Fred Kelsey

Acting

Fred Kelsey

Born — Died

1884-08-20 — 1961-09-02

Place of birth

Sandusky, Ohio, USA

Known for

Acting

Credits

86 titles

Frederick Alvin Kelsey (August 20, 1884 – September 2, 1961) was an American actor, film director, and screenwriter. Kelsey directed one- and two-reel films for Universal Film Manufacturing Company. He appeared in more than 400 films between 1911 and 1958, often playing policemen or detectives. He also directed 37 films between 1914 and 1920. Kelsey was caricatured as the detective in the 1943 MGM cartoon Who Killed Who? directed by Tex Avery. He was born in Sandusky, Ohio and died at the Motion Picture Country Home in Hollywood, California, aged 77.

Known for

Film credits

1950s · 23 titles

Strangers on a Train poster
7.7

A charming psychopath tries to coerce a tennis star into his theory that two strangers can commit the perfect crime by exchanging murders—each killing the other’s most-hated person.

Strangers on a Train

1951

To Catch a Thief poster
7.3

When a string of jewel robberies hits the French Riviera, suspicion falls on retired thief John “The Cat” Robie. To clear his name, he sets out to trap the copycat himself—entangling a wealthy widow and her beguiling daughter in a seductive game of pursuit, deception, and desire.

To Catch a Thief

1955

A Star Is Born poster
7.1

A movie star helps a young singer-actress find fame, even as age and alcoholism send his own career into a downward spiral.

A Star Is Born

1954

Auntie Mame poster
7.0

Mame Dennis, a progressive and independent woman of the 1920s, is left to care for her nephew Patrick after his wealthy father dies. Conflict ensues when the executor of the father's estate objects to the aunt's lifestyle and tries to force her to send Patrick to prep school.

Auntie Mame

1958

Storm Warning poster
6.6

A fashion model witnesses the brutal assassination of an investigative journalist by the Ku Klux Klan while traveling to a small town to visit her sister.

Storm Warning

1951

Phantom of the Rue Morgue poster
6.2

When several women are found mutilated and murdered, the Paris police are baffled as to who the killer may be. All evidence points to Dupin, but soon it becomes apparent that it is someone (or something) stronger and deadlier than a human.

Phantom of the Rue Morgue

1954

Illegal poster
6.5

A hugely successful DA goes into private practice after sending a man to the chair -- only to find out later he was innocent. Now the drunken attorney only seems to represent criminals and low lifes.

Illegal

1955

Riding Shotgun poster
6.0

When a stagecoach guard tries to warn a town of an imminent raid by a band of outlaws, the people mistake him for one of the gang.

Riding Shotgun

1954

Crime Wave poster
7.1

Reformed parolee Steve Lacey is caught in the middle when a wounded former cellmate seeks him out for shelter. The other two former cellmates then attempt to force him into doing a bank job.

Crime Wave

1953

Room for One More poster
6.6

Anne and "Poppy" Rose have three quirky kids. Anne has a generous heart and the belief in the innocence of children. To the unhappy surprise of her husband she takes in the orphan Jane, a problem child who already tried to kill herself once.

Room for One More

1952

Carson City poster
6.2

Mine owner William Sharon keeps having his gold shipments held up by a gang of bandits. Sharon hires banker Charles Crocker, who happens to have connections in the Central Pacific Railroad, to build a spur line from Virginia City to Carson City, so that the gold can be shipped by railroad. Silent Jeff Kincaid is the railroad engineer. However there is opposition to the railroad, chiefly from another mine owner, Big Jack Davis.

Carson City

1952

The Flame and the Arrow poster
6.3

Dardo, a Robin Hood-like figure, and his loyal followers use a Roman ruin in Medieval Lombardy as their headquarters as they conduct an insurgency against their Hessian conquerors.

The Flame and the Arrow

1950

The Opposite Sex poster
5.4

Former radio singer Kay learns from her gossipy friends that her husband, Steve, has had an affair with chorus girl Crystal. Devastated, Kay tries to ignore the information, but when Crystal performs one of her musical numbers at a charity benefit, she breaks down and goes to Reno to file for divorce. However, when she hears that gold-digging Crystal is making Steve unhappy, Kay resolves to get her husband back. The Opposite Sex is a remake of the 1939 comedy The Women.

