Minta Durfee

Early silent screen comedienne Araminta Durfee started out as a chorus girl and began her career on stage in 1908 in musical revues. In August of that year she married comedian Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle. In 1914, both players entered the fledgling film industry with Mack Sennett and were soon paired as a comedy double. By that time, Charles Chaplin had arrived from England to join the troupe and Minta became his leading lady in the two-reeler Making a Living (1914). The pairing was prompted by Mack Sennett who found the new arrival 'very peculiar' and felt it necessary to counterbalance his eccentricities with an actress who had a reputation for being able to 'get along with everybody'. In addition to the series of 'Fatty' featurettes, Minta also worked at Keystone in the classic madcap farce Tillie's Punctured Romance (1914). She co-starred opposite the likes of Chester Conklin, Mack Swain and Ford Sterling in a series of outrageous daredevil comedies until 1916. A popular story goes t