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Al St. John

Al St. John

Birthday: 1893-09-10 | Place of Birth: Santa Ana, California, USA

​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.

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Known For

Acting

Year
Title

Role

1952
The Frontier Phantom

as    Fuzzy Q. Jones

1950
The Daltons' Women

as    Fuzzy Q. Jones

1948
Frontier Revenge

as    Fuzzy Q. Jones

1947
Cheyenne Takes Over

as    Al 'Fuzzy' St. John

1947
Stage to Mesa City

as    Fuzzy Jones

1947
Border Feud

as    Fuzzy Q. Jones

1946
Overland Riders

as    Fuzzy Jones

1946
Terrors on Horseback

as    Fuzzy Q. Jones

1946
Outlaws of the Plains

as    Fuzzy Q. Jones

1946
Prairie Badmen

as    Fuzzy Q. Jones

1945
His Brother's Ghost

as    Andy Jones / Jonathan Fuzzy Jones

1945
Stagecoach Outlaws

as    Fuzzy Jones

1945
Border Badmen

as    Fuzzy Jones

1945
Rustlers' Hideout

as    Fuzzy Jones

1945
Prairie Rustlers

as    Fuzzy Q. Jones

1945
Gangster's Den

as    Fuzzy Q. Jones

1945
Shadows of Death

as    Fuzzy Q. Jones

1944
Thundering Gun Slingers

as    Doc Jones

1944
Wild Horse Phantom

as    Fuzzy Jones

1944
Oath of Vengeance

as    Fuzzy Jones

1944
Fuzzy Settles Down

as    Fuzzy Jones

1944
Frontier Outlaws

as    Fuzzy Jones

1944
I'm from Arkansas

as    Fuzzy Q. Jones

1943
Devil Riders

as    Fuzzy Q. Jones

1943
The Kid Rides Again

as    Fuzzy Q. Jones

1943
Raiders of Red Gap

as    Fuzzy Q. Jones

1943
Wolves of the Range

as    Fuzzy Q. Jones

1943
Dead Men Walk

as    Townsman Finding Kate's Body

1942
Billy the Kid Trapped

as    Fuzzy Jones