The Opposite Sex

1956

The Silver Chalice poster
4.4

A Greek artisan is commissioned to cast the cup of Christ in silver and sculpt around its rim the faces of the disciples and Jesus himself. He travels to Jerusalem and eventually to Rome to complete the task. Meanwhile, a nefarious interloper is trying to convince the crowds that he is the new Messiah by using nothing more than cheap parlor tricks.

The Silver Chalice

1954

The Damned Don't Cry poster
7.0

Fed up with her small-town marriage, a woman goes after the big time and gets mixed up with the mob.

The Damned Don't Cry

1950

Springfield Rifle poster
6.4

Major Lex Kearney, dishonourably discharged from the army for cowardice in battle, volunteers to go undercover to try to prevent raids against shipments of horses desperately needed for the Union war effort. Falling in with the gang of jayhawkers and Confederate soldiers who have been conducting the raids, he gradually gains their trust and is put in a position where he can discover who has been giving them secret information revealing the routes of the horse shipments.

Springfield Rifle

1952

The Enforcer poster
7.1

After years of investigation, Assistant District Attorney Martin Ferguson has managed to build a solid case against an elusive gangster whose top lieutenant is about to testify.

The Enforcer

1951

Shoot-Out at Medicine Bend poster
6.0

In Medicine Bend, a crooked businessman has the town mayor and sheriff in his pocket while his henchmen raid the wagon trains passing through the region.

Shoot-Out at Medicine Bend

1957

The Helen Morgan Story poster
5.3

Torch singer Helen Morgan rises from sordid beginnings to fame and fortune only to lose it all to alcohol and poor personal choices.

The Helen Morgan Story

1957

Serenade poster
5.6

A wealthy woman discovers a vineyard worker with a beautiful operatic singing voice. She helps make him a star but then breaks his heart. He flees in misery to Mexico where he meets a sweet farm girl.

Serenade

1956

So You Think You're Not Guilty poster
6.1

Joe McDoakes pleads "not guilty" to a traffic violation but is convicted anyway. Handling this setback in his usual manner, the two-dollar fine quickly pyramids to a 10-year jail sentence.

So You Think You're Not Guilty

1950

Tall Man Riding poster
5.8

Still seeking revenge against ranch owner Tuck Ordway for publicly whipping him years earlier and breaking up his relationship with Ordway's daughter, cowboy Larry Madden plans to oust Ordway from his ranch by having his claim to the land declared invalid. Ordway's daughter Corinna, believing Madden to be the cause of the family's recent misfortunes, is unaware that the local saloon owner also has designs upon the Ordway holdings.

Tall Man Riding

1955

Goodbye, My Fancy poster
6.4

Agatha has fond memories of her romance with college president Dr. James Merrill, when she was a student and he was her professor, and wants to see if there is still a spark between them.

Goodbye, My Fancy

1951

1940s · 27 titles

Mildred Pierce poster
7.6

A hard-working mother inches towards disaster as she divorces her husband and starts a successful restaurant business to support her spoiled daughter.

Mildred Pierce

1945

In This Our Life poster
6.9

An unhappy, self-centered woman runs off with her sister's husband, wreaking havoc and ruining the lives of those around her.

In This Our Life

1942

Mr. Skeffington poster
6.8

A beautiful but vain woman who rejects the love of her older husband must face the loss of her youth and beauty.

Mr. Skeffington

1944

Gentleman Jim poster
7.2

As bare-knuckled boxing enters the modern era, brash extrovert Jim Corbett uses new rules and dazzlingly innovative footwork to rise to the top of the boxing world.

Gentleman Jim

1942

They Died with Their Boots On poster
6.7

The story follows General George Armstrong Custer's adventures from his West Point days to his death. He defies orders during the Civil War, trains the 7th Cavalry, appeases Chief Crazy Horse and later engages in bloody battle with the Sioux nation.

