Herman Brix A.K.A. Bruce Bennett

I just had the pleasure of seeing The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948) again. It is a movie that exists on several levels. Not only is it a fine action picture, but it can be seen as a real study of human nature. I'll leave the analysis to the other movie blogs, though. I am here to review Bit Actors.

In a fairly small part of this very big movie, we have Bruce Bennett (1909 - 2007) playing Cody, the unwanted and ill-fated companion of three prospectors.

Bruce was an athlete his entire life. He won the Olympic silver medal for the shot put in 1928. He could have gone on to win many more medals but he injured himself making his first movie, Touchdown (1931). His place in the Olympics was taken over by Johnny Weissmuller (1904 - 1984), who went on to become another Tarzan. At the time, Bruce was still known by his real name, Herman Brix.

Herman decided on a movie career. His early screen time is filled with roles, logically, as an athlete. He was a football player, a wrestler, a student, a man in the bar, it all fit at the time. He worked with Jack Oakie, Bing Crosby, W. C. Fields, Ted Healy and his Stooges, and others in those early days.

His first big film had him in a small part. He did appear in Treasure Island in 1934 as a man in the tavern. In 1935 Herman had his biggest break. A serial called The New Adventures of Tarzan was to be filmed in Guatemala. And Herman would have the title role.

Unfortunately, the serial was a financial disaster. Brix and the rest of the cast and crew never made much more than having their expenses paid for all their effort. BTW, Juggs played Nkima the chimp, which was his second film appearance after working with Laurel and Hardy in Dirty Work (1933).

Herman appeared in quite a few films between Tarzan and the late 1930s, but few were notable. He was a Bit Actor in Bit Films and serials. He was typecast in his Tarzan persona and had difficulty convincing studios to let him do much else. He decided to change his name to Bruce Bennett.

As far as I can tell, the first film with Bruce Bennett in the credits is My Son is Guilty (1939) starring Bruce Cabot of King Kong (1933) fame. But the name change didn't seem to make a lot of difference in his career. The films he works on are not all great movies. He even made four Three Stooges shorts as Bennett.

But it isn't all bleak and there are some good films where he shows that he does have acting talent. He is even a co-star in a few films of the era, though not blockbusters. The 1940s were the era of film noir and great war stories. Bruce was in 21 films during the WWII years, in spite of serving in the military himself.

It is also in this time frame that Bruce worked with Humphrey Bogart on four films. The first was Invisible Stripes (1939) with George Raft in the lead and Bennett uncredited. Next was Sahara (1943) and Bennett is near the top of the cast as Waco Hoyt, the tank crewman who risks his neck to go off in search of help.

Without question, my favorite of the four Bennett/Bogart films is Dark Passage (1947). This is my favorite Bogart film, and perhaps my favorite film. It has everything...Bogart with Bacall, a real film noir style, and a perfect cast with Agnes Moorehead as the bad guy you can easily hate.

Bit Actors Tom D'Andrea and Leonard Breman filled in the needed color for a great movie, and Houseley Stevenson put 'noir' in the film. (Read about D'Andrea and Breman by clicking on their names or the Dark Passage link in my label list to the right.) Bruce Bennett plays Bob, Bacall's former boyfriend who nobly steps aside for Bogart. I am still trying to find that bar in Peru! GREAT FILM!

Of course, his last film with Bogart is The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948). What more can I say?

One other standout film for Bennett in the forties was Mildred Pierce (1945) starring Joan Crawford. After Treasure, his acting career would go downhill (again). In the next three decades he would appear in many films and television shows, but only a few are worth mentioning.

Task Force (1949)
Angels in the Outfield (1951)
Strategic Air Command (1955)
Love Me Tender (1956, Sorry! I had to put that in for Elvis fans.)

But, as an actor you should know something is wrong with your career when you start taking pictures called The Cosmic Man (1959), The Alligator People (1959), and The Fiend of Dope Island (1961).

Bruce Bennett's last American film was The Clones (1973). He did appear in many TV shows and that kept his career moving forward, and the income would have been decent. It is said that he had an interest in parachuting and his last jump was at age 92. He stayed fit, he was good in business, and I put him in the ranks of some of the best Bit Actors.

Red Ryder!

I certainly hope everyone got the official Red Ryder carbine-action, 200 shot, range model air rifle with a compass in the stock and the thing which tells time for Christmas. I asked for one, but I got the movie instead. I really can't use a BB gun in my condo, so the movie and the sequel (along with a bottle of liquid entertainment from Kentucky) was just fine for me.

Of course I am talking about A Christmas Story (1983) which has become a holiday classic in many households. But, who was Red Ryder? Come with me now to those thrilling days of yesteryear...sorry, that was "The Lone Ranger."

