Martha Sleeper

On stage from the age of seven, Martha Sleeper began on screen in her early teens as a comic actress for Hal Roach. After her successful debut in the independently produced farce The Mailman (1923), she found herself cast in a series of child comedies with Buddy Messinger and a brace of one- and two-reel shorts opposite Charley Chase with titles like All Wet (1924) and Crazy Like a Fox (1926). Being voted a WAMPAS Baby Star in 1927 was a further boon to her popularity. An attempt was made to turn her into an eccentric knockabout comedienne in the vein of Gale Henry, but this failed to come off. She was subsequently used in rather more subtle domestic farce, such as in Pass the Gravy (1928) , as Max Davidson's daughter, frenetically trying to communicate with him by mime. Her last role of note in silent comedy was as a rather perfunctory leading lady in Stan Laurel's last solo effort, Should Tall Men Marry? (1928). Her contract with Roach was not renewed due to a fiscal downsizing of t