They Died with Their Boots On

1941

Night and Day poster
6.0

When his first stage show fails, songwriter Cole Porter goes off to fight in WWI until, injured, he lands in a hospital. He impresses nurse Linda Lee with his creativity, but their budding romance must wait as Cole heads home. Back in New York, he mounts a series of popular shows, and when his work brings him back to Europe, he eventually marries Linda. But success doesn't spare him from marital complications or bad news about a beloved relative.

Night and Day

1946

The Fountainhead poster
6.8

An uncompromising, visionary architect struggles to maintain his integrity and individualism despite personal, professional and economic pressures to conform to popular standards.

The Fountainhead

1949

Never Say Goodbye poster
6.3

Phil and Ellen Gayley have been divorced for a year, and their 7-year old daughter, Flip, is very unhappy that her parents are not together. Flip starts a correspondence with a Marine, sending a picture of her beautiful mother as the author of Flip's flirtatious letters. When the Marine shows up to meet his pen pal, Ellen takes the opportunity to make her ex-husband jealous.

Never Say Goodbye

1946

Nora Prentiss poster
6.3

Quiet, organised Dr. Talbot meets nightclub singer Nora Prentiss when she is slightly hurt in a street accident. Despite her misgivings, they become heavily involved, and Talbot finds himself faced with the choice of leaving Nora or divorcing his wife. When a patient expires in his office, a third option seems to present itself.

Nora Prentiss

1947

Action in the North Atlantic poster
7.1

Merchant Marine sailors Joe Rossi (Humphrey Bogart) and Steve Jarvis (Raymond Massey) are charged with getting a supply vessel to Russian allies as part of a sea convoy. When the group of ships comes under attack from a German U-boat, Rossi and Jarvis navigate through dangerous waters to evade Nazi naval forces. Though their mission across the Atlantic is extremely treacherous, they are motivated by the opportunity to strike back at the Germans, who sank one of their earlier ships.

Action in the North Atlantic

1943

The Noose Hangs High poster
6.9

Two window washers are mistaken for crooks by gangsters who are missing money.

The Noose Hangs High

1948

The Inspector General poster
6.6

An illiterate stooge in a traveling medicine show wanders into a strange town and is picked up on a vagrancy charge. The town's corrupt officials mistake him for the inspector general whom they think is traveling in disguise. Fearing he will discover they've been pocketing tax money, they make several bungled attempts to kill him.

The Inspector General

1949

A Stolen Life poster
6.4

When a woman’s twin sister is drowned, she assumes her identity in order to be close to the man she feels her sister took from her years before.

A Stolen Life

1946

Murder in the Big House poster
6.8

When a prisoner on Death Row is "accidentally" killed just before his execution, a reporter smells something fishy...

Murder in the Big House

1942

Saratoga Trunk poster
6.1

An opportunistic Texas gambler and the exiled Creole daughter of an aristocratic family join forces to achieve justice from the society that has ostracized them.

Saratoga Trunk

1945

Dancing in the Dark poster
6.0

Emery Slade was one of the brightest stars in Hollywood in 1932, but by 1949 his career has hit the skids. Fortunately, he is able to convince studio head Melville Crossman to cast him in the adaptation of a hit Broadway show. Crossman has one condition: Slade must travel to New York and convince the female star of the stage production to join the film. Slade goes, but, when he eyes the winsome Julie Clarke, he hatches a different scheme.

Dancing in the Dark

1949

The Man Who Came to Dinner poster
7.0

An acerbic critic wreaks havoc when a hip injury forces him to move in indefinitely with a Midwestern family.

The Man Who Came to Dinner

1941

Christmas in Connecticut poster
7.0

While recovering in a hospital, war hero Jefferson Jones grows familiar with the "Diary of a Housewife" column written by Elizabeth Lane. Jeff's nurse arranges with Elizabeth's publisher, Alexander Yardley, for Jeff to spend the holiday at Elizabeth's bucolic Connecticut farm with her husband and child. But the column is a sham, so Elizabeth and her editor, Dudley Beecham, in fear of losing their jobs, hasten to set up the single, childless and entirely nondomestic Elizabeth on a country farm.

