Harry Bayfield

born: 29 November 1890 Denver, Colorado, United States of America

died: 16 February 1946 Los Angeles, California, United States of America (pulmonary edema, age 55)

American actor who was well-known as a circus clown with Sells-Floto, Barnum & Bailey, Ringling Bros., and other big circuses. He eventually entered films in the late 1910s with Mack Sennett, later working steadily as an animal trainer on Harold Lloyd pictures. His prior big-top experience did see him frequently reassuming the clown makeup for circus films and scenes. In May of 1918 in Los Angeles there was a "popular LA policeman" in love with Harry's female circus dancing partner. The policeman was jealous even though the girl wasn't in love with him, so one night he went to her apartment with 2 pistols and shot her twice in the head and with the other gun took his own life. She had a husband who had the distraught Harry take care of the funeral arrangements. (I don't know if they were connected, but this was in May and in December of that year, Harry was working at a San Pedro shipyard as a riveter and said he had been working there since May and expected to continue working there longer.) A newspaper blurb of 1921 says he has been working for Roach for a year and a half and working on a Ruth Roland serial but doesn't specifically say he was acting. His obituary in Billboard attributes his death to a heart attack, but his death certificate reveals it was pulmonary edema due to uremia and malignant nephrosclerosis.

Real name: Harry Bayfield McKinley Height: 5'10¾"

Films listed on this page: complete Hal Roach filmography.

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1920 Get Out And Get Under [?] 1920 Number, Please? [?] 1924 Rupert Of Hee Haw [?] 1924 Wide Open Spaces [?] 1936 Arbor Day Sideshow clown MISCELLANEOUS (click any image to enlarge) DEATH CERTIFICATE (click any image to enlarge) Acknowledgements: https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M311-TXV (1900 Census) https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MGVF-FGD (1910 Census) https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:29JW-5C8 (WWI draft reg. card) https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MHQK-PP6 (1920 Census) https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:K889-CJ1 (1922 marriage) https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:H9Z7-822M (1922 marriage) https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:V48T-BCN (WWII draft reg. card) https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QL4G-KHPD (1943 marriage) https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QL4L-Z4R3 (1943 marriage) https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QL4L-41B5 (1943 marriage) https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VPQJ-N5G (CA Death Index, "Harry Bayfield") https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VPQK-1FP (CA Death Index, "Harry Bayfield Mckinley") https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QG2D-DP5G (death certificate) https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:6K4H-7Y4Y (Social Security Numident File) https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:HG4Q-HVMM (death/burial record) https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-C9BC-VQXS-C (funeral service record) https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:7BQ2-M1PZ (memorial tablet request) https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/83151580 (Find a Grave) https://archive.org/details/sim_billboard_1915-12-18_27_51/page/201/mode/1up?q=%22harry+bayfield%22&view=theater (The Billboard, 18 Dec 1915) https://archive.org/details/sim_billboard_1921-07-09_33_28/page/63/mode/1up?q=%22harry+bayfield%22&view=theater (The Billboard, 09 Jul 1921) https://digitalcollections.oscars.org/digital/collection/p15759coll35/id/5546/rec/25 (Standard Casting Directory, Feb 1927) https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/725901505/ (Tacoma Sunday Ledger, 27 Sep 1936) https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=ER19400920.1.7 (Chico Enterprise, 20 Sep 1940) https://books.google.com/books?id=JxoEAAAAMBAJ&q=bayfield (Billboard, 02 Mar 1946) https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KNQX-ZN9 (parents' marriage, 1884) Jesse Brisson (bio notes and research) Jim Jarvis (additional bio notes and research) This page was last updated on: 01 December 2025