Harry Sweet

Biography

Harry Sweet was born in Teller County, Colorado, in 1901 and moved with his family to Reno, Nevada, in 1916. While in high school he was a movie projectionist for several theaters in the city. He also was a talented acrobat. He arrived in Hollywood in 1919 and immediately went to work as an actor for L-KO Studios, which was supervised by Universal Studios. Sweet made only one film there because Universal shut down L-KO as a precautionary measure during the Spanish Influenza Epidemic of 1918-1919. He then moved over to Century Films, where he appeared in Baby Peggy and Brownie the Wonder Dog comedy shorts along with other animal shorts that included the "Century Lions" and the "Century Dogs." In 1924, Sweet left Century for Mack Sennett Studios, where Richard Jones, the supervising director for Sennett, assigned Sweet to direct the studio's leading comedy players. Sweet directed Ben Turpin in "Romeo and Juliet" (1924) and "The First 100 Years" with Harry Langdon. Sweet followed with a number of other directing assignments for Sennett. Although he continued to act, he took on more and more directing assignments. In 1930, RKO Studios hired Sweet to supervise its short subject department. There, he helped Edgar Kennedy - a second-string comedian to Harry Langdon, Harold Lloyd and other big comedy stars of the day - originate the "Mr Average Man" series. The series of comedy shorts became a big hit and ran through 1948. RKO released the first "Mr. Average Man" film, "Lemon Meringue," on Aug. 3, 1931. Sweet also directed a pair of "Whoopie Comedies" with Kennedy and Florence Lake. "Rough House Rhythm" was released in April 1931 and "All Gummed Up" followed a month later. An experienced pilot since he was a teenager, Sweet took writer Howard "Hal" Davitt and Vera Williams, a 20-year-old actress who used the stage mane Claudette Ford, on a flying trip on June 8, 1933, to Big Bear Lake in San Bernardino County to scout film locations. At about 7:15 p.m., the plane lost power and nose-dived into the lake. Davitt and Williams were killed on impact and Sweet drowned.