Christmas in Connecticut

1945

Shine on Harvest Moon poster
6.8

Biographical movie about the early 20th century broadway stars Nora Bayes and Jack Norworth.

Shine on Harvest Moon

1944

My Favorite Blonde poster
6.5

Larry Haines, a mediocre vaudeville entertainer, boards a train for Los Angeles. Aboard, he meets an attractive, blonde British agent carrying a coded message hidden in a brooch—and is being pursued by Nazi agents.

My Favorite Blonde

1942

Colorado Territory poster
7.0

After escaping from jail, outlaw Wes McQueen is convinced by his old partner in crime to do one last heist.

Colorado Territory

1949

Northern Pursuit poster
6.2

Canadian Mountie Steve Wagner captures a German Luftwaffe officer on a spy mission, who later escapes from the prison camp. To catch the spy ring, the Mounties employ a ruse so that the spies, believing Steve to be sympathetic, enlist him in their plans.

Northern Pursuit

1943

True to Life poster
8.0

A writer for a radio program needs some fresh ideas to juice up his show. For inspiration, he rents a room with a typical American family and begins to secretly write about their true life antics. The show becomes a big hit, but he begins to feel guilty about his charade when he falls in love with the family's pretty older daughter.

True to Life

1943

Silver River poster
6.1

Unjustly booted out of the cavalry, Mike McComb strikes out for Nevada, and deciding never to be used again, ruthlessly works his way up to becoming one of the most powerful silver magnates in the west. His empire begins to fall apart as the other mining combines rise against him and his stubbornness loses him the support of his wife and old friends.

Silver River

1948

The Man I Love poster
6.1

Tough torch singer Petey Brown, visiting her family, finds a nest of troubles: her sister, brother, and the neighbor's wife are involved in various ways with shady nightclub owner Nicky Toresca. Petey has what it takes to handle Nicky, but then she meets San Thomas, a formerly great jazz pianist now on the skids, and falls hard for him.

The Man I Love

1946

X Marks the Spot poster
4.5

A private detective, soon to enlist in the army, is drawn into one final case when his police officer father is killed in the line of duty. Soon his prime suspect is murdered as well, and he finds himself framed for the crime. As more witnesses get murdered, he finds himself on the run from both the police and former Prohibition violators who seem to have found a new racket.

X Marks the Spot

1942

Make Your Own Bed poster
6.0

Walter and Vivian live in the country and have a difficult time keeping servants. Walter then hires a private detective who has been fired for arresting the District Attorney. They only way that Walter can get Jerry to work for him is to tell Jerry that his life is in danger; the neighbor is trying to take his wife; and that Nazi spies are everywhere. Jerry needs a cook for his 'cover' so he gets his fiancée Susan to work with him. To keep Jerry working, Walter sends the threatening letters to himself and hires actors to play the spies but when a real group of spies disguised as a troupe of radio actors appears on the scene, events quickly spiral out of control.

Make Your Own Bed

1944

1930s · 10 titles

Gold Diggers of 1933 poster
7.2

When all Broadway shows are shut down during the Depression, a trio of desperate showgirls scheme to bilk a repugnant high society man of his money to keep their show going.

Gold Diggers of 1933

1933

Naughty Flirt poster
6.2

A coquettish socialite falls for a straight-laced associate in her father's law firm. But she must also fend off the advances of a greedy fortune-hunter and his sister.

Naughty Flirt

1931

Twentieth Century poster
6.8

A temperamental Broadway producer trains an untutored actress, but when she becomes a star, she proves a match for him.

Twentieth Century

1934

Love Is News poster
6.3

When a crafty reporter uses false pretenses to get a story out of heiress Tony Gateson, she turns the tables on him, telling the press that they are engaged. Suddenly he's front page news, every salesman is at his doorstep, and he loses his job. A series of misadventures ensues with him alternately back on his job and fired and her ex-fiancé showing up.

Love Is News

1937

The Trial of Vivienne Ware poster
9.0

Vivienne Ware is defended by her ex-beau when she's accused of killing her faithless fiance.

