Biography

Victor Potel

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Victor Potel was born in Lafayette, Indiana, in 1889. His first film was in 1910, for Essanay Film Manufacturing Company in Chicago. Potel worked for Essanay in most of the Broncho Billy series, as well as playing a character called "Slippery Slim" in almost 80 movies as well as Universal Pictures' "Snakeville" series. He moved to Universal in 1928 to make Melody of Love (1928) and worked steadily, playing small and sometimes uncredited bit parts, primarily comic roles due to his height and awkward look. Potel also wrote and directed. In 1935 he provided continuity and dialogue for several films. He became part of Preston Sturges' stock of character actors, appearing in nine films written and directed by Sturges. Potel work until his death on 8 March 1947, just after finishing playing "Barfly" in Relentless (1948).
- IMDb mini biography by: Guy Warinner (qv's & corrections by A. Nonymous)

Met his wife, Mildred Pam, when she visited the set of a Snakeville comedy he was making at Essanay Studios in Niles, CA, in 1914. Her father, Leopold Pam, was a theater manager, whom she was accompanying the day she met Potel. After a whirlwind courtship, Victor and Mildred were married in San Francisco, and on their return to Niles the entire staff of the Essanay Company greeted them at the station with a donkey cart bearing a sign "To Victor Belong the Spoils.".
His acting career goes back almost to the beginning of the commercial film industry in the United States.
He made his first silent film in 1910, a comedy short filmed in Chicago by Essanay Film Manufacturing Company called "A Dog on Business". Potel continued to make films for Essanay, appearing in dozens of films every year, including most of the Broncho Billy series.
In addition to acting, on several occasions Potel also wrote and directed. In the 1920s he directed two silent shorts, The Rubber-Neck in 1924 and Action Craver in 1927, and contributed the story for Saxophobia in 1927.
He also appeared in Universal Pictures' "Snakeville" series.

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