At 16 he moved to Hollywood, landing bit roles in a number of silent films but otherwise having little luck. In the early '30s he was chosen to star in a series of comedy shorts, The Boy Friends, which became popular and made him familiar to filmgoers. He worked as a character comedian in numerous features and much TV, usually playing thick-headed country bumpkins. After 1947 his screen work was intermittent, but he kept making films until the early '70s.