Max Linder
Acting • Born 1883-12-16 – Died 1925-11-01
Biography
Although all too frequently neglected by fans of silent comedy, Max Linder is in many ways as important a figure as Charles Chaplin, Buster Keaton, or Harold Lloyd, not least because he predated (and influenced) them all by several years, and was largely responsible for the creation of the classic style of silent slapstick comedy. He started out as an actor in the French theatre, but after making his screen debut in 1905 he quickly became an enormously famous and successful film comedian on both sides of the Atlantic, thanks to his character "Max", a top-hatted dandy. By 1912, he was the highest-paid film star in the world, with an unprecedented salary of one million francs. He began to direct films in 1911 and showed equal facility behind the camera, but his career suffered an almost terminal blow when he was called up to fight in World War I. He was gassed, and the illness that resulted would blight his career. Although offered a contract in America, recurring ill-health meant that his US films had little of the sparkle of his early French work, and a brief attempt to revive his career by making films for the recently-formed United Artists (one of whose founders, of course, was Chaplin) in the early 1920s came to little, although these later films are now regarded as classics. He returned to France and killed himself in a suicide pact with his wife in 1925.
Filmography
128 credits
Une ruse de mari
Movie • 1911
At the Show
Movie • 1907
Jalousie
Movie • 1912
Max Wishes He Hadn't
Movie • 1914
Seven Years Bad Luck
Movie • 1921
Max
Le serment d'un prince
Movie • 1910
Jacques de Lacerda
Champion de boxe
Movie • 1911
Max
Max Speaks English
Movie • 1914
Max
Max and His Mother-in-Law
Movie • 1911
Max
Max and His Dog Dick
Movie • 1912
Max
Max the Heartbreaker
Movie • 1917
Max in a Taxi
Movie • 1917
Himself
Max Takes Tonics
Movie • 1911
Max
Max Wants a Divorce
Movie • 1917
Max
The Little Vixen
Movie • 1909
The Three Must-Get-Theres
Movie • 1922
Dart-In-Again
First Night Out
Movie • 1905
The False Max Linder
Movie • 1914
Max
A Farmhouse Romance
Movie • 1912
Max
Max's Hat
Movie • 1913
Max
Max Takes a Picture
Movie • 1913
Max Wants to Grow
Movie • 1912
Max
Max Fears the Dogs
Movie • 1912
Max
Max Juggles for Love
Movie • 1912
Max
Max: Boxer By Love
Movie • 1912
Max's First Job
Movie • 1910
Max
Max Gets Stuck Up
Movie • 1910
Max
Romeo Turns Bandit
Movie • 1909
Max Plays the Part
Movie • 1914
The Dentures
Movie • 1909
Max and the Lady Doctor
Movie • 1914
Max
Love's Surprises
Movie • 1909
Max and the Donkey
Movie • 1912
Max
Max and the Statue
Movie • 1912
Max
An Agitated Night
Movie • 1912
The Romance of Max
Movie • 1912
Max
Max Sets the Fashion
Movie • 1912
Max
His First Cigar
Movie • 1908
In a Difficult Position
Movie • 1908
Dieutegarde
Harlequin's Story
Movie • 1907
Polichinelle / Ponchinella / Harlequin
Joined Lips
Movie • 1906
Max Sets the Style
Movie • 1914
Max
Max in Monaco
Movie • 1915
Max Takes a Bath
Movie • 1911
Max
Max Learns to Skate
Movie • 1907
Max
Be My Wife
Movie • 1921
Max, the Fiancé
Au secours !
