Hank Mann (born David William Lieberman; May 28, 1887 – November 25, 1971) was a Russian Empire-born and American comedian and silent screen star who was a member of the Keystone Cops, and appeared as a supporting player in many of Charlie Chaplin's films.

Career

Hank Mann was born in the Russian Empire but emigrated to New York City with his parents and siblings in 1891. KeystoneKops.jpg Mann was one of the earliest of film comedians, working first for Mack Sennett as an original Keystone Cop, and later for producers William Fox and Morris R. Schlank in silent film comedies. With the advent of motion picture sound and the "talkies", he became a popular bit player and background extra in many quintessential motion picture dramas as well as comedies, including The Maltese Falcon (one of a group of reporters) and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (as a photographer). One of his more sizable talkie roles was as a flustered hotel manager in the 1944 comedy-mystery Crime by Night, and he reunited with fellow Keystone player Chester Conklin as bartenders in the 1952 Bob Hope comedy Son of Paleface. One of Mann's most famous bits was as the "glass door man" in the Three Stooges' short Men in Black. Later in his career he continued to play bit parts in TV comedies, and made some appearances in several Jerry Lewis film comedies in the 1960s. Although he never really retired completely from the film industry, his later years were spent as an apartment building manager with his wife, Dolly, in the Los Feliz section of Los Angeles.

Death

Mann died of heart failure on November 25, 1971, at the Braewood Convalescent Hospital in South Pasadena, California. He is interred in the Hall of David Mausoleum in the Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Hollywood, California.

Awards

For his contribution to the motion picture industry, Hank Mann has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6300 Hollywood Boulevard.

Selected filmography