character actors

Frank Fenton was born on 9 April 1906 in Hartford, Connecticut, USA. He was an actor, known for Tripoli (1950), L'île des péchés oubliés (1943) and Prairie Roundup (1951). He was married to Queena Bilotti. He died on 24 July 1957 in Los Angeles, California, USA.

One of those familiar character actors who seems to have been born old, Will Wright specialized in playing crusty old codgers, rich skinflints,crooked small-town politicians and the like. A former newspaper reporter in San Francisco, he switched careers and entered vaudeville, then took to the stage. He ventured from acting to producing, and staged shows on Broadway as well as other cities, eventually making his way to Hollywood. He appeared in over 100 films and did much TV work, including a recurring role on The Andy Griffith Show (1960). Although his hunched-over figure, craggy face and somewhat sour disposition made it seem like he started out his 20+-year career as an old man, he was actually only 68 when he died of cancer in Hollywood in 1962.

Paul E. Burns was born on 26 January 1881 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. He was an actor, known for Smoky River Serenade (1947), The Pilgrim Lady (1946) and Le fils de visage pâle (1952). He died on 17 May 1967 in Van Nuys, California, USA.

Ernie Adams was born on 18 June 1885 in San Francisco, California, USA. He was an actor, known for Man with Two Lives (1942), Vainqueur du destin (1942) and The Man with Nine Lives (1940). He was married to Mamie Silver, Margaret Adams, Shirley Adams and Berdonna Gilbert. He died on 26 November 1947 in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA.

Born in 1879, Clem Bevans spent most of his performing career on the stage. First appearing in 1900 in a vaudeville act with Grace Emmett as a boy and girl act, he would move on to burlesque and eventually make the move to Broadway and even opera productions. His first screen appearance did not come until 1935, when at the age of 55 he was cast as toothless old codger Doc Wiggins in A travers l'orage (1935). So good was his performance that he would become pigeonholed into "old codger" roles for his entire movie career. Occasionally he would be given the opportunity to play something out of character, such as a voyeuristic millionaire with a fetish for women's knees in Happy Go Lucky (1943) and a Nazi spy in Alfred Hitchcock's Cinquième colonne (1942), but he would go on to play variations of his "old coot" role until the day he died. Clem Bevans died at the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital.

Joseph Crehan was born on 15 July 1883 in Baltimore, Maryland, USA. He was an actor, known for Black Magic (1944), Dick Tracy contre le gang (1947) and Le dernier combat (1937). He was married to Dorothy R. Lord. He died on 15 April 1966 in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA.

One of those wonderfully busy character actors whose face is familiar if not his name, mild-mannered actor Byron Foulger began performing with community theater, and stock and repertory companies after graduating from the University of Utah. He met his future wife, character actress Dorothy Adams, in one of these companies. The marriage lasted nearly five decades and ended only with his death.

Making his Broadway debut in a 1920 production of "Medea" that featured Moroni Olsen as Jason (of the Argonauts), and went on to appear in several other Olsen Broadway productions and in close succession (including "The Trial of Joan of Arc," "Mr. Faust" and "Candida"). While touring the country with Olsen's stock company, he ended up at the Pasadena Playhouse where he both acted and directed. Thereafter he and wife Dorothy decided to settle in Los Angeles.

Together the acting couple tried to stake a claim for themselves in 30s and 40s Hollywood films. Both succeeded, appearing in hundreds of film parts, both together and apart, albeit in small and often unbilled bits. A man of meek, nervous countenance, Foulger's short stature and squinty stare could be used for playing both humble and shady fellows. In the 1940s, the actor became a part of Preston Sturges' company of players, appearing in five of his classic films -- Gouverneur malgré lui (1940), Les voyages de Sullivan (1941), Madame et ses flirts (1942), Miracle au village (1943) and The Great Moment (1944).

Although predominantly employed as an owlish storekeeper, mortician, professor, or bank teller, his better parts had darker intentions. He was exceptional as weaselly, mealy-mouthed, whining henchmen who inevitably showed their yellow streak by the film's end.

The character actor eased into TV roles in the 1950s and '60s, displaying a comedy side in many folksy, rural sitcoms. His final regular TV role was as train conductor Wendell Gibbs in the final years of the Petticoat Junction (1963) series. The father of actress Rachel Ames, Foulger died of a heart ailment on April 4, 1970, coincidentally the same day the final new episode of Petticoat Junction (1963) was broadcast. .

Harry Tyler was born on 13 June 1888 in New York City, New York, USA. He was an actor, known for Les Raisins de la colère (1940), Le roi du racket (1955) and Alfred Hitchcock présente (1955). He was married to Gladys Crolius. He died on 15 September 1961 in Hollywood, California, USA.

