Billy West

Billy West

Born: September 22, 1892
Died: July 21, 1975
in Russia
Billy West (September 22, 1892 – July 21, 1975) was a film actor, producer, and director. Active during the silent film era, he is best known as a semi-successful Charlie Chaplin impersonator. Beyond acting, he also directed shorts in the 1910s and 20s, as well as produced films. West ultimately retired in 1935.

Movies for Billy West...

She Couldn't Take It
Title: She Couldn't Take It
Character: Reporter
Released: October 8, 1935
Type: Movie
The wealthy Van Dyke family are constantly in the media for outrageous behavior, much to the frustration of the patriarch, Dan Van Dyke. His self-centered wife has a fondness for foreign imports, including "pet projects" like dancers and such and his spoiled children Tony and Carol have constant run-ins with the law. When Dan himself ends up in the clink for five years for tax evasion, he becomes bunk-mates with ex-bootlegger Joe "Spots" Ricardi. Ricardi lectures him on being such a push-over for an out-of-control family, so a dying Dan makes Ricardi his estate trustee once he is released from prison. Ricardi is then thrust into high society and must do everything he once nagged Dan to do.
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Motive for Revenge
Title: Motive for Revenge
Character: Ray - Convict
Released: May 15, 1935
Type: Movie
Bank teller Barry Webster is driven to stealing bank funds by his mother-in-law who continually nags him about forcing her daughter Muriel to live in poverty...
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Perfectly Mismated
Title: Perfectly Mismated
Released: November 12, 1934
Type: Movie
Leon's ex-wife moves into the apartment next to him.
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The Defense Rests
Title: The Defense Rests
Character: Reporter
Released: July 15, 1934
Type: Movie
A sleazy lawyer's female assistant sets out to end his cheating ways.
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He Was Her Man
Title: He Was Her Man
Character: Chick
Released: June 16, 1934
Type: Movie
A safecracker goes straight after doing a stretch for a bum rap. He agrees to do one last job for his "pals".
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The Personality Kid
Title: The Personality Kid
Character: Sparring Partner
Released: June 6, 1934
Type: Movie
An arrogant boxer (Pat O'Brien) discovers his wife (Glenda Farrell) had a hand in his success.
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A Very Honorable Guy
Title: A Very Honorable Guy
Character: Mike
Released: April 18, 1934
Type: Movie
Well respected local good guy, "Feet" Samuels finds himself heavily in debt due to an uncharacteristic gambling binge. Feet decides the only way to settle the bill is by selling his body to an ambitious doctor who agrees to allow him one last month to live life to the fullest, then kill himself.
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Jimmy the Gent
Title: Jimmy the Gent
Character: Halley (uncredited)
Released: March 9, 1934
Type: Movie
An unpolished racketeer, whose racket is finding heirs for unclaimed fortunes, affects ethics and tea-drinking manners to win back the sweetheart who now works for his seemingly upright competitor.
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It Happened One Night
Title: It Happened One Night
Character: Reporter (uncredited)
Released: February 22, 1934
Type: Movie
A renegade reporter and a young heiress meet on a bus heading for New York, and end up stuck with each other when the bus leaves them behind at one of the stops.
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Ex-Lady
Title: Ex-Lady
Character: Panhandler (uncredited)
Released: May 15, 1933
Type: Movie
Although free spirit Helen Bauer does not believe in marriage, she consents to marry Don, but his infidelities cause her to also take on a lover.
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Picture Snatcher
Title: Picture Snatcher
Character: Reporter Stacy (uncredited)
Released: May 6, 1933
Type: Movie
An ex-con uses his street smarts to become a successful photojournalist.
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Diamond Trail
Title: Diamond Trail
Character: Lefty
Released: April 22, 1933
Type: Movie
Reporter Speed Morgan helps Flash Barrett escape from the police and this gets him into Flash's gang where he poses as a gangster. Flash and his gang head west guning for Bill Miller who failed to send some diamonds on to Flash. Speed hopes to bring Flash to justice but is in trouble when his true identity is revealed.
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Hallelujah, I'm a Bum
Title: Hallelujah, I'm a Bum
Character: Bum
Released: February 3, 1933
Type: Movie
A New York tramp falls in love with the mayor's amnesiac girlfriend after rescuing her from a suicide attempt.
