Al St. John

DOB: 1893-09-09

DOD: 1963-01-21

​From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Al St. John (September 10, 1893 – January 21, 1963) in his persona of Fuzzy Q. Jones basically defined the role and concept of "comical sidekick" to cowboy heroes from 1930 to 1951. St. John also created a character, "Stoney," in the first of a continuing Western film series, The Three Mesquiteers, that was later played (at a low point in his own career) by John Wayne. Born in Santa Ana, California, St. John entered silent films around 1912 and soon rose to co-starring and starring roles in short comic films from a variety of studios. His uncle, Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, may have helped him in his early days at Mack Sennett Studios, but talent kept him working. He was slender, sandy-haired, handsome and a remarkable acrobat. St. John frequently appeared as Arbuckle's mischievously villainous rival for the attentions of leading ladies like Mabel Normand, and worked with Arbuckle and Charles Chaplin in The Rounders (1914). The most critically praised film from St. John's period with Arbuckle remains Fatty and Mabel Adrift (1916) with Normand. The name Fuzzy originally belonged to a different actor, John Forrest “Fuzzy“ Knight, who took on the role of cowboy sidekick before St. John. As the studio first intended to hire Knight for the western series but then gave the role to St. John instead, he took on the nickname of his rival for his screen character. In most of his films, screen time was set aside for St. John to do a sort of solo comedy act, emphasizing amazing pratfalls and acrobatics. He might "find" a bicycle on a fairground set, and do an astonishing sequence of acrobatic stunts on the cycle, or he might try to capture a rat, bat, skunk, gopher, or bug with hilarious and chaotic consequences. Another stunt which he used in nearly every Western was virtually his trademark: he would mount his horse in apparently the standard manner, but somehow wind up sitting facing backward, and often would ride off with the hero in this unusual orientation. When Crabbe left PRC (according to interviews, in disgust at their increasingly low budgets), St. John was paired with new star Lash LaRue. Ultimately, St. John made more than 80 Westerns as Fuzzy. His last film was released in 1952. From that time on until his death in 1963 in Lyons, Georgia, he made personal appearances at fairs and rodeos, and travelled with the Tommy Scott Wild West Show. Altogether, Al St. John acted in 346 movies, spanning four decades from 1912 to 1952. Description above from the Wikipedia article Al St. John, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Starred In

1942
Movie

Arizona Terrors

1914
Movie

Mabel's Busy Day

1914
Movie

The New Janitor

1919
Movie

Back Stage

1918
Movie

The Bell Boy

1917
Movie

Coney Island

1918
Movie

Good Night, Nurse!

1917
Movie

His Wedding Night

1921
Movie

The High Sign

1937
Movie

Sing Cowboy Sing

1914
Movie

The Anglers

1914
Movie

The Love Thief

1914
Movie

The Plumber

1945
Movie

Stagecoach Outlaws

1944
Movie

Fuzzy Settles Down

1918
Movie

Out West

1917
Movie

The Rough House

1920
Movie

The Scarecrow

1917
Movie

The Butcher Boy

1917
Movie

Oh, Doctor!

