Roger Imhof

Frederick Roger Imhof was born on August 15, 1875, in Rock Island, Illinois, the son of Nicholas Imhoff, a Swiss immigrant, and Susan McCluen Imhoff, who was of Irish descent. He built a career spanning vaudeville, burlesque, circus performance, film acting, sketch writing, and songwriting. At some point early in his career, he dropped one "f" from the family surname.

Imhof's professional life began in the circus, where he worked as a clown with the Mills Orton Circus and established himself as an "Irish" comedian. From 1895 onward, he toured in vaudeville and burlesque, a period that extended through 1930. By 1897 he had joined forces with Charles Osborne in an act combining comedy, contortion, and burlesque acrobatics. In the 1902–1903 season, he began working with Hugh Conn, a vaudeville partnership that continued into at least the 1920s. Marcel Corinne, born in 1888, joined the act sometime in the 1910s, and she and Imhof married in 1913. The trio of Imhof, Conn, and Corinne performed two comic sketches together: "The Pest House" and "Surgeon Louder, U.S.A.," a military comedy that Imhof himself had written. "The Pest House" became the most popular and longest-running of several sketches featuring Imhof and Corinne; an October 1920 edition of the Oregon Daily Journal described it as centering on Imhof's portrayal of an Irish peddler who endures a mishap-filled night at an inn.

In 1923, Imhof made his Broadway appearance in the musical Jack and Jill. Beyond the stage, he became involved in the early Hollywood film industry as a presenter, promoter, or agent before transitioning to acting on screen. His film career as an actor ran from 1932 to 1944 and included San Francisco (1936), Drums Along the Mohawk (1939), The Grapes of Wrath (1940), and This Gun for Hire (1942).

As a songwriter, Imhof composed works of which eleven are known to survive, among them the 1906 song "Old Broadway." He reportedly invested in real estate in Chicago and Los Angeles, though he lost the bulk of his money in the stock market and during the Great Depression. Collections of his papers and related materials are held at the Green Library Special Collections at Stanford University and the Spencer Research Library at the University of Kansas.

Imhof died on April 15, 1958, and was buried at Valhalla Memorial Park Cemetery. Marcel Corinne, his wife and longtime performing partner, lived until 1977.