Joe Martin
Acting
Biography
Joe Martin (born between 1911 and 1913 – died after 1931) was a captive orangutan who appeared in at least 50 American films of the silent era, including approximately 20 comedy shorts, several serials, two Tarzan movies, Rex Ingram's melodrama Black Orchid and its remake Trifling Women, the Max Linder feature comedy Seven Years Bad Luck, and the Irving Thalberg-produced Merry-Go-Round.
Place of Birth: Indonesian Archipelago
Known For
Hollywood
Angela comes to Hollywood with only two things: Her dream to become a movie star, and Grandpa. She leaves an Aunt, a brother, Grandma, and her longtime boyfriend back in Centerville. Despite seeing major movie stars around every corner, and knocking on every casting office door in town, at the end of her first day she is still unemployed. To her horror, when she arrives back at their hotel, she finds that Grandpa has been cast in a movie by William DeMille and quickly becomes a star during the ensuing weeks. Her family, worried that Angela and Grandpa are getting into trouble, come to Hollywood to drag them back home. In short order Aunt, Grandma, brother, boyfriend and even the parrot become superstars, but Angela is still unemployed...
Seven Years Bad Luck
After breaking a mirror in his home, superstitious Max tries to avoid situations which could bring bad luck, but in doing so causes himself the worst luck imaginable.
Merry-Go-Round
A nobleman, posing as a necktie salesman, falls in love with the daughter of a circus puppeteer, even though he is already married to the daughter of his country's war minister.
The Black Box
Science fiction serial, presumed lost.
The Adventures of Tarzan
Tarzan spurns the love of La, Queen of Opar. When he isn't trying to keep the Bolshevik Rokoff and Clayton (pretender to the Greystoke estate) from reaching Opar, he is attacked simultaneously by two lions, dropped into a pit when a volcano splits the ground, nearly sacrificed by sun worshipers, and so on.
Lady Baffles and Detective Duck in When the Wets Went Dry
This is another comedy, in which trick photography plays a large part. It is a travesty on the temperance question, siding with the dry element. On the refusal of the Governor to sign a bill in favor of the liquor interest, the political boss tries to force the executive to his will. The Governor, after a series of thrilling experiences, thwarts the efforts of the politicians. The latter calls on Lady Baffles, who impersonates the Governor's wife and secures the executive's signature to the bill. Detective Duck, however, captures the politicians in a clever manner and beats Lady Baffles at her own game. (Moving Picture World Synopsis)
Black Orchids
Frivolous young Marie de Severac is frightened into following a more virtuous path, when her father relates a story in which an equally frivolous woman is entombed alive. The movie was Rex Ingram’s directorial debut, and he later remade the film as Trifling Women in 1922. Black Orchids is considered to be a lost film.
Trifling Women
Leon de Severac is fed up with his daughter Jacqueline, who is constantly seducing men. Hoping to discourage her from her flirtatious behavior, he tells her the story of Zareda, an attractive fortune teller who is having an affair with Ivan de Maupin.
Spangles
At a three-ring circus, 'Spangles' Delancy, a beautiful bareback horse rider, falls in love with a wanted man, Dick Radley, who uses the circus as a hideout. The show's owner Big Bill Bowman also falls in love with Spangles-- But only one man can have her.
Man and Beast
During the great drought on the South African veldt, bitterness erupts between the von Haagen and Townsend families when they quarrel over a cattle spring. Nevertheless, a romance grows between Gretel von Haagan and Ned Townsend, who, to escape their families' opposition, marry and leave for the interior.
Filmography
as The Chimp (Uncredited)
as Orangutan
as Chimp (uncredited)
as Orangutan (Uncredited)
as Man in Ape Suit
as Himself
as Monkey Hero
as The Chimpanzee (uncredited)
as Joe Martin - An Orang-outang
as Orangutan (Uncredited)
as The Chimp
as Chimp (Uncredited)
as A Chimp
as The Chimp
as The Orang-Outang
as Haitim-Tai
as Joe Martin - the Inheritance
as Chimp