Red Ryder started life as a comic strip in 1938, which became syndicated and incredibly popular. A lot of marketing was added to the name, hence the BB gun that is still available from Daisy.

The next important reincarnation was the 1940 movie serial, The Adventures of Red Ryder, starring Don 'Red' Barry (1912 - 1980). Barry was quite an accomplished actor in his long career, but much of his work came as a guest star on television. He was in everything from "Dragnet" in 1955 to "Knots Landing" in 1980.

In his early days, he was a regular in the Dr. Kildare series of films, and he certainly made his mark in a load of B westerns. In fact, you would be best to look for any of his early work, rather than the movies he made later in life. Blazing Stewardesses (1975), Dr. Dracula (1978), etc. Some were better than those, but his parts were usually small and many times uncredited.

Also in the original Ryder series was Tommy Cook (b. 1930) as Little Beaver, and Noah Beery (1882 - 1946) as Ace Hanlon. In 1941 Cook worked in another serial called Jungle Girl. After working on the Red Ryder radio serial in 1942, he made quite a few movies in the 1940s and 1950s and then moved into TV. As an adult, he had difficulty getting acting roles and his popularity and acting career ended. Noah Beery's part as one of the villains in this serial does not continue into later films.

In 1944 we see Bill Elliott (1904 - 1965) take over for the first of a series of Red Ryder movies for Republic. This one is called Tucson Raiders, and Little Beaver is now played by Bobby Blake (b. 1933), a former Our Gang kid who managed a good career before turning weird in his personal life.

Elliott made 16 Red Ryder films, plus over 240 other films, mostly before Red Ryder. He was known as Wild Bill Elliott for much of his career after starring in The Great Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok in 1938. He made 13 films as that character.

For the 16 Elliott/Ryder  films, we also see Alice Fleming (1882 - 1952) as Red's aunt in the entire series. Peggy Stewart (b. 1923) appears in many of the films. She had been married to Red Barry for a few years, and she is still working. Look for her in the Adam Sandler (b. 1966) film That's My Boy (2012). It amazes me that she could be in so many of the Ryder series and play different parts each time. Didn't anyone notice?

The final Ryder film with Bill Elliott was Conquest of Cheyenne in 1946.

Next up in the Red Ryder role is Allan 'Rocky' Lane (1909 - 1973). The Rocky Lane character would reappear 36 times for Allan in his best remembered B westerns from 1947 to 1953. Bobby Blake continued as Little Beaver, and Peggy Stewart appears several times in the Lane/Ryder movies.

Santa Fe Uprising (1946) is the first of seven Red Ryder films for Lane, and Red's aunt this time is played by Martha Wentworth (1889 - 1974). Lane ended his stint in Marshal of Cripple Creek (1947), and this was also the last Ryder flick for Republic Pictures.

Jim Bannon (1911 - 1984) finishes the Red Ryder film franchise at Equity Pictures with four movies in 1949. Ride, Ryder, Ride through Cowboy and the Prizefighter. Little Beaver is played by Don 'Little Brown Jug' Kay Reynolds (b. 1937 or '38...) the son of a horse trainer and a great trick rider in his time. Jug only made a few films, all westerns.

Ryder's aunt is now played by Marin Sais (1890 - 1971) and Peggy Stewart is still along for the Ryde in various roles. You may notice the character of Ace Hanlon returning in Roll, Thunder, Roll (1949). This time it is played by Glenn Strange (1899 - 1973) who went on to tend bar at The Longbranch for Miss Kitty in "Gunsmoke."

"Red Ryder" would continue on television in a few episodes starring Allan Lane and Jim Bannon, but by the early 1950s it had run it's course. Information on these episodes is sparse and I am not an expert here. Please write about your memories of Red Ryder on TV.

All of the actors mentioned above, with the possible exception of Jug Reynolds, were Bit Actors of the highest acclaim. None of them have less than 90 titles in their credits and many have more than 200. The fact that Red Ryder was brought back into the public consciousness by Jean Shepherd's (1921 - 1999) story and later movie, is just one more reason for classic film lovers to reach out to the younger generation and show them the background that will enhance their understanding of the new story.

Talk it up with your kids. Maybe they won't shoot their eye out.

The Greatest Show On Earth

With a title like The Greatest Show on Earth, it could only be about the circus. I took my grand kids to the circus about two years ago. No big top tent, just an air conditioned sports stadium. But there were plenty of acts and animals that made it quite a spectacle. And it was the real circus, not a new age Cirque du Soleil. I would love to see Cirque du Soleil, but it is too expensive. Ringling provides a wonderful, affordable experience.

Back to the movie. The Greatest Show on Earth (1952) was Cecil B. DeMille's (1881 - 1959) second to last work as director, and it won the Best Picture and Best Writing Oscars in 1953. It had one heckuva all-star cast. Charleton Heston, Betty Hutton, James Stewart, Cornell Wilde and Dorothy Lamour.

