Vernon Dent

Character comedian Vernon Dent started out in show business as part of a singing troupe, and his friend Hank Mann -- one of the Keystone Kops for comedy producer Mack Sennett -- got him into comedy shorts during the 1920s. Dent did his own series of comedy shorts for Pathe Studios and then did a number of shorts with baby-faced comedian Harry Langdon for Sennett. After Langdon left Sennett to make his own features, Dent stayed on in support of comics like Billy Bevan and Ralph Graves, and in the 1930s, after Langdon's star had waned, Dent again supported him in a series of comedy shorts for Educational Pictures. In 1935, Dent signed with Columbia Studios, and they kept him busy in short subjects and also some features, including two bits in Frank Capra's "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" and "Meet John Doe." Dent is probably best known, though, as a foil for The Three Stooges in several of their comic shorts.