Charles "Heinie" Conklin on AllMovie

Though no relation to comedian Chester Conklin, Charles "Heinie" Conklin spent his early film years at Chester's alma mater, Mack Sennett's Keystone studios; in later years, Heinie claimed to be one of the original Keystone Kops. Heinie's silent-screen makeup consisted of heavy eyebrow lining and a thinnish, upside-down, painted-on variation of Kaiser Wilhelm's moustache. In areas where anti-German sentiments still ran high during the post-World War 1 era, Conklin was billed on screen as Charlie Lynn. One of Conklin's first talkie appearances was as the addled military hospital patient in All Quiet on the Western Front (1930). He spent most of his sound career in microscopic bit roles, often appearing at Columbia studios in support of such 2-reeler stars as The Three Stooges, Andy Clyde, Hugh Herbert and Harry Langdon. Significantly, Heinie Conklin's last billed performance was in 1955's Abbott and Costello Meet the Keystone Kops.