Hank Patterson was born in Springville, Alabama to Green and Mary Newton Patterson. Hank's great-grandfather, James Pearson, was an original settler of St. Clair County, AL as was his mother's great-grandfather, Thomas Newton. Between 1894 & 1897, the family left AL to live in Taylor, Texas, where Hank attempted to work as a serious musician, only to settle for playing piano in traveling vaudeville shows. He worked his way out to California in the 1920s and here began his film career followed by long runs on two television series Gunsmoke (1955) and Les arpents verts (1965).

Olin Howland had a career in movies which stretched from the 1920s through the late 1950s until he passed away. After a few attempts at films in the silent era, Olin began to appear regularly in the sound pictures of the 1930s. His roles were usually in mysteries and dramas, and he became a western character actor in the 'horse operas' put out by Republic in the 1940s. One of his most memorable roles was also one of his last: he appeared in First Stop (1955), as the owner of a broken-down motel in the middle of nowhere, in which the Ricardos and Mertzes are forced to spend a night.

Earle Hodgins was born on 6 October 1893 in Payson, Utah, USA. He was an actor, known for Oregon Trail (1945), The Sagebrush Family Trails West (1940) and Heroes of the Alamo (1937). He was married to Elizabeth Birss Ogilvie and Sue Henley. He died on 14 April 1964 in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA.

Nacho Galindo was born on 7 November 1908 in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico. He was an actor, known for Headline Hunters (1955), Yellow Fin (1951) and La reine du rodéo (1958). He died on 22 June 1973 in Los Angeles, California, USA.

Wade Crosby was born on 22 August 1905 in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, USA. He was an actor, known for Mondwest (1973), Les nouveaux exploits de Robin des Bois (1951) and Rose of the Yukon (1949). He died on 2 October 1975 in Newport Beach, California, USA.

Robert Barrat pursued a stage career on Broadway from 1918 to 1932. He did sample a scant three silent movies starting in 1915, but returned to stage work. Barrat had a distinguished enough visage but also a well knit physique that would foretell a busy career in films with many featured character roles which he turned to in 1932. He therefore portrayed lawyers, business owners, and officials of all sorts, as well as, detectives, hardened sailors, and various desperate characters. Barrat had a deep guttural voice which he could roll around in his mouth to pitch out some unique variations. Such was his Wolverstone in Capitaine Blood (1935), and his Lord Morton with a brogue in Marie Stuart (1936). Barrat was a dedicated physical fitness devotee and showed off a still manly form as Chingachgook in Le dernier des Mohicans (1936).

Barrat was probably grateful to slow down a bit after 1936, for up to then he was much in demand with an average of twenty films a year. As it was he continued with a usual ten films per year to 1940. He did several movies with James Cagney in the 1930s, and they became good friends. Cagney described his friend as having "a solid forearm the size of the average man's thigh." Barrat continued a rich and varied character role career through the 1940s and early 1950s. The roles were more of the dignified variety-fatherly figures, a few Indian chiefs and military men - and several generals. He had the non-speaking role of General Douglas MacArthur-his hawk of a nose needing little enhancement (he was shot from side angles and distance) - in Les sacrifiés (1945). By 1954 he turned to TV playhouse roles off and on until 1964. He loved challenging himself with doing accents and certainly succeeded in this and in turning out memorable roles in over 150 films.

An actor whose filmography comprises 307 films and TV series episodes can't have been in 307 memorable works. Which is the case of Richard (aka Dick) Alexander, one of those numerous character actors Hollywood used to over-consume without giving them the opportunity to really display their talents. Too bad because during the years 1926-1931, Alexander looked set to have an interesting career with supporting roles alongside Olga Baclanova (Lou's sweetheart in Josef von Sternberg's Les damnés de l'océan (1928)), Bebe Daniels (Gonzales in Rio Rita (1929) and even the Divine Greta Garbo (The general's aide in La belle ténébreuse (1928). He also appeared in Lewis Milestone's antiwar masterpiece À l'Ouest rien de nouveau (1930) as a German soldier. Unfortunately this was to be his swan song - with only a couple of exceptions such as Destination inconnue (1933) or L'Impératrice rouge (1934)). As of 1931, Richard Alexander was to be hired either for minor (at times even very minor) parts in A Films (a warrior in Les croisades (1935), a farmer in La vie de Louis Pasteur (1936), a man with a pike in Marie-Antoinette (1938)) or for supporting parts in hordes of mediocre westerns. Richard Alexander's tall figure, strong build and square-jawed face actually killed his career. The fault lies with the laziness of casting directors: Richard Alexander had given a good performance as a henchman in Coeurs farouches (1930), well, he would be a brutal henchman in every two run-of-the-mill westerns. Among the 300-odd roles he played, he was cast forty times as a henchman, no less! And if he was not the villain of the piece he was often credited as a strong, big, burly or tough guy. Sure he always made a good job of it but Richard Alexander had shown at the outset of his career how varied his acting could be and he would certainly rather not have repeated the same type of character over and over again. That is why playing Prince Barin, Buster Crabbe's loyal ally in the Flash Gordon (1936) serial must have been a breath of fresh air for him. Whatever the case may be, Richard Alexander continued bravely to be tough and burly on the screen, not retiring before the age of 72. Towards the end of his career, the aging performer also became an active member of the Screen Actors Guild, representing Hollywood extras. In 1989,Alexander passed away more or less forgotten in spite of his 307 screen appearances. He was 86.