That's enough about the stars. Here are some important players.

Gloria Grahame (1923 - 1981) played the part of Angel, who trained the elephants. Gloria was quite a star, but her career was cut short by cancer. Her first feature film was Blonde Fever (1944) starring Mary Astor and Phillip Dorn, and then she worked with Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy in Without Love (1945). She next plays Violet the vamp in It's a Wonderful Life (1946), her first film with James Stewart.

The next year, Grahame was in It Happened in Brooklyn with Frank Sinatra, Peter Lawford and Kathryn Grayson, plus Jimmy Durante. Those were the days! 1947 was a great year for her. She was in Crossfire with the three Roberts...Young, Mitchum and Ryan. Then Song of the Thin Man with William Powell and Myrna Loy, and Merton of the Movies with Red Skelton.

In 1950 she got to co-star with Humphrey Bogart in In a Lonely Place. Bogart apparently wanted Lauren Bacall in the role, but Grahame won out because Bacall couldn't get out of her contract. Here it gets a little strange. Gloria had been married to Lonely Place director, Nicolas Ray. She went on later to marry Ray's son (her step-son) Anthony Ray.

After her circus performance in 1952 she teamed up with Robert Mitchum again in Macao, and was then in Sudden Fear with Joan Crawford, and The Bad and the Beautiful with Lana Turner and Kirk Douglas, all in 1952. She won the Oscar for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for Bad/Beautiful.

By this time, Grahame was in demand. She was almost the essence of Film Noir, and had the opportunity to work with all the A list stars. The best of these films could have been The Big Heat (1953) starring Glenn Ford. She was also in the musical Oklahoma! (1955) before embarking on the television cruise.

It seems that after working in television, Grahame's career faltered. Perhaps she was losing her beauty, I am not sure what happened. Her last films were not big hits, and not very good. Check out these titles, Blood and Lace (1971, The Loners (1972), Mama's Dirty Girls (1974) and Mansion of the Doomed (1976). Her last film was The Nesting (1981) and she died that year.

Back to the Greatest Circus Movie on Earth. Do you remember Henry Wilcoxon (1905 - 1984)? He was in  eight Cecil B. DeMille films. After a half dozen films, he got his big break as Mark Antony in Cleopatra (1934), starring Claudette Colbert. In addition to Greatest Show where he plays the FBI agent, he was in Sunset Blvd (1950) where he played himself as an actor, and The Ten Commandments (1956).

Wilcoxon had a 50 year career with 74 titles listed on IMDb. Other interesting films include A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1949), The Private Navy of Sgt. O'Farrell (1968), F.I.S.T. (1978) and Caddyshack (1980). That's quite a variety.

How about Lawrence Tierney (1919 - 2002) who played Mr. Henderson? Another great Bit Actor. He played the title role in the 1945 film, Dillinger, and was a tough guy ever since. Look for him in Back to Bataan (1945), San Quentin (1946), Born to Kill (1947), and he played Jesse James in The Best of the Badmen (1951).

Tierney also guest starred on television for quite a while. He even made a few "Star Trek" appearances, though not in the original series. His later films include Prizzi's Honor (1985), Reservoir Dogs (1992) and at almost eighty years old, he was in Armageddon in 1998. He worked for close to 60 years.

Almost every other role in The Greatest Show on Earth was either for extras, or cameos for stars. Look for Bob Hope and Bing Crosby in the crowd. Emmett Kelley (1898 - 1979), the famous clown, played himself. William Boyd rode in as Hopalong Cassidy, and even John Ringling North was included. Alas, many of the Bit Parts were filled with great actors, but their roles were overshadowed by the story and the spectacle.

So get out to a circus near you. If you can't, at least watch The Greatest Show on Earth one more time. It may not have been the best DeMille film ever, but it is worth watching.

Herbert Anderson

I know, everyone remembers Herbert Anderson (1917 - 1994) as the father of "Dennis the Menace" on television from 1959 to 1963. But his career was much more than that.

Herbert's career in the movies started with The Fighting 69th (1940), and action film with a great cast including James Cagney and Pat O'Brien.  Anderson went on to work in many military films in the next two decades. Also in 1940 you can find him in Dr. Ehrlich's Magic Bullet starring Edward G. Robinson, The Sea Hawk with Errol Flynn and No Time for Comedy with James Stewart.

Herbert was in three movies with Cagney. The Fighting 69th, The Strawberry Blond and The Bride Came C.O.D., all made at Warner Brothers. Of course, being on contract at W.B. also meant he had to take what they gave him, so we also see Anderson in lesser movies like Knockout, Highway West and The Body Disappears, all in 1941. I haven't seen those.

