William Hauber

Biography

A Minnesota winter greeted William Hauber on 20 May 1891—Brownsville’s coldest export until Hollywood came calling. Silent-era audiences knew him best as the comic spark in Passing the Buck (1919), Well, I’ll Be (1919) and The Fly Cop (1920), where pratfalls and poker-faced timing replaced dialogue. Off-screen, he shared his life with Myrtle E. Crosthwaite; on-screen, he shared belly-laughs with millions. Thirty-eight summers later, on 17 July 1929, the lights went down for good in Los Angeles, but the flicker of his humor still skips across the frames.