Max Linder

Max Linder, born Gabriel-Maximilien Leuvielle (16 December 1883 to 1 November 1925), was a French actor, director, screenwriter and producer of the silent film era. His recurring onscreen character Max, a debonair dandy who stumbled through comic misadventures, was among the first consistent recurring characters in cinema, and Linder has been called the first international movie star. Working prolifically for Pathe from the mid 1900s into the 1920s, he shaped the language of film comedy before later comedians such as Charlie Chaplin, who acknowledged Linder's direct influence on his own screen persona.