Natural around Council Bluffs, Iowa, he began working in vaudeville then joined Vitagraph Movie Studios. He sooner or later went all over to Keystone Studios where he became a major star. At a height of his film career he was considered one of a tetrad better comedian of the silent film era.

Harry Langdon died withwithin 1944 in Los Angeles from either the cerebral hemorrhage and was interred in the Grand View Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California. Inside 1997, his hometown of Council Bluffs celebrated "Harry Langdon Day" and within 1999 known as "Harry Langdon Boulevard in his honor.

For his contribution to the motion picture industry, Harry Langdon has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6925 Hollywood Blvd.