Writer
1913
Writer
1912
Scenario Writer
1911
Writer
1910
Writer
1912
Writer
1910
Writer
1910
Writer
1917
Writer
1911
Writer
1914
Writer
1911
Writer
1914
Writer
1917
Writer
1913
Writer
1911
Writer
1910
Writer
1917
Writer
1910