I recently caught Dive Bomber (1941) on TCM with Anderson and Fred MacMurray. This was the time for movies to show how great our armed forces were, just before we entered WWII. Some others are Navy Blue (1941) and This is the Army (1943). But Anderson seems to be cast as a reporter a lot. I counted six films were he played that part.

He has a good part in The Male Animal (1942) starring Henry Fonda. After a couple of Dan Dailey movies, You Were Meant for Me and Give My Regards to Broadway, both in 1948, we find Herbert trying out the small screen. He was cast in an episode of "Your Show Time" called "The Mummy's Foot" in 1949. It also starred Phyllis Coates, who would go on to play Lois Lane in "The Adventures of Superman."

The changeover from the 1940s to the 1950s was an interesting era. The war was over. People were moving to the suburbs. Television was new and no one knew how much it would change the entertainment industry. I certainly wouldn't want to watch a blockbuster film on the 10" black and white RCA TV I grew up with, but it was OK for "Howdy Doody" and "Crusader Rabbit."

At this turning point there were numerous movies being pumped out by the studios. Many were still filmed in black and white, and these were considered B movies, to be shown along with a full blown, big star, feature. You will find actors like Herbert Anderson in many of these...if you can find them at all. And they included every genre you can imagine.

You Were Meant For Me (1948) Musical with Jeanne Crain and Dan Dailey
The Set Up (1949) Sports/film noir with Robert Ryan
Battleground (1949) Action/war with Van Johnson and John Hodiak
The Yellow Cab Man (1950) Comedy with Red Skelton
The Magnificent Yankee (1950) Biography with Louis Calhern
The Prowler (1951) Film noir with Van Heflin
The Girl in White (1952) Biography with June Allyson

And of course, there were some top notch movies as well. Island in the Sky (1953), The Caine Mutiny (1954) and The Benny Goodman Story (1956) which were certainly not a B movies. The Caine Mutiny would be the second time Anderson worked with Fred MacMurray.

Herbert also worked on some teleplays back then, as he got his TV career moving. On "Ford Star Jubilee" in 1955 he was in "The Caine Mutiny Court Marshal" with Lloyd Nolan playing LCdr. Queeg.

He made a pair of movies in 1957 with Audie Murphy, Joe Butterfly and Night Passage. The later starred James Stewart. And to finish off that year on a high note, he appeared in My Man Godfrey.

From 1958 on, Herbert worked almost exclusively in television, with an occasional movie role. Look for him in everything from "The Real McCoys" to "The Millionaire." As mentioned above, "Dennis the Menace" was his most famous role, and that lasted from 1959 until 1963. His final TV appearance was in 1975 on "The Waltons."

Anderson's final three films spanned nine years. His last serious movie was Sunrise at Campobello (1960) starring Ralph Bellamy as Franklin D. Roosevelt. In 1966 he is in Hold On! which is a movie about the rock group Herman's Hermits getting a spaceship named after them. (No, I didn't see it!) And finally he is in a Disney picture called Rascal (1969) about a raccoon that befriends Bill Mumy.

In that final decade of television he must have had some fun. Who wouldn't when you get to work on "Petticoat Junction," "The Man From Uncle," "Batman," "My Three Sons" (his final work with Fred MacMurray), "Bewitched," "Green Acres," "Ironside," and "The Rookies." (Among quite a bit more.)

Dwight Frye

October brings out the horror film buffs in droves. All the television channels focus on scary movies, and even theaters get into the mood. The local Movie Tavern near us is showing Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948) this week, and TCM is screening Frankenstein (1931) and Bride of Frankenstein (1935) in a double feature. Its good to be alive.

So, who is the greatest Bit Actor of the horror genre? A good question, and of course, it is open to debate. I will put forward the name Dwight Frye (1899 - 1943), a veteran actor of over 60 titles. Let's take a look.

Frye's first screen appearance was in the Reginald Denny (1891 - 1967) comedy, The Night Bird (1928), which was his only silent film. In 1930 his first talkie was The Doorway to Hell starring Lew Ayres (1908 - 1996). Ayres went on to play Doctor James Kildare in the film series, with Lionel Barrymore as Dr. Gillespie. Also look for James Cagney in Doorway, which was Cagney's second film.

In 1931 Frye would take a role that set him up for a life in film that was forever typecast. As Renfield in Dracula (1931) he created a deranged characterization that he could not escape. In 1931 he was also in The Maltese Falcon starring Ricardo Cortez (1900 - 1977) and another famous horror film, Frankenstein, where he played Fritz, another deranged person. In The Maltese Falcon he was Wilmer Cook. Since Wilmer was a sadistic bad guy, he was in character there as well.

Frye is fascinated with bats again in The Vampire Bat (1933) starring Lionel Atwill (1885 - 1946) who is famous as Prof. Moriarty to Basil Rathbone's Sherlock Holmes. Also look for Fay Wray and Melvyn Douglas in that one.

