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Joe Collum
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born:
10 September 1898 Rock Island, Illinois, United States of America |
died:
30 September 1986 Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, United States of America (heart failure, age 88) |
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American actor and casting director who worked in both capacities for the Hal Roach Studios. He was the father of Our Gang child actor John Collum. Joe was a World War I veteran, serving as a coxswain in the U.S. Navy. He married Ruth Gottschick (1894-1995) on 16 September 1919 in Chicago, Illinois; they had one child, John, and hit their 67th anniversary just two weeks before Joe's 1986 passing (Ruth died almost nine years later, four months after turning 100!). The Collums moved from Chicago to Hollywood in the mid-late 1920s. He worked for the Hal Roach Studios as early as late 1928, working as a stenographer. He worked two stints as the studio casting director, the first from April to July 1929; during the early-mid 1930s, he turns up in bit and extra parts at Roach and occasionally at Mack Sennett. He then returned to the casting department as assistant to Joe Rivkin in July 1936, then replacing Rivkin as casting director in March 1937 and serving as such until 1939; that June, he signed on with the Cudia-Color studio as talent director. A month later (July 1939), he was appointed casting director for the Charlie Chaplin Studios, serving as such on "The Great Dictator" (1940); his obituaries note that this was his last show business job. On his 1942 World War II draft registration card, Collum states he is unemployed. He is buried at Valhalla Memorial Park in North Hollywood, California. His obituaries and death records give his birthplace as Kansas City, Missouri, but all other records (including the 1900 U.S. Census, the earliest findable record for him) state/suggest Rock Island, Illinois. |
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Real name: Joseph John Collum Height: 5'8½" |
Films listed on this page: complete Hal Roach filmography. |
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