[4] His most notable residency, was in Santa Cruz, California, where at one point he was bringing in 6,000 patrons a week to see his performances; over two-thirds the population of the city at the time.

Mack was initially hesitant to work in the film industry, viewing it as an "inferior art form to theater," but eventually gave in after many of his fellow actors and peers had done the same.

These early films such as: Laughing Gas (1914) and Mabel's Married Life (1914) would forge a friendship between the two that would endure until Swain's death.

He is also remembered for his large supporting role as Big Jim McKay in the 1925 film The Gold Rush,[1] for United Artists, written by and starring Chaplin.

[6] It is rumored that an accident sustained in an early Keystone Cops skit involving Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle kicking him in the stomach eventually led to his death.

[citation needed] For his contribution to the motion picture industry, Swain received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, at 1500 Vine Street.