Jack Ackroyd: festival to showcase life of Hollywood star who retired in Somerset

Jack Ackroyd (R) with actress Louise Fazenda in the 1919 film Hearts and Flowers

The work of a silent movie star who left Hollywood to retire in Somerset is set to be showcased at a film festival.

Jack Ackroyd starred in more than 70 films made in Los Angeles in the early 20th Century and worked alongside stars such as Laurel and Hardy.

The actor's films and a documentary about his life will be shown at Wellington Film Festival, which is being held between Friday and Sunday.

He retired to Wellington where he lived for 31 years before his death in 1962.

Jack Ackroyd (middle left) starred in more than 70 films and was a Hollywood star

Mr Ackroyd had numerous jobs before entering the film industry in 1919.

He had enlisted in the Duke of Wellington Regiment soon after the outbreak of World War One, and survived being shot in the head, thigh and the arm.

After being discharged he moved to Vancouver, Canada, in 1918 and then to California in the United States, where he got a job cleaning at Mack Sennett Studios who was one of the biggest producers in Hollywood at the time.

It was this role that catapulted him into an acting career and he went on to become a Hollywood A-lister, starring in box office hits.

David Ackroyd said it is "absolutely amazing" to see his great-grandfather on film

His great-grandson, David Ackroyd, said local papers called Mr Ackroyd the "Charlie Chaplin who went over the top".

He told BBC Radio Somerset that it is "great to hear people laughing (at his films)".

"It is absolutely amazing. I still cannot believe it. When I was little, I heard these things about the films. I saw the stills... it still amazes me."

Some of Mr Ackroyd's best known works include 1919 film Hearts and Flowers, where he appeared with Louise Fazenda, who was a popular actress at the time, and in 1926 he was in The Better 'Ole, where he played a German soldier.

Wellington Film Festival is run by Somerset Film, an educational charity and film production company.