Wallace Beery

Wallace Fitzgerald Beery was an American film and stage actor. He began his show business career in 1902 as a sixteen-year-old assistant elephant trainer with the Ringling Brothers Circus. When he was eighteen, he began singing in Broadway musicals and Kansas City playhouses. After a short stint as a bit player for Universal Films, Beery formed his own production company and made several successful titles. In 1916 he married another young actress, Gloria Swanson, his co-star in several Mack Sennett comedies. He won an Academy Award (Best Actor) for his performance in The Champ (1931) with Jackie Cooper.