Luke the Dog

Biography

Luke the Dog was an English Staffordshire Bull Terrier, featured in one- and two reel comedy shorts (mainly for Keystone) between 1914 and 1920. The athletic animal was owned by silent actors Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle and his wife Minta Durfee, who acquired the canine as a six months-old puppy from actor/director Wilfred Lucas in lieu of payment for a particularly dangerous stunt performed by Durfee. Luke became an inveterate scene-stealer, popular as a stunt-performing co-star to other famous silent comedians, including Buster Keaton and Mabel Normand. He eventually had his own contract, earning a respectable $150 a week (more than most human actors of the period). In the wake of the 1921 scandal which derailed Arbuckle's career, Durfee was awarded custody of Luke, though Arbuckle was given occasional visiting rights. Luke spent the remaining years of his life away from the cameras and died in 1926 at the age of 13.