Robert Anderson was born on 12 July 1920 in Casey Township, North Dakota, USA. He was an actor, known for Coronado 9 (1960), Mon amie Flicka (1955) and The Purple Gang (1959). He died on 4 January 1996 in Desert Hot Springs, California, USA.

Lane Bradford was born on 29 August 1922 in Yonkers, New York, USA. He was an actor, known for Zombies of the Stratosphere (1952), The Invisible Monster (1950) and Le shérif de tombstone (1958). He was married to Mary Catherine Schrock and Joan Irene Velin. He died on 7 June 1973 in Honolulu, Hawaii, USA.

John Alderson led a colorful life considering his origins in a mining village in the north of England. After spending all of two weeks as a miner, he lied about his age, joined the British Army and attained the rank of Major. Leaving for the US, he married a General's secretary and got into the movies, often playing villains. He played (uncredited) the Gum Chewer in Le shérif est en prison (1974).

Don Haggerty was born on 3 July 1914 in Poughkeepsie, New York, USA. He was an actor, known for Jour de terreur (1951), Le cher disparu (1965) and Les rivaux du rail (1952). He was married to Janet Marilyn McAuliffe, Fay Devereux Keith (Lee Fayrene Zook) and Libby Bennett. He died on 19 August 1988 in Cocoa Beach, Florida, USA.

Minor American character actor Forrest Taylor was a veteran of the stage by the time he started appearing as a silent lead in both short and feature-length films. He went on to appear in hundreds of secondary "B" movies, although his name does not appear in a large percentage of them. Taylor was born Edwin Forrest Taylor in Bloomington, Illinois, in 1883. Little is known about his early days on stage but he assayed prime roles in such films as In the Sunset Country (1915), April (1916), True Nobility (1916) and The Abandonment (1916) before World War I service intervened. With his leading-man career fatally interrupted, he would not return to films until a decade later in 1926. Playing a few strong supports, he regressed quickly to atmospheric bits primarily in westerns and cliffhangers. With a no-nonsense attitude and imposingly thick mustache, his attorneys, judges, scientists, executives and professors were for the most part scarcely acknowledged, so when he did receive a bit more screen time than usual he pounced on the opportunity, such as he got in John Wayne's programmer Les cavaliers du destin (1933) where he played a sagebrush villain; the serial Shadow of Chinatown (1936) as a Chief of Police; and The Oregon Trail (1939) as a nemesis to hero Johnny Mack Brown. Taylor also managed some deliciously hammy roles in a few popular serials including L'archer vert (1940), The Spider Returns (1941) and Griffes d'acier (1941). On-camera for nearly five decades, he extended himself into TV programming in the 1950s, taking part in various TV westerns including episodes of Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok (1951), Annie Oakley (1954), The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp (1955), Maverick (1957) and Mon amie Flicka (1955), not to mention both Gene Autry's and Roy Rogers' weekly shows. He was an occasional player on the series The Cisco Kid (1950) from 1950 on, and from 1952-1954 had one of his more visible roles as Grandpa Fisher on the religious TV series The Fisher Family (1952). Broaching the age of 80, Taylor finally retired in 1962 after filming an episode of Bonanza (1959) and died three years later of natural causes in Garden Grove, California.

Slim Pickens spent the early part of his career as a real cowboy and the latter part playing cowboys, and he is best remembered for a single "cowboy" image: that of bomber pilot Maj. "King" Kong waving his cowboy hat rodeo-style as he rides a nuclear bomb onto its target in the great black comedy Dr. Folamour ou : comment j'ai appris à ne plus m'en faire et à aimer la bombe (1964). Born in Kingsburg, near Fresno in California's Central Valley, he spent much of his boyhood in nearby Hanford, where he began rodeoing at the age of 12. Over the next two decades he toured the country on the rodeo circuit, becoming a highly-paid and well-respected rodeo clown, a job that entailed enormous danger. In 1950, at the age of 31, Slim married Margaret Elizabeth Harmon and that same year he was given a role in a western, La révolte des dieux rouges (1950). He quickly found a niche in both comic and villainous roles in that genre. With his hoarse voice and pronounced western twang, he was not always easy to cast outside the genre, but when he was, as in "Dr. Strangelove", the results were often memorable. He died in 1983 after a long and courageous battle against a brain tumor. He was survived by his wife Margaret and children.

Jan Arvan was born on 10 April 1913 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA. He was an actor, known for L'aventure du Poséidon (1972), À des millions de kilomètres de la Terre (1957) and Soldiers of Fortune (1955). He died on 24 May 1979 in Los Angeles, California, USA.