There are a few detective stories in this era, but Dwight's next big horror flick is The Invisible Man (1933) starring Claude Rains (1889 - 1967). That was Rains' first sound film and it certainly helped him become a star. Frye works for a third time with director James Whale (1889 - 1957) in The Bride of Frankenstein (1935), this time as Karl.

In The Crime of Doctor Crespi (1935) Frye plays a doctor. Probably not a mad one. The mad one is played by Erich von Stroheim (1885 - 1957). And the next year we see Dwight in a lighter film, Tough Guy, with Jackie Cooper and Rin-Tin-Tin Jr.

Things weren't going well for Frye at this point. He takes roles where he is uncredited as an extra, or parts where he played a makeup artist or "man on telephone." The stars he worked with included James Cagney, Slim Summerville, Andy Devine and others.

In The Shadow (1937) Frye is a hunchback once again, this time in the circus, and accused of murder. This one stars Rita Hayworth. He works with Hayworth again in Who Killed Gail Preston? (1938). One reviewer called it a 'murder-musical.' This time Hayworth is the victim.

Dwight Frye

IMDb has Frye unconfirmed as a villager in Son of Frankenstein (1939). Some one was probably watching it in HD and thought he recognized the hump. Or maybe he was eating flies. Who knows. If you see him, please let me know. That year we see Frye in his last work with James Whale, The Man in the Iron Mask.

I have written about an acquaintance of mine, Henry Brandon (1912 - 1990), in a previous post. Henry starred in a serial called The Drums of Fu Manchu (1940), and he worked with Dwight in episode 5.

There were a few war movies, as everyone was expected to make, and in 1941 he worked with Lew Ayres again in The People vs. Dr. Kildare. Nothing spectacular for a horror Bit Actor. So let's end this with the rest of his good stuff.

The Ghost of Frankenstein (1942) starring Lon Chaney Jr., Cedric Hardwicke and Bela Lugosi.
Dead Men Walk (1943) with George Zucco, another Rathbone/Holmes foe.
Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman (1943) again with Lugosi and Chaney Jr.
And in his finale, a change of pace comedy, Dangerous Blondes (1943), where he was uncredited.

Before he passed away Dwight was cast to play a substantial role in Wilson (1944), but he died of a heart attack before filming started. His role was taken by Reginald Sheffield (1901 - 1957).

In the career of one Bit Actor, I have given you a complete month of horror titles. Now go rent or buy some of them and start planning your Halloween party! And make sure you find Dwight Frye in as many of them as you can.

Pedro de Cordoba

I was watching the great, but sometimes under appreciated Alfred Hitchcock film, Saboteur (1942) last week. In the scene on the circus trailer, a tall, thin man appears. He had a deep voice, and I instantly knew he was John Carradine (1906 - 1988). Well, I was wrong. The part of Bones was played by Pedro de Cordoba (1881 - 1950). After finding my mistake, I thought that I owed it to Pedro to fill in my readers on his long career.

Pedro started working in silent films in 1915. He appears as Escamillo in the Cecil B. DeMille version of Carmen in that year. Since it was a silent film, it was based on the 1845 story by Prosper Merimee (1803 - 1870) rather than the opera by Georges Bizet (1838 - 1875).

After a ten year span of silent films, plus a few years doing something else, his first talkie feature was The Crusades (1935) directed by DeMille and starring Loretta Young (1913 - 2000). That same year he appears in Captain Blood, starring Errol Flynn and Oliva de Havilland. Captain Blood has a wonderful cast of great Bit Actors, including Guy Kibbee and Donald Meek.

The decade of the 1930s is filled with great movies that are difficult to find these days. Pedro was in many of them, including The Devil Doll (1936) starring Lionel Barrymore and directed by Tod Browning (1880 - 1962) who also gave us Dracula (1931) and several of the Lon Chaney (1883 - 1930) silent films.

This was the decade of big stars like Fredric March, Claude Rains, Barbara Stanwyck, Don Ameche, Claudette Colbert, Dolores del Rio and Olivia de Havilland. Pedro worked with all of them. In another great, moody picture starring Boris Karloff, Pedro appears in Devil's Island (1939), and the same year in Juarez with Paul Muni and Bette Davis.

In 1940 we see Pedro in a lighter film, My Favorite Wife with Cary Grant and Irene Dunn, and then in his second film with Errol Flynn, The Sea Hawk. Flynn and de Cordoba would make three more films together in the 1940s. Also that year, he gets to buckle his swash again in The Mark of Zorro this time with Tyrone Power and Basil Rathbone.

In 1941 we see Pedro in The Corsican Brothers. That's the one where Douglas Fairbanks Jr. plays Siamese twins. And in 1943 he has a pair of great films, For Whom the Bell Tolls, and The Song of Bernadette but by this time, his career seems to be dropping off. He is found uncredited in many films after 1941.

