Roscoe Conkling "Fatty" Arbuckle (March 24, 1887 – June 29, 1933) was an American silent film actor, comedian, director, and screenwriter. Starting at the Selig Polyscope Company he eventually moved to Keystone Studios where he worked with Mabel Normand and Harold Lloyd. He mentored Charlie Chaplin and discovered Buster Keaton and Bob Hope. He was one of the most popular stars of the 1910s, and soon became one of the highest paid, signing a contract to make $1 million a year in 1918.

In 1921 Arbuckle threw a party during Labor Day weekend. Bit player Virginia Rappe became ill at the party and died days later. Soon Arbuckle was accused of raping and accidentally killing Rappe, enduring three widely publicized manslaughter trials. His films were banned, his career was ruined, and he was publicly ostracized. Though he was acquitted by a jury and received a written apology, the trial's scandal has mostly overshadowed his legacy as a pioneering comedian. Though the ban on his films was eventually lifted, Arbuckle only worked sparingly through the 1920s. Arbuckle who gave Bob Hope his big break in show business. While in Cleveland in 1927, Arbuckle allowed Hope to be the opening act in his comedy show. Roscoe then gave Hope names and numbers of friends in Hollywood, and told Bob to go west. It time, Hope did just that. In 1932 he began a successful comeback, which he briefly enjoyed before his death in 1933.It was Roscoe

In 1932 Arbuckle signed a contract with Warner Brothers to star under his own name in a series of two-reel comedies, to be filmed at the Vitaphone studios in Brooklyn. These six shorts constitute the only recordings of his voice. Silent-film comedian Al St. John (Arbuckle's nephew) and actors Lionel Stander and Shemp Howard appeared with Arbuckle. The films were very successful in America, although when Warner Brothers attempted to release the first one (Hey, Pop!) in the United Kingdom, the British Board of Film Censors cited the 10-year-old scandal and refused to grant an exhibition certificate.

Roscoe had a superb singing voice. Enrico Caruso demanded to hear Arbuckle's tenor voice, and was so impressed, he demanded Roscoe leave the movies to begin an opera career!

Roscoe hated the nickname "Fatty." It was for professional purposes only. Friends never used it, only strangers who didn't know better. His response was quiet, "I've got a name, you know."
Fans also called Roscoe "The Prince of Whales," and "The Balloonatic." In 1923, Keaton used the latter name for one of his comedies.
Alice Lake called him Arbie. To Mabel Normand he was Big Otto, after an elephant in the Selig Studio Zoo near Keystone. Buster Keaton called him Chief. Fred Mace called him Crab. And for some unexplained reason fellow comic Charlie Murray referred to him as My Child the Fat. His three wives always called him Roscoe. The name, Fatty, was hung on him in elementary school. "It was inevitable," he said. He weighed 175-185 when he was 12, not much less when he was ten.

Roscoe Arbuckle had finished filming the last of the two-reelers on June 28, 1933. The next day he was signed by Warner Brothers to make a feature-length film. He reportedly said, "This is the best day of my life." He suffered a heart attack later that night and died in his sleep. He was only 46. Arbuckle was cremated, and his ashes scattered in the Pacific Ocean.