A Fool There Was is a 1914 American silent comedy film produced by the Lubin Manufacturing Company and starring Jerold T. Hevener, Frank Griffin, and Mabel Paige, with Oliver Hardy in a small role.

[2] The film was one of a group of short comedies made by the Lubin company in 1914 and early 1915 that include the earliest screen appearances of Oliver Hardy.

[2] The Bioscope called the film a "slightly constructed, yet sufficiently amusing story of a man-about-town who sought to impress his inamorata by the purchase of a car".

"[5] The title A Fool There Was, taken from the first line of Rudyard Kipling's poem, The Vampire, had already been used for a successful stage play written by Porter Emerson Brown.

The play, produced by the partnership of Klaw and Erlanger and starring Robert Hilliard, opened in 1909 and had been running for five years when the Lubin comedy short was released.