Charles Joseph Parrott (October 20, 1893 – June 20, 1940), known professionally as Charley Chase, was an American comedian, actor, screenwriter and film director.

His screen persona was that of a pleasant young man with a dapper mustache and ordinary street clothes; this set him apart from the clownish makeup and crazy costumes used by his contemporaries.

Some of Chase's starring shorts of the 1920s, particularly Mighty Like a Moose, Crazy Like a Fox, Fluttering Hearts, and Limousine Love, are often considered to be among the finest in silent comedy.

[2] He continued to be very prolific in the talkie era, often putting his fine singing voice on display and including his humorous, self-penned songs in his comedy shorts.

The two-reeler The Pip from Pittsburg, released in 1931 and co-starring Thelma Todd, is one of the most celebrated Charley Chase comedies of the sound era.

[3] Throughout the decade, the Charley Chase shorts continued to stand alongside Laurel and Hardy and Our Gang as the core output of the Roach studio.

On the Wrong Trek was supposed to be the final Charley Chase short subject: by 1936 producer Hal Roach was now concentrating on making ambitious feature films.

"[citation needed] His younger brother, comedy writer-director James Parrott, had personal problems resulting from a drug treatment (his diet medications were actually addictive amphetamines) and died in 1939.

He had refused to give his brother money to support his drug habit, and friends knew he felt responsible for Parrott's death.

The stress ultimately caught up with him; just over a year after his brother's death, Charley Chase died of a heart attack in Hollywood, California, on June 20, 1940.

Chase's sound comedies for Hal Roach were briefly televised in the late 1990s on the short-lived American cable network the Odyssey Channel.

A marathon of selected Charley Chase shorts from the silent era was broadcast in 2005 on the American cable television network Turner Classic Movies.

During 2018–2022, the entire run of Charley Chase's sound-era short comedies for Hal Roach, produced between 1929 and 1936, was released on DVD in four volumes by Kit Parker Films.