KARL DANE

Karl Dane (nicknamed "The Great Dane") was born in 1886. Long before M.C. Hammer or any of the many others in show business who went from huge success to total failure, there was Karl Dane, perhaps the saddest story of them all. He became a giant star after appearing in a major role in The Big Parade (1925), and then became one of MGM's foremost stars in the later 1920s, often appearing with George K. Arthur. But he had a very thick Danish accent, and he had zero success in sound movies, and the only parts he could get were given to him by good friend Buster Keaton. In 1934 he gave up on Hollywood, planning to become a plumber, and to support himself he bought a hot dog cart, and he set it up outside MGM studios, where he had been a star, likely thinking he would get much sympathy business there. He no doubt did, but his brain couldn't take the humiliation, and he went home and killed himself. Dane was 47 years old. He is also best remembered for his roles in The Son of the Sheik, Navy Blues, and The Trail of '98.