He shows up in The Beast with Five Fingers (1946), Carnival in Costa Rica (1947) and my favorite title Omoo-Omoo the Shark God (1949). Omoo starred Ron Randall, Devera Burton and Trevor Bardette and garnered a rating of 2.9 on IMDb.

In the early days of television Pedro appears at least twice, on episodes of "The Lone Ranger." His last few films include some Macdonald Carey westerns, Comanche Territory and The Lawless, both released in 1950, and then Crisis (1950) starring Cary Grant and Jose Ferrer. His final film came in 1951, When the Redskins Rode where he plays Jon Hall's father.

Just to set the record straight, de Cordoba and Carradine did appear in seven films together, from 1935 to 1942. Saboteur was not one of them. Pedro de Cordoba was one of those Bit Actors who never made it big, but was clearly important in the films he made. He certainly was colorful enough. And now I will try harder to recognize him.

Jack Elam

Jack Elam (1920 - 2003) is one of my favorites. (And  have a lot of favorites, as you well know by now.) Jack started in the entertainment field as a bookkeeper at Goldwyn Studios. He apparently traded some accounting work for a few small parts on the big screen, and that was the start of a movie career that spanned over 200 roles.

He was blind in one eye, the result of a childhood accident, and that made him a bit different, and quite valuable as a heavy or other character actor, especially in westerns.

Elam's early career was filled with B westerns and dramas where he could play the bad guy. He worked with many stars, such as Chill Wills, Jeff Chandler and Walter Brennan, managing 53 movies between 1944 and 1960.

In 1952, his first big movie (in my opinion) was High Noon. He was uncredited as a drunk. He worked with James Stewart five times, including The Far Country (1954), The Man from Laramie (1955) and Night Passage (1957), plus two more in the 1960s. He made two films with Barbara Stanwyk, The Moonlighter (1953) and Cattle Queen of Montana (1954). In 1955 Jack walks with the animals in Tarzan's Hidden Jungle. This was only notable as Gordon Scott's (1926 - 2007) first film. Scott was about the eleventh actor to play Tarzan.

Around this time we start to see Jack on television. He is on early episodes of "Mr. and Mrs. North," "Waterfront," "The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin," and "The Lone Ranger." Later in his career he was on almost everything western, and plenty more.

For a change of pace, pick up a copy of the Howard Keel (1919 - 2004), Ann Blyth (b. 1928) Kismet (1955) with Jack Elam in a bit part. Though he was not yet known for comedic roles, he did appear in Artists and Models (1955) starring Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, and the next year with them again in Pardners.

Back to his bad guy roles, Jack played Tom McLowery in Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957), and the same year he was Fatso Nagel in Baby Face Nelson with Mickey Rooney in the title role.

Most of Elam's work would soon be on television. This was the era of TV westerns and they always needed a bad guy. As far as movies, his first of two films with John Wayne was The Comancheros (1961). He also made Rio Lobo with Wayne in 1970.

In 1963 he works again with Dean Martin in 4 For Texas, but his career would change in 1969 when he is cast in a much larger comedy role in Support Your Local Sheriff! starring James Garner. He would now begin to receive offers with his funny side in mind. His previous experience as a villain would play into these roles. He had the look, and that bad eye, to counter-play against a funny role making the movie even funnier.

The funnier roles would include films called The Cockeyed Cowboys of Calico County and Dirty Dingus Magee, both in 1970.

Jack did star in a few, low budget films. If you can find them, and you really don't want to, look for A Knife for the Ladies (1974) and Creature from Black Lake (1976). He fared better with Don Knotts in The Apple Dumpling Gang Rides Again (1979).

Look for him in a small part in The Cannonball Run (1981) and Cannonball Run II (1984). Those Burt Reynolds films had huge casts so it was easy to get bumped down in the credits.

After a few more stinkers with actors like Jimmy Dean, Richard Kiel and Hulk Hogan, Elam made his final film in 1993. He starred in Uninvited...which is also a stinker, but he is the star.

It says on IMDb that he once described what a character actor is, in the stages of his career. He said, "Who's Jack Elam? Get me Jack Elam. Get me a Jack Elam type. Get me a young Jack Elam. Who's Jack Elam?" I think that sums it up.

While Elam never really starred in anything (or anything worthwhile), he brought a lot of color to his many roles. I suggest, instead of watching the movies he made, tune in to Encore Westerns on cable and see how many times you find that trick eye of Jack Elam. It doesn't matter if you watch "The Rifleman," "Gunsmoke," "Lawman," "Bonanza," "Cheyenne," "The Dakotas," or "Temple Houston"... Jack was there.

So That's Dabbs Greer!

