Turpin was the son of a New Orleans candy store owner who had varying degrees of success, the family moved around the country settling for a while in New York. Turpin began his theatrical career in vaudeville, stock and burlesque, unfortunately there is very little available record of his performances during this time. His first venture into films was with Essanay in  Chicago as early as 1907 where he was hired as a utility comedian and studio janitor. Turpin was not successful and returned to working in circuses and burlesque for the next seven years as Happy Hooligan. In 1914 Turpin tried films again appearing in Snakeville comedies and returning to Essanay in 1915, this time his comic potential was noticed, he was teamed with Essanay's newest comedian Charlie Chaplin. Turpin was given his own series at Vogue studios, a small, not particularly prestigious outfit, in 1916,  then late in 1917 he began his long association with Mack Sennett  with whom he became a leading comedian. Sennett exploited Turpin's acrobatic skills, his appearance and his ability to parody. Turpin made several two reeler shorts in this vein including; 'East Lynn with Variations'; ' Uncle Tom, Without the Cabin'; 'The Shriek of Araby'; and 'Three Foolish Weeks' and he mercilessly parodied William S. Hart, Douglas Fairbanks, Valentino and Stroheim. Turpin was probably not the brains behind the lampooning, he patently had a flair for parody but with writers like Mal St. Clair and Frank Capra behind him it seems pretty predictable where the satirical wit was coming from. 

A successful silent clown begins with magnificent physical control, although usually trying to look funny, it was what he could do with his body that really counted. Turpin's eyes might have been his trademark but he could take tremendous falls, turn his legs into rubber bands, or, conversely, stiffen his frame into an unbendable plank. At some point he learnt to take these spectacular falls without breaking doing himself irreparable damage. Late in his life Turpin still performed his speciality backwards tumble the "108" which wasn't just reserved for in front of the camera! His physique made him one of the silliest looking clowns in film history, the perfect embodiment of Sennett's anti romanticism  and antiheroes. Turpin would play the romantic cliché of a movie hero simply by wearing a ridiculously gaudy romantic costume and staring at (but obviously not seeing) the camera.  He never made the leap to full length feature comedies, his type of humour could not support more than two reels but he was a crowd puller in his time with his cartoon slapstick. 

In 1924, Turpin announced he was retiring from the screen to take care of his sick wife, Carrie Le Mieux whom he had married in 1907. After her death in 1925, he made several comeback attempts both with Sennett and the Weiss-Artcraft studio, but his career was pretty much over. Turpin married for a second time on July 8th 1926, his new  wife, Babette Dietz, out lived him, Ben dying of heart disease in 1940. Once sound arrived Turpin more or less took permanent retirement appearing in occasional bit roles and cameo appearances. Having amassed a significant personal fortune in his bank account through work and investing in real estate and property Turpin didn't seem to lament the end of his career. He was eccentric and frugal, it is claimed that to save himself unnecessary expenses he acted as the janitor for the Los Angeles apartment block he owned. During his heyday as an actor he had insisted on arriving at the Keystone studio dressed up to the nines and effecting airs and graces which his colleagues could not abide this resulted in a certain amount of ribbing and practical jokes at Turpin's expense. He always travelled by bus too, announcing his entry with a shrill squeak of  "I'm Ben Turpin -- earn three thousand dollars a week".