John Alvin

Acting

John Alvin

Born 1917-10-24 · Chicago, Illinois, USA

John Alvin, born John Alvin Hoffstadt was an American film, stage and television actor. Alvin was signed with Warner Brothers Studios for an exclusive four-year contract during the World War II era, although he was "borrowed" by 20th Century Fox to appear in 1944's Oscar-nominated The Fighting Sullivans. He appeared in more than 25 Warner Brothers films during this time, including Northern Pursuit (which starred Errol Flynn), The Beast with Five Fingers, The Very Thought of You, and Objective, Burma!. His pictures after the contract period included Irma la Douce, Inside Daisy Clover, They Shoot Horses, Don't They?, and Alfred Hitchcock's Marnie. However, it was his role in the 1943 film Destination Tokyo, in which he co-starred with John Garfield and Cary Grant, that left the largest impression on Alvin. Years later, in a 2006 interview, Alvin credited Grant with having a major impact on his career path: "I learned more about show business from him than from anyone. He was very attentive and helpful." Alvin later enjoyed a separate television career, which spanned from the 1950s to the 1980s. His television credits included various roles on Leave It to Beaver, All in the Family, Lou Grant, Dragnet, General Hospital, Murder, She Wrote, Starsky and Hutch, The Incredible Hulk and I Spy. Alvin's also appeared in numerous television commercials advertising for such products as Mattel, H&R Block, McDonald's, Porsche and Audi. Alvin's theater repertoire included Send Me No Flowers, The Student Prince, The Chicago Conspiracy Trial and The Cradle Will Rock. He also appeared in a production of Rain, which was directed by Charlie Chaplin. He largely retired from acting in the 1990s; his final film appearance was in 1994's Milk Money. During his retirement, Alvin often showed his movies for audiences at the Conejo Valley Senior Concerns, an organization for senior citizens based in Thousand Oaks, California.

Acting credits

Marnie poster
7.1

Marnie is a beautiful but emotionally withdrawn thief, stealing from employers before disappearing under new identities. When her new boss, Mark Rutland, discovers her secret, his fascination turns to obsession, and he blackmails her into marriage, convinced he can cure her. But as he probes deeper into Marnie’s fractured mind, long-buried fears and compulsions begin to surface.

Marnie

1964

Somewhere in Time poster
7.5

Young writer Richard Collier is met on the opening night of his first play by an old lady who begs him to "Come back to me". Mystified, he tries to find out about her, and learns that she is a famous stage actress from the early twentieth century. Becoming more and more obsessed with her, by self-hypnosis he manages to travel back in time—where he meets her.

Somewhere in Time

1980

Romance on the High Seas poster
6.7

Georgia Garrett is sent by jealous wife Elvira Kent on an ocean cruise to masquerade as herself while she secretly stays home to catch her husband cheating. Meanwhile equally suspicious husband Michael Kent has sent a private eye on the same cruise to catch his wife cheating. Love and confusion ensues along with plenty of musical numbers.

Romance on the High Seas

1948

Milk Money poster
6.5

Three young boys pool their money and pay V, a kindhearted prostitute, to strip for them. Afterward, she drives them home to the suburbs -- but then her car breaks down. It's just as well, though, because a mobster named Waltzer is after her, and V realizes the suburbs are the perfect place to hide. But things get a lot more complicated when V falls in love with Tom, a single father who is unaware of her real profession.

Milk Money

1994

The Organization poster
6.3

After a group of young revolutionaries break into a company's corporate headquarters and steal $5,000,000 worth of heroin to keep it off the street, they call on San Francisco Police Lieutenant Virgil Tibbs for assistance.

The Organization

1971

Irma la Douce poster
7.4

When a recently fired policeman falls in love with a French prostitute, he doesn't want her to be with other men, so he creates an alter-ego in order to become her only customer.

Irma la Douce

1963

They Call Me Mister Tibbs! poster
5.9

A police detective's investigation of a prostitute's murder points to his best friend.