1918
Movie

Moonshine

1918
Movie

The Cook

1914
Movie

The Knockout

1914
Movie

The Rounders

1914
Movie

Mabel's Blunder

1917
Movie

A Country Hero

1932
Movie

Bridge Wives

1925
Movie

The Iron Mule

1914
Movie

Won in a Closet

1938
Movie

Frontier Scout

1943
Movie

Devil Riders

1962
Movie

Crazy Days

1946
Movie

Lightning Raiders

1914
Movie

Fatty's Finish

1914
Movie

Fatty's Debut

1947
Movie

Law of the Lash

1915
Movie

A Village Scandal

1933
Movie

Buzzin' Around

1935
Movie

Trigger Tom

1935
Movie

Midnight Phantom

1935
Movie

The Law of 45's

1930
Movie

Two Fresh Eggs

1930
Movie

Hell Harbor

1925
Movie

Curses

1932
Movie

Harem Scarem

1916
Movie

The Other Man

1917
Movie

Coney Island

1917
Movie

The Grab Bag Bride

1922
Movie

Special Delivery

1924
Movie

His First Car

1931
Movie

Marriage Rows

1931
Movie

Honeymoon Trio

1946
Movie

Overland Riders

1931
Movie

That's My Meat

1927
Movie

The Stunt Man

1914
Movie

Those Country Kids

1920
Movie

Trouble

1927
Movie

Listen Lena

1928
Movie

Hot or Cold

1936
Movie

West of Nevada

1936
Movie

A Face in the Fog

1930
Movie

Western Knights

1931
Movie

The Door Knocker

1947
Movie

Border Feud

1947
Movie

Stage to Mesa City

1944
Movie

Oath of Vengeance

1944
Movie

Frontier Outlaws

1918
Movie

A Scrap of Paper

1942
Movie

Law and Order

1937
Movie

A Lawman Is Born

1922
Movie

Out of Place

1925
Movie

Dynamite Doggie

1925
Movie

Fire Away

1914
Movie

Lover's Luck

1914
Movie

Fatty's Jonah Day

1938
Movie

Exposed

1945
Movie

Border Badmen

1944
Movie

Wild Horse Phantom

1913
Movie

The Riot

1913
Movie

Mother's Boy

1913
Movie

His Sister's Kids

1914
Movie

Tango Tangles

1943
Movie

Raiders of Red Gap

1938
Movie

Call of The Yukon

1944
Movie

I'm from Arkansas

1931
Movie

The Painted Desert

1926
Movie

The General

1915
Movie

A Bird's a Bird

1917
Movie

A Reckless Romeo

1929
Movie

She Goes to War

1926
Movie

His Taking Ways

1914
Movie

The Star Boarder

1915
Movie

Fatty's New Role

1919
Movie

Love

1916
Movie

The Waiters' Ball

1927
Movie

Jungle Heat

1938
Movie

Gunsmoke Trail

1929
Movie

The Dance of Life

1938
Movie

Songs and Bullets

1924
Movie

Lovemania

1938
Movie

Start Cheering

1936
Movie

Trail Dust

1939
Movie

Oklahoma Terror

1939
Movie

Trigger Pals

1944
Movie

The Drifter

1935
Movie

Bar 20 Rides Again

1928
Movie

Painted Post

1922
Movie

All Wet

1950
Movie

The Daltons' Women

1922
Movie

A Studio Rube

1945
Movie

Shadows of Death

1946
Movie

Prairie Badmen

1942
Movie

Jesse James, Jr.

1948
Movie

Frontier Revenge

1941
Movie

A Missouri Outlaw

1941
Movie

The Apache Kid

1948
Movie

Dead Man's Gold

1945
Movie

Rustlers' Hideout

1942
Movie

Stagecoach Express

1927
Movie

High Sea Blues

1948
Movie

Mark of the Lash

1949
Movie

Outlaw Country

1919
Movie

Speed

1932
Movie

Police Court

1945
Movie

Prairie Rustlers

1945
Movie

Gangster's Den

1949
Movie

Son of a Badman

1937
Movie

The Roaming Cowboy

1940
Movie

Marked Men

1931
Movie

Aloha

1943
Movie

Blazing Frontier

1940
Movie

Li'l Abner

1940
Movie

Friendly Neighbors

1943
Movie

The Renegade

1933
Movie

From Headquarters

1925
Movie

Fair Warning

1925
Movie

Red Pepper

1940
Movie

Texas Terrors

1952
Movie

The Black Lash

1943
Movie

Cattle Stampede

1942
Movie

Border Roundup

1942
Movie

Texas Justice

1943
Movie

Law of the Saddle

1943
Movie

Dead Men Walk

1943
Movie

Western Cyclone

1947
Movie

Pioneer Justice

1947
Movie

Return of the Lash

1942
Movie

Valley of the Sun

1942
Movie

Prairie Pals

1946
Movie

My Dog Shep

1924
Movie

Stupid, but Brave

1926
Movie

Skybound

1927
Movie

American Beauty

1920
Movie

Ship Ahoy

1928
Movie

Hello Cheyenne!

1923
Movie

Spring Fever

1933
Movie

Riders of Destiny

1916
Movie

Bombs!

1936
Movie

Pinto Rustlers

1919
Movie

Camping Out

1919
Movie

The Pullman Porter

1919
Movie

A Desert Hero

1916
Movie

Bright Lights

1914
Movie

The Alarm

1932
Movie

Law of the North

1926
Movie

Who Hit Me?

1927
Movie

High Spots

1926
Movie

Flaming Romance

1914
Movie

The Sky Pirate