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The Shadow of the Eagle
Title: The Shadow of the Eagle
Character: Bob the Clown
Released: February 1, 1932
Type: Movie
The Eagle uses sky writing to make threats against a corporation. Nathan Gregory owns a travelling fairground and is thought to be the Eagle. Craig McCoy is a pilot who goes looking for the Eagle when Gregory turns up missing.
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Newly Rich
Title: Newly Rich
Character: (uncredited)
Released: July 2, 1931
Type: Movie
Two small town widows bring their children to Hollywood, where their children become competing film stars. The girl is sweet, the boy is a killjoy sissy. For publicity, the rival families go to London to meet a middle European boy King. The three kids decide they need to escape their stifling lives and run away to the docks and join a gang.
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Lucky Fool
Title: Lucky Fool
Character: J. Anthony Bowden
Released: January 1, 1927
Type: Movie
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Thrilling Youth
Title: Thrilling Youth
Character: Billy Davis
Released: August 3, 1926
Type: Movie
Billy Davis discovers that his father's bakery business is in serious financial trouble and leaves college in order to help his family.
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Hard Boiled Yeggs
Title: Hard Boiled Yeggs
Character: Billy
Released: March 7, 1926
Type: Movie
A recent college graduate (Billy West) inherits a large sum of money, as well as a dive on the rough side of town. The will states that, in the event of Billy's death, two thugs get the money and the 'Cafe', and the thugs try, through various means, to see that Billy meets his demise. But Billy manages to thwart their efforts, with the help of a pretty young girl.
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Fiddlin' Around
Title: Fiddlin' Around
Character: An Italian fiddler
Released: June 14, 1925
Type: Movie
FIDDLIN AROUND' (1925) (Starring Babe Hardy).
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Fiddlin' Around
Title: Fiddlin' Around
Released: June 14, 1925
Type: Movie
A clumsy fiddler plays at an audition with a grouchy teathrical impresario, played by Oliver Hardy.
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The Joke's on You
Title: The Joke's on You
Character: Hubby
Released: June 14, 1925
Type: Movie
Billy West comedy produced by Cumberland and distributed by Arrow.
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Rivals
Title: Rivals
Character: Billy
Released: May 15, 1925
Type: Movie
A 1925 silent comedy.
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Meet Father
Title: Meet Father
Released: November 15, 1924
Type: Movie
The daughter of a local store fancies a man, but her father wants her to end up with a boxing champion.
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Line's Busy
Title: Line's Busy
Character: A Tourist
Released: September 11, 1924
Type: Movie
Billy West comedy for Arrow.
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Not Wanted
Title: Not Wanted
Released: April 1, 1924
Type: Movie
After five years as the best of the Chaplin imitators, Billy West struck out with his own comedy character, a middle-class man in a nice suit and a fedora -- but with the mustache. These movies involved him in cartoonish situations in which he executed some extended gags very nicely -- in this one he does the one in which the water pump only works when he's not ready for it and another in which he can't catch a fish with some expensive gear, while the boy next to him catches whoppers with a stick and a bent pin -- and gradually moved behind the camera.
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Hello Bill
Title: Hello Bill
Released: December 1, 1923
Type: Movie
Billy West comes home and is greeted in so many ways.
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Don't Be Foolish
Title: Don't Be Foolish
Character: Billy
Released: June 11, 1922
Type: Movie
Billy gets into trouble with a couple of cops by littering in the park, and must use all his ingenuity to elude them.
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The Trouble Shooter
Title: The Trouble Shooter
Character: The Tender Foot
Released: December 11, 1921
Type: Movie
Billy West wanders into town and is made sheriff because the older ones got killed or ran away.
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Italian Love
Title: Italian Love
Released: March 8, 1920
Type: Movie
A Billy West slapstick comedy.
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Ship Ahoy
Title: Ship Ahoy
Character: Charlie
Released: February 15, 1919
Type: Movie
Charlie stays at a seaside lodging house frequented by sailors. He gets involved with a gang of crooks when a sea captain attempts to kidnap his landlady's daughter.
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Rolling Stone
Title: Rolling Stone
Character: The Rolling Stone
Released: January 20, 1919
Type: Movie
A Chaplin-like tramp is mistaken for a Bolshevik
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He's In Again
Title: He's In Again
Character: A Customer
Released: December 15, 1918
Type: Movie
A tramp enters a cabaret and orders a drink, but then is thrown out when he cannot pay for it. After trying again, he is told by the manager that if he wants to avoid being charged and sent to jail, he will have to work.
