Ford Sterling (November 3, 1882 – October 13, 1939) was an American actor.
Born George Ford Stich in La Crosse, Wisconsin, he began his career in silent films in 1911 with Biograph Studios. When director Mack Sennett left to set up Keystone Studios, Sterling followed him. There, he performed what is probably his most remembered role as 'Chief Teeheezel' in the Keystone Kops series of slapstick comedies in a successful career that spanned twenty-five years.
Making a smooth transition to talking films, Ford Sterling made the last of his more than two hundred and seventy film appearances in 1936. He died in 1939 of a heart attack (following long standing diabetes) in Los Angeles, California and is interred in the Hollywood Forever Cemetery.
For his contribution to the motion picture industry, Ford Sterling has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6612 Hollywood Blvd.
Was Chief of the original Keystone Kops.
Off screen pseudonym: Albert Williams
He was actually quite handsome in real life, but in the Keystone Kops and Mack Sennett shorts that he appeared in, he would disguise his true appearance with glasses and a goatee, as well as fake eyebrows.