I received a suggestion (Thanks, Michael!) to write about Dabbs Greer (1917 - 2007), and it was one I couldn't pass up. One look at Dabbs' face, and I knew him instantly, although I doubt I ever looked up his name before. He was a guest star on many television shows, and a regular on a few.

Dabbs has over 300 titles listed on IMDb. His career spans 54 years, starting in 1949. His first five or so years in the movies was spent mostly as an extra and uncredited. Look for him as a cab driver in Father's Little Dividend (1951), as well as many other great films like Monkey Business and Million Dollar Mermaid, both in 1952.

By the mid 1950s he was starting to get on-screen credit. He was in the John Wayne, Donna Reed film Trouble Along the Way in 1953, and the same year in House of Wax, the Vincent Price classic. In 1955 he is a tutor in The Seven Little Foys starring Bob Hope.

Other small parts in the 1950s include Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956), Hot Rod Girl (1956), The Spirit of St. Louis (1957), My Man Godfrey (1957), Baby Face Nelson (1957), I Want to Live! (1957), and Cash McCall (1960). You can see the variety of films there, and some big stars were involved, but none of them had Dabbs Greer as the star.

The 1960s didn't see many films for Dabbs, but he is in Roustabout (1964) with Elvis Presley, and then two films with James Stewart, Shenandoah (1965) and The Cheyenne Social Club (1970). For the next decade or two, he mostly does television. His movies include White Lightning (1973) and Chu Chu and the Philly Flash (1981).

What Greer is best known for today are all the wonderful television shows he either guest starred on, or where he became a regular cast member. He was a regular on "Fireside Theatre," "Cavalcade of America," "You Are There," "Frontier," "Science Fiction Theatre," "TV Reader's Digest," and many other teleplays. According to someone on IMDb, Dabbs was the very first victim saved by George Reeves (1914 - 1959) as "Superman" on that series' first show in 1952. He would appear in Metropolis several more times.

During the era of family sitcoms and TV westerns, Dabbs was right at home as a friendly but grouchy neighbor, or a store clerk or reverend in town. But his face and demeanor worked well for sci-fi shows, too. You can find him on "Twilight Zone," "Kraft Suspense Theatre" and "The Outer Limits." (All the teleplays ended in 'Theatre' for some reason.)

Other spots on TV included "The Andy Griffith Show," "The Dick Van Dyke Show," "Perry Mason," "The Fugitive," "Bonanza," and "The F.B.I." He was a regular on "Gunsmoke," and "Little House on the Prairie" became his home as Reverend Alden for it's entire run. In the 1990s he was a regular on "Picket Fences" and ten years later on "Maybe It's Me."

Dabbs' last two movies were both big budget. Con Air (1997) and The Green Mile (1999) would make up for some of the stinker films like Evil Town (1987) and Two Moon Junction (1988). But let's not forget, he was making income from his career all the while.

Dabbs Greer once said, "Every character actor, in their own little sphere, is the lead." I couldn't have said it better!

Roscoe Karns

Now there's a name. Roscoe Karns (1891 - 1970) was a character actor (Bit Actor on this blog) who was most popular in the 1930s. The name Roscoe means Deer Forest, and the word roscoe is slang for handgun. Who would have thought! You don't hear that name much anymore. Maybe some classic film fans can start to bring it back into use.

Roscoe's first four films were made in 1915 at the Lubin Manufacturing Company studio, most likely in Arizona. Lubin went out of business in 1916 after a fire destroyed most of his films and business turned sour, so Karns moved over to the Christie Film Company in Hollywood. In 1919 he was in an early King Vidor (1894 - 1982) feature film called Poor Relations with Zasu Pitts (1894 - 1963). Karns would make three films with Vidor and four with Pitts.

In 1920 he made his only film, Life of the Party, with another famous Roscoe...Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle (1887 - 1933). Look for Roscoe as a boy in the rain (even though he was 32 at the time) in Cecil B. DeMille's 1923 silent release of The Ten Commandments.

The reason I include some of these obscure silent films in a Bit Actors background is because I think the early days of an actor's career help to form him or her into the acting style they adopt for the rest of their lives. They have experiences and talk with others in those movies. Who knows, Roscoe may have palled around with Eugene Pallette (1889 - 1954) and Charles Farrell (1900 - 1990) who were both extras in The Ten Commandments early in their careers. Perhaps Vidor or DeMille gave him a small piece of direction that stuck with him.

His first, really big movie was also the very first Best Picture winner Wings in 1927. The next year you could look for him in The Jazz Singer, the first successful talkie with dialog. Through the transition from silent to sound, Roscoe would continue to make both. It would be well into 1929 before we can finally say goodbye to most silent films. (Except for Charlie Chaplin, of course!)

In the decade of the 1930s Karns would make 64 movies with stars galore. He was in seven with Gary Cooper, six with George Raft, five with Neil Hamilton, four with Loretta Young and also William Powell. He was in a couple with Bette Davis, Clark Gable, Carole Lombard, Jack Holt and many others.