The Trial of Vivienne Ware

1932

Charlie Chan at Treasure Island poster
6.7

Charlie Chan's investigation of a blackmail-induced suicide as a case of murder leads him into a world of magick and mysticism peopled with a stage magician, a phoney spiritualist, and a for-real mind reader.

Charlie Chan at Treasure Island

1939

The Girl Said No poster
5.8

A comedy romance in which breezy Haines, as a young lady killer, tries to capture the heart of Hyams who has turned him down for Bushman. Haines plots dozens of extreme measures to win her over, and finally goes so far as to drag her from the altar, bound and gagged.

The Girl Said No

1930

If I Had a Million poster
6.5

An elderly business tycoon, believed to be dying, decides to give a million dollars each to eight strangers chosen at random from the phone directory.

If I Had a Million

1932

Super-Sleuth poster
5.6

A movie actor playing a detective gets carried away with his role and starts trying to solve real-life crimes.

Super-Sleuth

1937

Time Out for Romance poster
6.0

A girl escapes marriage and hitchhikes with a young man in whose car a jewel thief has planted his loot.

Time Out for Romance

1937

Series credits

Behind the camera

The Outlaw and the Lady poster
NR

Major Carter, owner of the Sunset mines, reads of a reward offered for Cheyenne Harry if captured. The butler gives him a telegram telling of the flooding of several shafts in his mine. He is soon on the way to the mine in his car. Ruth, his daughter, follows in her roadster.

The Outlaw and the Lady

1917

The Purple Lily poster
NR

London businessman Sir Philip Bradley, travels to Canada to survey some mining properties but learns that another concern has already commissioned James Caldwell, a young engineer, to survey the land. Sir Philip hires Marie Burguet, a beautiful woman who married gambler Frank Farnsworth in order to escape a humdrum existence with her father in the mountains, to obtain the surveys from James.

The Purple Lily

1918

The Almost Good Man poster
NR

The Almost Good Man is a 1917 Western short.

The Almost Good Man

1917

No artwork available
10.0

Reporter Muriel Manning succeeds in rounding up Mrs. Madison who murdered gambler Howard Trimble. But after listening to her story of Trimble’s degradation and threatened blackmail of her which drove her to an attempt at suicide during which she shoots him in error Muriel decides never to reveal her identity in print.

Her Buried Past

1915

No artwork available
NR

Sheriff Crane's wife and child are preparing for a little journey with their wagon and team. On arriving at the store, the wife, on attempting to get out, stumbles and startles the horses, which causes them to run away, the child hanging on to the wagon. This is seen by Harry, who gives chase, captures the runaway horses, and returns the child, unhurt, to the mother

The Bad Man of Cheyenne

1917

No artwork available
NR

Sheriff Crane's wife and child are preparing for a little journey with their wagon and team. On arriving at the store, the wife, on attempting to get out, stumbles and startles the horses, which causes them to run away, the child hanging on to the wagon. This is seen by Harry, who gives chase, captures the runaway horses, and returns the child, unhurt, to the mother

The Bad Man of Cheyenne

1917

A 44-Calibre Mystery poster
NR

A 44-Calibre Mystery is a Silent Western short.

A 44-Calibre Mystery

1917

No artwork available
NR

A poor widow dies, leaving her two young children, Bob and Mabel, in the care of a poor neighbor, who later is forced by circumstances to give them to an asylum. Twenty years pass and Jack, who has been adopted by a good family, has now gone into business for himself and is a rising young broker. He has been searching the detective agencies for his sister, without success, for some years. Mabel ran away from the asylum and has been brought up by a poor family, is without education and is now employed as a servant, and on a certain day is hanging clothes on a roof nearby a large office building, in which Bob has his office, and a small boy is flying his kite from the same rooftop.

Over the Ledge

1914

No artwork available
NR

A reformed outlaw give up the girl because of his past.

The Honor of an Outlaw

1917

The Fighting Gringo poster
NR

Disturbed by the separation of his friends Mary Smith and Arthur Saxon, who really love each other, William "Red" Saunders resolves to reconcile the couple. Discovering that Belknap, a missionary with political aspirations, exercises a destructive hypnotic influence over Mary, Red schemes to eliminate Belknap.

