Knute Erickson

Biography

Knute Erickson was a vaudeville comedian and actor active in Hollywood between 1915 and 1936. His most famous creation was that of the character Daffy Dan, with which he had some success as a touring vaudeville performer, in a show presented by Hollywood mogul Jesse Lasky. Daffy Dan made his film debut in 1915 in a couple of two-reel comedies, and was featured in two Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle films that were never released in the US. Daffy Dan was a "Swedish" character, very much like that of Philadephia-born comedian El Brendel's character "Ole", which he developed around the same time. To add authenticity to the character, Erickson would insist that he himself was born in Norrköping, Sweden. In fact, he was born in Ogden, Utah as Carl Erickson. However, unlike El Brendel, Erickson did have Swedish ancestry: his parents were Swedish immigrants. Outside of his vaudeville acts, Erickson continued to act in films up until 1936, when he did his last role, in the serial The Amazing Exploits of the Clutching Hand. Daffy Dan, however, only had one more film outing, as Lon Chaney's daffy henchman in the silent horror comedy The Monster (1925). Erickson primarily played bit-parts, often uncredited.