Jamison's husky build and willingness to participate in messy slapstick and rowdy action guaranteed him work in silent comedies.

From there he moved to the Hal Roach studio, playing hot-tempered comic foils for Harold Lloyd, Snub Pollard, and Stan Laurel.

In his earliest films, Jamison looked too young to be totally convincing in heavy makeup as a veteran policeman, detective, or authority figure.

Sound movies gave producers a chance to exploit his singing, and for the rest of his career he would occasionally be called upon to vocalize in films.

A brief series of color travelogues filmed in 1930, featured Jamison and comic Jimmie Adams as "The Rolling Stones", two singing vagabonds seeing the country.

[2] However, several surviving family members have stated that Jamison had been suffering from phlebitis in his leg during the final week of filming Nob Hill and refused to seek medical help due to his "the show must go on" mentality (v. his religion).