The Fighting Gringo

1917

No artwork available
NR

A stagecoach robbery leads to a desperate attempt to round up the bandits.

The Wrong Man

1917

No artwork available
7.0

The Drifter is a 1917 Western short.

The Drifter

1917

No artwork available
NR

Henry Martin receives a letter from Buck Lessen, a convict about to be released from prison, telling him that his time is up and he is going to get him for sending him to prison and marrying his sweetheart, Jane. The Martins and their young daughter move away but Buck learns where they went. Buck is hiding on the porch, planning to ambush Henry when he comes out. Two drunken cowboys ride by firing their pistols. When Henry comes outside he sees Buck's body lying in the grass, shot to death by a stray bullet.

The Mysterious Outlaw

1917

No artwork available
NR

Helen and Joe are in love. He receives a letter from his uncle offering him a good position in his law office. He shows Helen the letter and she shows him one from the Standard, also a check for a short story. They have a quarrel over a slight thing and he leaves for his uncle's place. Six years go by and Helen is now a very successful writer on a large daily.

The Exposure

1914

No artwork available
NR

John Gregg and his daughter Mary, on their way to Burro Springs, a boom mining town, lose their way and stumble into "Jawbone," a dilapidated town. Here they meet Mike Hernandez, a good-looking bad man. Mary, thinking Mike a gentleman, takes a liking to him. "Cheyenne" Harry, a homely looking good man, comes to Jawbone and Mary believes him to be a weak character. He becomes fascinated with her. Gregg hires Mike Hernandez to guide him to Burro Springs, displaying his small store of gold when paying Hernandez. Later, Gregg and his party become lost in the desert, and run out of water.

Six-Shooter Justice

1917

No artwork available
NR

No synopsis available yet.

The Nymph

1916

The Golden Bullet poster
NR

A bandit tries to incriminate an innocent man for his own crimes.

The Golden Bullet

1917

No artwork available
NR

Upon his death Jerry Livingstone, a wealthy convict, leaves his son Henry the sole heir of a considerable fortune with the provision of a larger additional sum if he marries Jerry's ward, Winifred Gale. Upon hearing this, Winifred writes to the young Livingstone that she will not participate in a marriage of convenience.

The Pretender

1915

No artwork available
7.0

No synopsis available yet.

Brothers Equal

1916

No artwork available
9.0

Unbeknownst to Jim Donovan, his friend and business partner Dan Morgan admired his wife, and one day, when he heard that Jim was in the office, he visited his grandmother and told her that he loved her. She was shocked. Disgusted by her rejection, he planned cunningly. On his way from his home, he sent a fake telegram to Jim, pretending to be from his uncle Frank Foster and asking him to come immediately, as he was seriously ill.

The Fugitive

1917

No artwork available
9.0

Unbeknownst to Jim Donovan, his friend and business partner Dan Morgan admired his wife, and one day, when he heard that Jim was in the office, he visited his grandmother and told her that he loved her. She was shocked. Disgusted by her rejection, he planned cunningly. On his way from his home, he sent a fake telegram to Jim, pretending to be from his uncle Frank Foster and asking him to come immediately, as he was seriously ill.

The Fugitive

1917

No artwork available
8.0

No synopsis available yet.

The Black Terror

1916

No artwork available
NR

Billy Carter and two Mexicans, Cuteo and Estaban, are smugglers of opium which they bring across the border from Mexico into the United States. The authorities are unable to apprehend them, so "Pinnacle" Bill and "Cheyenne" Harry of the Arizona Ranger Service are sent to assist the sheriff, Dan Beckham, and the inspectors in their search.

Goin' Straight

1917

No artwork available
NR

The sheriff, Dan Beckham, and his deputy, Bud Cameron, are posting signs offering a reward for the capture of Cheyenne Harry, accused of holding up a Wells Fargo shipment. Shortly after they have tacked the sign to a tree Cheyenne Harry removes it.

Blood Money

1917

Station Content poster
NR

A dead child's broken doll reunites an estranged husband and wife.

Station Content

1915