Star of Hundreds of Silent Films Ben Turpin Only Had A Few Speaking Roles

If people don’t know the name, they do know the face. Ben Turpin (1869-1940) was a silent film star for over two decades based primarily on his crossed eyes. His comic double-takes made him known to two generations of film-goers.

Born in New Orleans but raised on New York’s lower east side at 336 E. Sixth Street, Turpin had a mix of New Orleans and classic New York accent, limiting his talkie transition to certain roles. Besides that, Turpin had invested in Los Angeles real estate and had become wealthy with no need to work in films.

Turpin made more than 200 films, but was in only about a dozen talking features, many times having few or no lines, but appearing for comic effect.

Turpin’s eyes were crossed due to an accident when he was young. Turpin called himself cockeyed. He even refers to his affliction several times in this film below, making light of his condition:

“Ah what’s this here? Now here’s the letter from Dick Jones from St. Paul, Minnesota.

He wants to know is Ben Turpin as cockeyed in real life as he’s on the screen?

Say, I’m so cockeyed when I was a young fellow I spent five years in the southeast trying to join the northwest mounted police.”

Turpin is the big star in Voice Of Hollywood Number 8 filmed in 1929, not 1930 as credited. The film is so obscure it does not even appear in Turpin’s credits on his imdb.com page.

While the ten minute film is no great shakes when it comes to entertainment, it is still an interesting period piece to watch for the appearances of a very young Mickey Rooney (known as Mickey McGuire) Myrna Loy, and Madge Bellamy. Former Our Gang member Mickey Daniels known for his hyena type laugh has a bizarre three second wordless cameo at about the 9:10 mark. The other stars appearing are the forgotten Alberta Vaughn, Al Cooke and Kit Guard.