1924 silent film comedy with James Finlayson as ‘McGregor’s son’.
Starring Stan Laurel. Directed by George Jeske. Produced by Hal Roach. Distributed by Pathé. Released 3 Aug 1924.
You’d have thought they’d cast someone older to play his father – or got him to wear a wig!
1926 silent film comedy with James Finlayson as the butler ‘Simpson Sniffle’.
Starring Mabel Normand. Directed by Richard Wallace in collaboration with Stan Laurel (under F. Richard Jones supervision). Produced by Hal Roach.
1923 silent film comedy with James Finlayson as Sylvester Finkelbuster, Chief of Police, aka ‘The Man Who WAS Sold’.
Starring Snub Pollard. Directed by Charles Parrott (aka Charley Chase). Produced by Hal Roach. Distributed by Pathé. Released 27 May 1923.
Source: Motion Picture News, 26 May 1923.
1927 silent film comedy with James Finlayson as the teacher who has a nightmare about taking the Our Gang kids on a tour of Europe. Directed by Robert F. McGowan. Produced by Hal Roach. Reviewed in Motion Picture News of 7 Jan 1927.
See if you can spot Stan Laurel!
1927 silent film comedy with James Finlayson as ‘Boss of the Busy Bee’.
Starring Mabel Normand. Directed by Hal Yates (under F. Richard Jones supervision). Produced by Hal Roach.
The wig – unusually depicting him with a full of head of hair – is duly used as a prop when it catches fire!
United States Draft Registration Cards are a useful genealogy resource. They are freely viewable at FamilySearch, both for World War One and Two.
James’ U.S. WWI Draft Registration Card from 1917 shows he was living at the Hotel St. George on 115 East 3rd Street in Los Angeles, California, USA. He is registered as an Alien from England. His profession was given as Theatrical and his employer is given as Elco Company in Hollywood. This is presumably the L-KO Kompany. Marital Status is given as Single.
His height is listed as 5ft 7in, his build as Slender, his eyes as Blue, his hair as Brown. The question Bald? is answered as No and then scored out and replaced with Little! His distinguishing features are given as Lost Two Toes On The Left Foot, from which we could perhaps conjecture to be as a result of an industrial accident when he was working as a tinsmith before his acting career.
James’ U.S. WWII Draft Registration Card from 1942 lists his address as 1966 North Beachwood Drive, Hollywood, California and his employer is given as Hal Roach, Culver City, California.
The card also shows that his brother Robert lived at 2019 Canyon Drive, which looking at Google Maps is only 4 blocks away. It also looks like both houses are still pretty much as they would have been in the 1940’s.
1923 silent film comedy with James Finlayson as ‘Smacknamara’.
Starring Stan Laurel as ‘Canister’. Directed by Ralph Ceder. Produced by Gilbert M. Anderson and Hal Roach. Released 25 Nov 1923.
Some websites claim that James Finlayson went to George Watson’s school in Edinburgh and then on to Edinburgh University where he apparently dropped out. However, no source is given for either of these statements.
Given that his father was a blacksmith, and that he himself is listed as a tinsmith on the 1901 Census, these claims seem dubious. e.g. How would the family have afforded the tuition fees?
I looked into this some time ago and could find no reference to him in the Edinburgh University online archives, nor is he listed on George Watson’s site. I emailed both institutions and the archivists could find no record of his attendance.
As a result I removed these claims from his Wikipedia page, having previously added the {{citation needed}} tag some time beforehand.
Perhaps James himself invented these wee white lies to make out his past was grander than it actually was?
1923 silent film comedy with James Finlayson as ‘General Sappovitch’.
Starring Stan Laurel (and also featuring Mae Laurel). Directed by J.A. Howe. Produced by Hal Roach. Released 28 Oct 1923.
The film was a burlesque of Vicente Blasco Ibáñez’s novel ENEMIES OF WOMEN which had been adapted to the screen a few months earlier. It was the second in a series of such spoofs partnering James with Stan, the first being ROUGHEST AFRICA and the third being THE SOILERS.
Larbert Loon 