Charles "Chic" Sale was primarily a stage comedian who, although he infrequently appeared on Broadway from 1902-30 and appeared in a handful of silent films, spent the majority of his career treading the boards of vaudeville as a comedian, usually in the persona of "Lem Putt," a carpenter from Urbana, Illinois who specialized in the building of outhouses. By age 49 his stage act had become so popular that he felt compelled to write, with the help of two newspaper writers, a 3000-word collection of his monologues ' jokes. After appearing in a flop Broadway show in 1930 Sale headed for Hollywood for good and became, thanks to effective makeup and complete mastery of his lanky body, a character actor. Still in his mid to late 40s Sale convincingly played octogenarians. He did this so well that it was quite a shock to see him out of make-up; he was unrecognizable from his old man screen persona. He died of pneumonia in 1936 at just 51 years of age, survived by his wife Marie.
Sale specialized in playing lanky old codgers, ad-libbing comic bits. He was one of those character actors (Walter Brennan, Ned Glass, Bert Mustin) that seemed to be born looking old.
Father of actor Chic Sales Jr..
Known for his "old man" persona, Chic is shown in his natural appearance at the beginning of "Stranger In Town" (1932) in which he plays a younger version of his elderly characters self.
Brother of Virginia Sale.
Brother-in-law of Sam Wren.
