Frank Tinney

Frank Tinney
Tinney with son Frank, Jr. in Everybody's Magazine (January–June, 1921)
Born	Frank Aloysius Robert Tinney (1878-03-29)March 29, 1878 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Died	November 28, 1940(1940-11-28) (aged 62) Northport, New York, U.S.
Cause of death	Pulmonary condition
Resting place	Holy Cross Cemetery, Yeadon, Pennsylvania
Nationality	American
Occupation	Actor, comedian
Years active	1907–1926
Spouse(s)	Edna Davenport (m. 1913–26)
Children	1

Frank Aloysius Robert Tinney (March 29, 1878 – November 28, 1940) was an American blackface comedian and actor.

Tinney achieved considerable success in vaudeville and on Broadway in the early 20th century. Comedian Joe Cook considered Tinney "the greatest natural comic ever developed in America." Tinney's career and marriage were ruined after he was accused of beating his mistress, Ziegfeld girl Imogene "Bubbles" Wilson in May 1924. Although he was never formally charged, the ensuing publicity ruined his reputation.

Tinney suffered a number of health problems after the scandal and eventually had a nervous breakdown. He never regained his health and died in November 1940.

Tinney was born in Philadelphia the third of four children raised by Hugh Francis and Mary (née Carroll) Tinney, both first generation Irish-Americans. As a boy, Tinney would later say, he sang in the choir until they found out what was the matter with the choir. He did perform with his brother Joseph at church and social functions and briefly one summer made an appearance on a vaudeville stage in a child act. His parents had hoped he would pursue a career in medicine, but instead as a young man Tinney found work as a chief lifeguard at Atlantic City, fire engine driver and undertaker’s assistant. His antics in the latter profession eventually led to an offer to join a traveling minstrel show.

By 1907 Tinney was performing at vaudeville venues in the United States and Canada. He made his New York debut in 1910 appearing in vaudeville shows headed by Gertrude Hoffman and later Eva Tanguay which led the following year to a spot in the Shubert brothers’ Revue of Revues at the Winter Garden Theatre. Tinney would appear in a number of Broadway hits over the subsequently dozen years of his career. He played Noah in A Winsome Widow, a 1912 Ziegfeld adaptation of Charles Hoyt’s A Trip to Chinatown. A Winsome Widow starred Emmy Wehlen and featured a very young Mae West. Tinney performed in the Ziegfeld Follies of 1913 and the musical revues, Watch You Step (1914/1915), The Century Girl (1916/1917) and Doing Our Bit (1917/1918). Tinney also recorded for Columbia Records; the appropriately titled "Frank Tinney's First Record" (Columbia 1854), consisting of jokes and Tinney arguing with his bandleader, became a hit in early 1916.