In 1903, his father died from a heart attack, leaving the family in bad financial shape, which forced them to move in with a relative.

Eventually the call of the stage beckoned him, and Charley Jr. left home at age 16 to travel the vaudeville circuit as a singer and comedic performer.

Later, Charley's connections in the film industry helped his younger brother to become established in movies, and he would appear during the 1920s in a series of relatively successful comedies for producer Hal Roach.

As "James Parrott", he specialized in the two-reel misadventures of Laurel and Hardy, including Helpmates (1931) and the Oscar-winning classic The Music Box (1932).

During the 1930s Parrott had acquired serious drinking and drug problems (his diet medications were actually addictive amphetamines) and although still able to direct quality shorts, he had developed a reputation as unreliable.

The Sons of the Desert's Twice Two tent (St Neots, UK), researching James Gibbons Parrott, discovered that he married Clara Miller in 1921.