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Minta Durfee

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Actress

The Resume

    (October 1, 1881-September 9, 1975)
    Born in Los Angeles, California
    Birth name was Araminta Estelle Durfee
    Acted in 'Cruel, Cruel Love,' 'Twenty Minutes of Love,' 'The Rounders,' 'Mickey,' 'The Star Boarder,' 'Rose-Marie,' 'How Green Was My Valley,' 'Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter,' 'Around the World in Eight Days,' 'An Affair to Remember,' 'Savage Intruder,' 'It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World,' 'The Unsinkable Molly Brown,' 'Willard,' 'Steagle,' and 'What's the Matter With Helen'
    Best known for her roles in a series of Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle serial shorts (1913-1916)
    Sometimes billed as 'Minta Doorfee' and 'Minta Durfee Arbuckle'

Why she might be annoying:

    She wore her hair in the Mary Pickford-style locks of the day.
    She was married to the alcoholic train-wreck that was Fatty Arbuckle.
    She frequently played second fiddle to Mabel Normand, who was frequently paired with her husband in the same film.
    She was legally separated from Arbuckle during the scandal over the alleged rape and murder of Virginia Rappe, eventually divorcing him in 1925.
    She was bribed with a puppy into hanging from a bridge suspended only by a piano wire in 'Love, Speed, and Thrills' (1915).
    She was rumored to have had a fling with her frequent costar (and private man-whore) Charlie Chaplin.
    She tended to diss Chaplin and his eccentricities in later interviews (e.g. bragging about ratting him out as a communist, claiming to have bet a friend that he would refuse to leave handprints in front of Graumann's Chinese, which he did).
    When she and Arbuckle first met at a Long Beach streetcar, he allegedly offered to hold her suitcase for her. She replied 'please, do not TOUCH my suitcase. Because I don't like blondes, or fat men!' (they were married five months later).
    Her career was over before talkies could even kill it. She would still work regularly for the next forty years, but only in walk-on roles as an extra.
    She is better remembered for being caught in the middle of Hollywood's first major scandal than she is for the films she made.

Why she might not be annoying:

    Her name sounds like some kind of candied fondue.
    She was Charlie Chaplin's first leading lady in Hollywood.
    She was a favorite of Mack Sennett, who found her cooperative and 'able to get along with everybody.'
    She grew up in a poor working class family outside the red light district adjacent to a railroad.
    She was classy enough to not be jealous and defend Mabel Normand from the tabloids, who ruined her career over the William Desmond Taylor scandal (she would speak kindly about Normand for years after her death).
    She was her husband's staunchest defender during his trial and was pelted with rocks when entering the court room on at least one occasion.
    She defended her husband's good name and posthumous memory for the rest of her life.
    She and Mae Marsh were part of the 'Daughters of the Green Valley' group along with the film's principal female stars, which met annually on the anniversary of the first day of shooting for 'How Green Was My Valley.'
    She was quoted as saying 'Arbuckle was the most generous human being I've ever met... if I had to do it all over again, I'd still marry the same man.'

Credit: BoyWiththeGreenHair


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    For 2024, as of last weekly ranking, Out of 2 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2023, Out of 13 Votes: 46.15% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 2 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 77 Votes: 46.75% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 11 Votes: 18.18% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 8 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2018, Out of 10 Votes: 30.0% Annoying
    In 2017, Out of 49 Votes: 77.55% Annoying
    In 2015, Out of 30 Votes: 56.67% Annoying