Earl Montgomery

{{Short description|US silent film director and actor}}

File:Vamps and Variety.jpg

Earl Triplett Montgomery (May 24, 1894 – October 28, 1966) was a film director, writer, and comedian who performed in silent films including as the character Hairbreadth Harry. He established the producing company Earl Montgomery Comedy Company.{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8nVO0nMm8voC&q=earl+montgomery+comedian&pg=RA28-PA13|title=The Glass Worker|date=April 8, 1920|publisher=Commoner Publishing Company.|via=Google Books}} Joe Rock partnered with him at Vitagraph.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iSfU38xkO7AC&q=earl+montgomery+comedian&pg=PA132|title=Stan and Ollie: The Roots of Comedy: The Double Life of Laurel and Hardy|first=Simon|last=Louvish|date=July 8, 2005|publisher=Macmillan|isbn=9780312325985|via=Google Books}}{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8EoPAAAAMAAJ&q=earl+montgomery+comedian|title=The Big V: A History of the Vitagraph Company|first=Anthony|last=Slide|date=January 1, 1987|publisher=Scarecrow Press|isbn=9780810820302|via=Google Books}}{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gwxKAQAAMAAJ&q=earl+montgomery+comedian&pg=PA71|title=Motography|date=April 8, 1918|via=Google Books}}

Montgomery was born in Santa Cruz, California.{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VDZ1DwAAQBAJ&q=%22earl+montgomery%22+joe+rock&pg=PT35|title=Lame Brains and Lunatics|first=Steve|last=Massa|date=April 8, 2013|publisher=BearManor Media|via=Google Books}} He was a theater actor.{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ay04AQAAMAAJ&q=earl+triplett+montgomery|title=Motion Picture Studio Directory and Trade Annual. ...|date=April 13, 1921|publisher=Motion Picture News, Incorporated|via=Google Books}} Early in his film career he was a stunt man with American Film Company.

As a comedy team with Joe Rock at Vitagraph Studios he appeared in numerous shorts including Hash and Havoc (1916), Stowaways and Strategy (1917), Farms and Fumbles (1918), Harems and Hookum (1919), Zip and Zest (1919), Vamps and Variety (1919), Rubes and Robbers (1919), Cave and Coquettes (1919), Throbs and Thrills (1920), Loafers and Lovers (1920), and Sauce and Senoritas (1920). In the book Comedy is a Man in Trouble: Slapstick in American Movies by Alan Dale, Joe Rock described the two-reelers he made with Earl Montgomery saying, "We always finished our comedies with a shot of us running away from a cop, a schoolteacher, or a principal, and then running smack into them again. If we'd run away from cops, we'd run back into cops."{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zHX_sDiAfcMC&q=%22earl+montgomery%22+film+comedy&pg=PA23|title=Comedy Is a Man in Trouble: Slapstick in American Movies|first=Alan S.|last=Dale|date=April 8, 2000|publisher=U of Minnesota Press|isbn=9781452904986|via=Google Books}} Montgomery acted with the Vitagraph troupe known as Semon's Sea Lions.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tnrXCgAAQBAJ&q=%22Semon%27s+Sea+Lions%22&pg=PA60|title=Larry Semon, Daredevil Comedian of the Silent Screen: A Biography and Filmography|first=Claudia|last=Sassen|date=October 27, 2015|publisher=McFarland|isbn=9781476620275|via=Google Books}}

He married Vera Reynolds but they divorced.