Whenever an almost-forgotten silent film player is remembered with a biography, we film fans rejoice. When a forgotten silent film player is remembered with an EXCELLENT biography, we film fans want to yell it from the rooftops and mountaintops, and tell anyone who will listen. So listen -- Wendy Warwick White's new biography of Ford Sterling is one of the excellent ones, well worth picking up and inhaling.

Since the iconic image of the Keystone Kops has survived in American pop culture, Ford Sterling's name -- or at least his face -- should still spark interest even in those casually interested in film history. Newly-learned facts about Sterling jump off every page. His real name was George Ford Stich, Jr. He went to Notre Dame. He was in the circus and vaudeville. He was estranged from actress-wife Teddy Sampson more than he was with her. And the real surprises begin -- see how baseball and photography played large roles in Sterling's off-screen life.

The book is full of fantastic silent film plot and character descriptions, mostly long forgotten and funny. Ford Sterling played many great hilarious roles -- Keystone Chief Teheezal the most memorable -- but also some serious ones. As he aged out of slapstick, the roles naturally became more character-driven. He worked constantly through the 1920s and most of the 1930s in wide variety of surprising places and some great stars. His death in 1939 at the age of 57 came after multiple fights with pneumonia and poor health.

With its great photos and remarkable insight as to the hows and whys of slapstick comedy, this book is not to be missed.  

Ford Sterling, The Life and Films, by Wendy Warwick White, was published by McFarland and Company, 2007.

http://www.mcfarlandpub.com/book-2.php?id=978-0-7864-2587-7