Sennett, Mack, originally Michell Sinott 1880-1960
US film producer

Born in Richmond, Quebec, he was a child singing prodigy. Hoping to pursue a career in opera, he also appeared on Broadway and in burlesque (1902-08). He joined Biograph Studios in 1908 and made his first film Baked in the Altar, the same year. Under D W Griffith, he became a leading man and directed The Lucky Toothache (1910). By 1912 he had formed his own company, Keystone Co, in Los Angeles, and set about altering and defining the conventions of US screen comedy. He recruited Charlie Chaplin, Fatty Arbuckle and others, and made hundreds of short comedies which established a whole generation of players and a tradition of knockabout slapstick involving the Keystone Komics (1912), the Keystone Kops, and the Sennett Bathing Beauties (1920). His feature films include Tillie's Punctured Romance (1914), The Goodbye Kiss (1928) and Way Up Thar (1935). He went into partial retirement in 1935, and received a Special Academy Award in 1937. An autobiography, Mack Sennett: King of Comedy, was published in 1954.

Bibliography: Gene Fowler, Father Goose (1934)