Born in Richmond, Québec, Canada. Mack Sennett was often known by his self-endowed title "The King of Comedy." In truth, Sennett was not so much a king as a ringmaster for a motley menagerie of other-worldy grotesques that slipped, slid and slapped their way at breakneck speeds across American movie screens of the 1910s. The anarchic world of cross-eyed rubes, nightmare-bearded villains, pulchritudinous bathing beauties and bumbling cops falling off cliffs, out of buildings, and into and out of cars was the quite unexpected creation of a gentleman whose first ambition in life was to be an opera star. Sennett moved with his family at the age of 17 to Connecticut. An encounter with fellow Canadian Marie Dressler led to an introduction to producer David Belasco and a new career for young Sennett on the vaudeville stage. In New York, he met the formidable film producer-director D.W. Griffith, for whom he played a bevy of roles, including the lead in THE CURTAIN POLE (1909), Griffith's only directorial attempt at a comedy. Sennett stumbled into directing by accident: when a director fell ill at the last minute, he was told to replace him. Griffith then assigned Sennett to supervise production of his comedy unit and, by 1912, Sennett had set up his own studio in Hollywood and had become America's self-appointed comic showman -- "a producer of laughs." And a producer he was. Sennett's Keystone operation became a California version of Henry Ford's automobile plant in Michigan. Comedies were cranked out at bracing, production-line speed, with several produced in one day from an outline prepared under Sennett's supervision. The formula was unrepentently drawn from French models; as Sennett put it, "I stole my first ideas from the Pathés." In spite of the appearance of frenzied freedom in Sennett's slapstick orgies, the formula was in fact strict and unbending. Characterization was eschewed in favor of stereotypes with whom the audience could make an immediate identification. Sennett also issued strict rules governing the type of gags that could be used; in fact, he declared, there were only two real categories of gags: "the fall of dignity and the mistaken identity." The roster of Sennett talent was impressive. At one point Charlie Chaplin, Gloria Swanson, Fatty Arbuckle, Mabel Normand, Harry Langdon, Harold Lloyd, Raymond Griffith and Frank Capra worked for Sennett. But, for an innovator, Keystone was a graveyard, and any comic talent with ideas bolted at the first opportunity. Sennett, however, refused to change and clung to his threadbare formula through the 1920s and into the 30s, churning out tired, low-budget variations of his successes of the teens. He had, nevertheless, created the ground rules for American screen comedy. Among the pratfalls, chases, stereotypes and pantomime, Sennett set the tone and composed the basic melody. It was left to other, more inspired artists, to pick up that tune and transform it into a symphony.  Short Subjects (Novelty) 1931-32: WRESTLING SWORDFISH - Producer  Nominated for Short Subjects (Comedy) 1931-32: THE LOUD MOUTH - Producer  Special Award 1937: "For his lasting contribution to the comedy technique of the screen, the basic principles of which are as important today as when they were first put into practice, the Academy presents a Special Award to that master of fun, discoverer of stars, sympathetic, kindly, understanding comedy genius, Mack Sennett." Winner presented a Statuette. 2 nominations, 1 Award, 1 Honorary Award