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Playmates
Title: Playmates
Character: Kid
Released: July 1, 1918
Type: Movie
A comedy inspired by Charles Chaplin's "Easy Street" (1917).
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Bright and Early
Title: Bright and Early
Character: A Bellboy
Released: May 14, 1918
Type: Movie
Billy West as does fairly random series of gags as a bellboy in a rather poor hotel run by Oliver Hardy.
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The Scholar
Title: The Scholar
Character: The Scholar
Released: March 15, 1918
Type: Movie
Short King Bee Studios slapstick comedy featuring Billy West and Oliver Hardy
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The Rogue
Title: The Rogue
Character: Billy
Released: February 14, 1918
Type: Movie
'The Rogue' casts West as the slavey in a boarding-house (not a very Chaplinesque role) overseen by a landlady who seems to be a cross between Alice Davenport and Marie Dressler, with a dash of Hattie Jacques. He crosses paths with a counterfeit count (White) and a stolen violin worth $20,000.
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His Day Out
Title: His Day Out
Character: Billy
Released: January 14, 1918
Type: Movie
In this film, West escapes a couple of cops and fights for the hand of Leatrice Joy with Oliver Hardy (doing his best Eric Campell). A barber by trade, our tramp serves his boorish clientele with similarly bad manners before the whole crowd attends a swanky Barbers' Ball.
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The Stranger
Title: The Stranger
Character: The Prospector
Released: January 1, 1918
Type: Movie
After a luckless prospecting trip, Billy starts homeward across the desert, mounted on his little burro with his pick, shovel and pack strapped up behind him. Finally he comes in sight of Red Dog Gulch and, hungry and thirsty, he pushes on toward the city. Susie is the daughter of the town drunkard. She starts out on her horse for a little ride, and a little way from town is attacked by Pedro and Little Casino, two Mexicans, who try to steal her horse. Billy happens along, runs the Mexicans off and takes Susie back to town.
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The Pest
Title: The Pest
Character: The Pest
Released: November 15, 1917
Type: Movie
The Pest (aka The Freeloader) is a 1917 silent comedy film featuring Oliver Hardy and starring Billy West in one of his "Charlie Chaplin" rip-off roles.
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The Hobo
Title: The Hobo
Character: The Hobo
Released: November 1, 1917
Type: Movie
Billy is a hobo who hangs around the train station. He creates disruption in the ticket office, at the lunch counter, and in the lives of some of the customers.
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The Candy Kid
Title: The Candy Kid
Character: The Candy Kid
Released: October 14, 1917
Type: Movie
A Fake Chaplin movie with Billy West as the tramp.
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The Chief Cook
Title: The Chief Cook
Character: The Star Boarder
Released: September 30, 1917
Type: Movie
The film opens in the lobby of a small hotel, where the desk clerk/owner (Budd Ross) is addressing three members of staff: the cook, the waiter and the bellboy. It is obvious from their reactions, particularly the cook (Leo White) that whatever was said did not go down too well. His animated arms knock down the man standing behind him repeatedly until all three servants simultaneously quit. They storm off into the adjoining kitchen where a slavery maid (Blanche White) is on the floor scrubbing the floor. The men all trip over her, moan briefly and then leave.
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The Villain
Title: The Villain
Character: The Villain
Released: July 14, 1917
Type: Movie
In The Villain, Billy attempted something a little different. He's still imitating Chaplin, but this time he's playing the wicked, top-hatted Charlie found in some of his earliest Keystone appearances (e.g. Mabel at the Wheel), the ones where Charlie himself seemed to be imitating the studio's recently departed Ford Sterling. Throughout this short there is much spoofing of old-time melodramas, a frequent motif of Sterling's comedies.
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Cupid's Rival
Title: Cupid's Rival
Character: Janitor
Released: July 1, 1917
Type: Movie
A bumbling janitor in a fleabag hotel drives the residents crazy, and a poor artist believes that his girlfriend is having an affair with a wealthy artist living across the hall, and takes unorthodox measures to find out what's going on.
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The Hero
Title: The Hero
Released: April 1, 1917
Type: Movie
The Hero is a 1917 silent comedy film featuring Billy West & Oliver Hardy.
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Little Nell
Title: Little Nell
Character: Suitor
Released: January 9, 1917
Type: Movie
Billy West tries to court/swindle Little Nell (big Oliver Hardy in drags). but her father is in the way.