Movie • 1924
Max
Max and Jane Want to Do Theater
Movie • 1911
Max
Max: Jockey for Love
Movie • 1913
Max
The Barometer of Fidelity
Movie • 1909
Max Embarrassed
Movie • 1910
Max
Cordial Agreement
Movie • 1912
Max Is Convalescent
Movie • 1911
Max
Long-Lasting Love
Movie • 1912
Max
The Water-Funker
Movie • 1912
Max
Max as a Chiropodist
Movie • 1914
Max
Max's Vacation
Movie • 1914
Max
The Wedding Trunk
Movie • 1912
Max
C'est Papa qui a pris la purge
Movie • 1907
Man on park bench
Max and the Purse
Movie • 1917
Max Linder Does All the Sports
Movie • 1913
Max
A Nervous Twitch Is Catching (Un Tic Nerveux Contagieux)
Movie
Troubles of a Grass Widower
Movie • 1908
Chance and Love
Movie • 1915
Max
The World of Yesteryear – Max Linder
Movie • 1924
Self
Le Petit Café
Movie • 1919
For a Necklace
Movie • 1907
King of the Circus
Movie • 1924
Max Graf von Pompadour
The Husband's Trick
Movie • 1907
The Adventures of Tartarin the Younger
Movie • 1910
Tartarin
Max, Tango Teacher
Movie • 1912
Max Toreador
Movie • 1913
Max Hates Cats
Movie • 1913
Max Makes a Touch
Movie • 1910
A Short-Sighted Duellist
Movie • 1910
Max
Max, médecin malgré lui
Movie • 1917
Max
Attempted Suicide
Movie • 1906
In Love with the Bearded Woman
Movie • 1909
The Theft of the Mona Lisa
Movie • 1931
(archive footage)
Max in the Convent
Movie • 1914
Max Skiing
Movie • 1910
Max
The Forced Marriage
Movie • 1914
An Unexpected Marriage
Movie • 1913
Max and the Jealous Husband
Movie • 1914
Max
I Want a Baby
Movie • 1910
Max Plays at Drama
Movie • 1914
Hairdresser of Love
Movie • 1915
Life and Deaths of Max Linder
Movie • 2026
Self (archive footage)
Max Takes Back His Freedom
Movie • 1912
Max (uncredited)
Max devrait porter des bretelles
Movie • 1917
Max
A Conquest
Movie • 1909
Beginning of the Serpentine Dance
Movie • 1908
The ballet master
Laugh with Max Linder
Movie • 1963
Self (archive footage)
Phial of Poison
Movie • 1907
The Effects of Pills
Movie • 1910
Max
Max se marie
Movie • 1911
Max
Trop aimée
Movie • 1910
Max
Max a un duel
Movie • 1911
Max
Chaussure trop étroite
Movie • 1907
Max
Max est distrait
Movie • 1910
Max
Max émule de Tartarin
Movie • 1912
Max
Un pari original
Movie • 1912
Max
Max amoureux de la teinturière
Movie • 1912
Max
Le duel de Max
Movie • 1913
Max
Max as a Musician
Movie • 1913
Max
The Man in the Silk Hat
Movie • 1983
Self (archive footage)
Birth of the Tramp
Movie • 2013
Self (archive footage)
Max Comes Across
Movie • 1917
Max
Max Linder Visits Charlie Chaplin
Movie • 1917
Self
Le billet doux
Movie • 1913
Max
Tout sur mon père Max Linder
Movie • 2013
Self (archive footage)
Max asthmatique
Movie • 1914
Max
Noisy Neighbors
Movie • 1908
Max's Latest Hobby
Movie • 1914
Max manque un riche mariage
Movie • 1910
Max
The Gentleman Thief
Movie • 1909
Arsène Lupin
Max Linder's Appointment
Movie • 1913
Unforeseen Meeting
Movie • 1905
Comment Max fait le tour du monde
Movie • 1911
Pitou, bonne d'enfants
Movie • 1907
Those Were The Days
Movie • 1946
(self)
Easter Parade
Movie • 1948
Audience Member (uncredited)
All in Good Fun
Movie • 1955
Archive Footage
Max Linder Collection 1917-1922
Movie • 2014
The Way of the World
Movie • 1947
(Archive Footage)
King of Cinema
Movie
Charlie Chaplin, The Genius of Liberty
Movie • 2020
archive footage
Encyclopédie audiovisuelle du cinéma
TV • 1978
Self (archive footage)