They Call Me Mister Tibbs!

1970

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

The Legend of Lylah Clare poster
6.0

A dictatorial film director hires an unknown actress to play the lead role in a planned movie biography of a late, great Hollywood star.

The Legend of Lylah Clare

1968

Destination Tokyo poster
6.9

During World War II, Captain Cassidy and his crew of submariners are ordered into Tokyo Bay on a secret mission. They are to gather information in advance of the planned bombing of Tokyo. Along the way, the crew learn about each other as they face the enemy and some of them lose their lives.

Destination Tokyo

1943

April in Paris poster
4.9

A series of misunderstandings leads to a chorus girl traveling to Paris to represent the American theater, where she falls in love with a befuddled bureaucrat.

April in Paris

1952

The Shanghai Chest poster
6.6

Charlie attempts to solve a triple murder in which a dead man's finger prints show up at all three murder sites, and all three victims were connected with the conviction and execution of an evidently innocent man.

The Shanghai Chest

1948

The Shanghai Story poster
5.0

Shanghai, China. The last expatriate Westerners still living in the city are imprisoned in a hotel by the communist authorities in order to find the spy hiding among them.

The Shanghai Story

1954

Missing Women poster
6.6

A woman becomes desperate to find a pair of car thieves after her husband -- while on their honeymoon -- is killed during a robbery.

Missing Women

1951

Objective, Burma! poster
6.9

A group of men parachute into Japanese-occupied Burma with a dangerous and important mission: to locate and blow up a radar station. They accomplish this well enough, but when they try to rendezvous at an old air-strip to be taken back to their base, they find Japanese waiting for them, and they must make a long, difficult walk back through enemy-occupied jungle.

Objective, Burma!

1945

The Very Thought of You poster
6.4

Army sergeants Dave and "Fixit" spend a three-day pass in Pasadena, where they meet Janet and Cora, two young women who work in a parachute factory.

The Very Thought of You

1944

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

Passions poster
6.8

A man with a wife and daughter also has a son with another woman. When he dies this little secret is revealed to the wife. She then sets out to make her and her son suffer by trying to throw them out of the house he bought for them but now it legally belongs to his wife. And at the same time, wanting to ensure her son's future, she sues his estate for her son's education fund. While they are butting heads, they both discover that they were both deceived by him.

Passions

1984

Carrie poster
6.4

In the late 1890s, the ambitious, innocent Carrie arrives in Chicago’s South Side and stays with her nagging, dullish married sister. She then runs for help to traveling salesman Charles Drouet. She soon becomes his mistress, but falls in love with married restaurant manager George Hurstwood.

Carrie

1952

Torpedo Alley poster
10.0

After carrier pilot Lt Bingham is rescued at sea by a submarine when he crashes, he applies for submarine duty. During training he competes with Commander Heywood for the affection of Navy nurse Lt Susan Peabody. Heywood gets a new sub command at the outbreak of the Korean war and Bingham is assigned to his sub.

Torpedo Alley

1953

The Legend of Lizzie Borden poster
6.9

A dramatization of the famous 1893 Massachusetts trial of the woman accused of murdering her father and stepmother with an ax.

The Legend of Lizzie Borden

1975

Deep in My Heart poster
6.7

Biographic movie about the American composer Sigmund Romberg.

Deep in My Heart

1954

The Beast with Five Fingers poster
6.4

Locals in an Italian village believe evil has taken over the estate of a recently deceased pianist where murder has taken place. The alleged killer: the pianist's severed hand.

The Beast with Five Fingers

1947

Crackle of Death poster
7.5

The first of two Kolchak: The Night Stalker compilation TV films. It combines two episodes of the Kolchak TV series, Firefall (about the ghost of an arsonist that tries to take over a renowned conductor's body as his doppelgänger) and The Energy Eater (about a Native American bear-spirit haunting a newly built hospital) and adds new narration by Darren McGavin.

Crackle of Death

1976