Perhaps his finest film was It Happened One Night (1934) the winner of five Oscars. In 1937 he gets the title role in Clarence, along with top billing. In the late 1930s we will see him in a few starring roles, but none of them were big movies.

It seems by 1940 the roles are smaller for Roscoe. He is in His Girl Friday (1940) with Cary Grant, and They Drive By Night (1940) starring Humphrey Bogart and George Raft. Through the rest of that decade Roscoe would make mysteries, comedies, musicals, war movies, whatever came along. By then he was that versatile.

In 1950 he delves into television. Right off he stars in his own series, "Rocky King, Detective" which (according to IMDb) only made nine episodes that aired over four years from 1951 to 1954. But he also had a recurring role in "Hennesey" starring Jackie Cooper in the early 1960s.

Roscoe's last two films were Onionhead (1958) starring Andy Griffith (1926 - 2012), and Man's Favorite Sport starring Rock Hudson (1925 - 1985) and Paula Prentiss (b. 1938).

You have to admit, that is quite a full career, from 1915 silent films to working with Paula Prentiss. Roscoe Karns was a good Bit Actor for sure.

Colorful Brian Cox

This is curious. I was looking through the filmography of Brian Cox (b. 1946) and he seems to be drawn to movies (and TV shows) with colorful names. Here are a few -

"Redcap" (1966)
"Shades of Greene" (episode called "The Blue Film" 1975)
In "King Lear" (1983) he played Burgundy
"Red Fox" (1991)
"Red Dwarf" (1997)
"Blue/Orange" (2005)
Red Eye (2005)
Red (2008) in a starring role.
"The Color of Magic" (2008)
The voice of the Green Dragon in "Scooby Doo and the Samurai Sword" (2009)
Wide Blue Yonder (2010)
Red (2010) This one with Bruce Willis.

I may have missed a few TV shows, but that will give you the idea. And this is not the Dr. Brian Cox (b. 1968) who is a physicist and astronomer with his own TV show, "Wonders of the Universe."

I first saw Brian in Iron Will (1994) a Disney movie about a dog sled race in the early days of World War I, but his acting career on television goes back to 1965. Iron Will starred Mackenzie Astin (b. 1973) son of Patty Duke and John Astin.

Most of Brian's early work, other than theater, was on television. His first movie was Nicholas and Alexandra (1971). Then, in 1986, he was the first actor to play Hannibal Lecktor, in a movie called Manhunter. In 1990 he co-starred with Frances McDormand (b. 1957) in Hidden Agenda.

I think the roles that solidify him as a great Bit Actor, or maybe a little higher on the acting chain, were his parts in Iron Will, Rob Roy (1995), Braveheart (1995), Chain Reaction (1996) and Kiss the Girls (1997). He didn't star in these movies, but his roles were important to the action. You may be tempted to call him a great supporting actor.

There are some not-so-great movies in this time frame as well. Not everything can be a big hit. The Glimmer Man (1996) starring Steven (need I say more?) Seagal (b. 1952), Desperate Measures (1998) with Michael Keaton (b. 1951) trying to be a bad guy, Merchants of Venus (1998) that's Venus not Venice, and The Corruptor (1999) starring Yun-Fat Chow (b. 1955). I'll pass on those.

In 1999 he has a much better role in a much better film, For Love of the Game starring Kevin Costner. I always said the Costner was at his best in sports films, even though this is really a romance film for guys. He also played an important part in the first two Bourne films, The Bourne Identity (2002) and The Bourne Supremacy (2004), as the bad guy Ward Abbott.

Keeping to the better movies, look for Cox in Troy (2004) starring Brad Pitt (b. 1963) and Eric Bana (b. 1968), and in the Woody Allen film, Match Point (2005) starring Scarlett Johansson (b. 1984).

If you look through Brian's list of titles you will find many films that come from his Scottish heritage. Look for The Flying Scotsman (2006) and The Water Horse (2007) plus others. There is quite a bit of work done in the UK, in film and on television.

Cox made two films called Red. One in 2008 which had no big names but did star Brian Cox, and the one I just watched on FiOS from 2010 starring Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman, Helen Mirren, and John Malkovich, not to mention Ernest Borgnine in a fine Bit Actor role. It was a fun film, filled with violence, comedy, and Mirren as a hit man. Helen Mirren is every bit as talented at Meryl Streep in my book.

Just last year Brian was in Rise of the Planet of the Apes. I'll pass on that one, too. You could write an entire blog about all the Ape films!

Brian Cox continues to work on both side of the Atlantic. He has a number of films currently in production. His roles tend to be very serious, government types, with an occasional comedy thrown in. That makes him one colorful Bit Actor.