Ben Johnson (actor)

He was the World Champion Steer Roper in 1953. A few Max Linder films:. He went on to become a favourite of Sam Peckinpah before winning an Academy Award for his performance as Sam The Lion in The Last Picture Show. In his honor, Lycée Max Linder, a public school in the city of Libourne in the Gironde département near his birthplace was given his name. Born in Foraker, Shidler, Oklahoma, Ben Johnson was a ranch hand and rodeo star before becoming involved in the movies with John Ford in such classics as She Wore A Yellow Ribbon and Rio Grande. In the ensuing years, Linder was relegated to little more than a footnote in film history until 1963 when a Max Linder compilation film titled Laugh with Max Linder was released and in 1983 his daughter made a documentary film titled The Man in the Silk Hat. Ben Johnson (June 13, 1918 - April 8, 1996) was an American movie actor. After Max Linder's death, Charles Chaplin dedicated one of his films: "For the unique Max, the great master - his student Charles Chaplin".

However, in Paris on October 31, 1925 Linder and his wife were successful in taking their own lives. They were found and were recuperated, the incident covered up by the physician reporting it as an accidental overdose of sleeping powder. The emotional problems besetting Linder evidenced themselves in early 1924 when he and his wife attempted suicide at a hotel in Vienna, Austria. In 1923, he married an 18-year old girl with whom he had a daughter they named Maud.

The aftereffects of Linder's war service was that he suffered from continuing health problems including bouts of severe depression. After having made several hundred short films, he all but gave up on the business, appearing in only two more films during 1923 and 1924 including "Secours" (Help!) for director Abel Gance. Once more, his American productions were box office failures and a discouraged Max Linder went back to his homeland. Linder returned to France in 1917 but two years later made another attempt at filmmaking in Hollywood.

audiences and the studio cancelled production of the remaining films in his contract. Unfortunately, his first few American made "Max" films didn't connect with the U.S. In 1916, Linder received and accepted an offer from Essanay Studios of Chicago, Illinois to work in the United States. Physically unfit for combat duty, he worked as a dispatch driver during the war until he was seriously wounded.

World War I brought a temporary end to his career in film. By 1911, he was directing his own films as well as writing the script and the universality of silent films brought Linder fame and fortune throughout Europe, making him the highest paid entertainer of the day. Linder made more than one hundred short films portraying "Max," a wealthy and dapper man-about-town frequently in hot water because of his penchant for beautiful women and the good life. Max Linder created what was probably the first identifiable motion-picture character who appeared in successive situation comedies.

While working in Paris on the theater stage and in music halls, Leuvielle became fascinated with motion pictures and in 1905 took a job with Pathé Frères that saw him become a comedic actor, director, screenwriter, as well as a producer under the stage name, Max Linder. Born Gabriel-Maximilien Leuvielle in Saint-Loubès, Gironde, France to a wine growing family, he grew up with a passion for the theater and as a young man joined a theater troupe touring the country. Max Linder, born December 16, 1883 - died October 31, 1925, was an influential French pioneer of silent film. The Skater's Debut (1907).

Max and His Mother-in-Law (1910). Max and His Dog (1912). Max's Hat (1913). Max and the Jealos Husband (1914).

Max in America (1917). Max Wants a Divorce (1917). Max in a Taxi (1917). Be My Wife (1921).

Seven Years Bad Luck (1921). The Three Must-Get-Theres (1922). Secours (Help!) (1923).