Actor, Motion Picture Director. Born Charles Joseph Parrott, he began action in motion picture comedies in the early 1910s. Like many other early movie comedians, he began his career at director Mack Sennett’s famous Keystone Studios. where some of his early work included playing supporting characters in Charlie Chaplin shorts. Several years after breaking into the movies, he also began working behind the camera. At first he was a co-director, working with Roscoe Arbuckle and Ford Sterling, and later transitioned to directing films on his own. He left Keystone after achieving success as a director, and worked a number of successive studios until 1921, when he was hired, along with his brother James Parrott, by producer Hal Roach. James Parrott began his career at Hal Roach Studios as an actor but ended up mostly working behind the camera; conversely, Charley Chase started out for Roach as a director but gained further fame on screen. By the mid-1920, he was the most popular star at the studio, starring in films such as ‘Crazy Like a Fox’ (1926), ‘Mighty Like a Moose’ (1926), ‘All Wet’ (1924), ‘Fluttering Hearts’ (1927), and ‘Bromo and Juliet’ (1925). At first he played a character named ‘Jimmie Jump’, but during the course of 1925 he began playing a character with his real name of Charley. His comedic persona was that of a regular guy, a bit dapper, usually nouveau riche, who would get into normal understandable trouble and situations, and from there the comedy would escalate. Roach said many times that he was the funniest man he had ever known. In 1929 the studio transitioned to sound, and Chase was one of the fortunate silent movies stars to find success in the new medium, although it took time for him to adapt to it. He continued to enjoy success throughout the early 1930s, and his ability to sing enhanced his fame. In many of his sound films, he would break into song, a number of which he had written himself. During the mid-1930s the studio began to phase out short subjects, and Chase’s test feature, “Bank Night” (1936), didn’t go over well and was subsequently edited to a two-reel short and released under the new title “Neighborhood House.” Apart from his supporting roles in a few features (most famously that of the obnoxious conventioneer in Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy’s 1933 film “Sons of the Desert”), he never starred in his own full-length movie. Released by Hal Roach Studios, during the remainder of the decade he acted and directed at Columbia Studios. When he was directing, he billed himself under his true name, Charles Parrott. However, he had begun having problems with alcohol, and his drinking led to a heart attack which ended his life at the age of forty-six. (bio by: Carrie-Anne)  Family links:  Spouse:  BeBe Chase (1888 – 1948)Cause of death: Heart attack