John Alvin

Acting

John Alvin

Born — Died

1917-10-24 — 2009-02-27

Place of birth

Chicago, Illinois, USA

Known for

Acting

Credits

94 titles

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 Des…

Known for

Film credits

1980s · 3 titles

1970s · 6 titles

1950s · 17 titles

Deep in My Heart poster
6.7

Biographic movie about the American composer Sigmund Romberg.

Deep in My Heart

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

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

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

The Breaking Point poster
7.0

A fisherman with money problems hires out his boat to transport criminals.

The Breaking Point

1950

The Iron Mistress poster
5.3

In this biopic, Jim Bowie goes to New Orleans, where he falls for Judalon and befriends her brother, Narcisse. Soon, Jim is forced to avenge Narcisse's murder, but Judalon takes up with another man. Jim eventually has another romantic interlude with Judalon and is forced to kill one of her suitors in self-defense. Jim leaves town, and falls for the daughter of a Texas politician, but his entanglement with Judalon continues to bedevil him.

The Iron Mistress

1952

The Unknown Man poster
5.1

A scrupulously honest lawyer discovers that the client he's gotten off was really guilty.

The Unknown Man

1951

A Bullet for Joey poster
5.8

Raoul Leduc is a police inspector trailing a spy who plots to kidnap an important American atomic scientist. Joe Victor a gangster who is hired to carry out the abduction, balks when he learns what is at stake and helps Leduc out instead.

A Bullet for Joey

1955

This Side of the Law poster
4.8

A man - trapped in a cistern - reflects on the dark events that lead to his lonely entrapment. Told in flashback, we witness his chance encounter with a nefarious lawyer who persuades him to impersonate a wealthy man who went missing 7 years ago.

This Side of the Law

1950

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

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

Come Fill the Cup poster
7.0

Alcoholic newspaperman Lew Marsh hits bottom, loses his job and is rehabilitated by Charley Dolan. After six years on the wagon he gets his job back and devotes himself to other recovering alcoholics.

Come Fill the Cup

1951

The McConnell Story poster
6.8

Joe McConnell was sure that he was meant to be a pilot, but was stuck as a restless army private. It seemed that his ambition was blocked at every step.

The McConnell Story

1955

Bright Leaf poster
6.0

Two tobacco growers battle for control of the cigarette market.

Bright Leaf

1950

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

Pretty Baby poster
6.8

A young woman living in Manhattan pretends to be the mother of an infant in order to get a seat on the subway.

Pretty Baby

1950

Kentucky Rifle poster
5.8

A man escorts a wagon load of Kentucky rifles through Indian territory and must find a way to get through without losing the rifles to the Indians. Unfortunately the Indians know about it, and give the occupants an ultimatum: either the rifles or their lives.

Kentucky Rifle

1956

1940s · 23 titles

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 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

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

Two Guys from Texas poster
8.0

Two vaudevillians on the run from crooks try to pass themselves off as cowboys.

Two Guys from Texas

1948

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

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

San Antonio poster
6.1

Rancher Clay Hardin arrives in San Antonio to search for and capture Roy Stuart, notorious leader of a gang of cattle rustlers. The vicious outlaw is indeed in the Texan town, intent on winning the affections of a beautiful chanteuse named Jeanne Starr. When the lovely lady meets and falls in love with the charismatic Hardin, the stakes for both men become higher.

San Antonio

1945

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

Cheyenne poster
7.0

Slick gambler James Wylie is apprehended by the law and given the option to forgo a prison sentence if he poses as a bandit. His mission is to uncover the identity of the Poet, a notorious outlaw who has been holding up bank-owned stagecoaches and leaving verses at the crime scenes to taunt the authorities. James finds time to woo the Poet's lovely wife, Ann, who initially cold-shoulders him. But, as a romance develops, they partner up to find the robber.

Cheyenne

1947

Shadow of a Woman poster
4.5

Brooke's brief marital life with Eric takes a downturn when she starts suspecting that he is starving his son from a prior marriage to death in order to claim his inheritance.

Shadow of a Woman

1946

Three Strangers poster
6.4

On the eve of the Chinese New Year, three strangers, Crystal Shackleford, married to a wealthy philanderer; Jerome Artbutny, an outwardly respectable judge; and Johnny West, a seedy sneak thief, make a pact before a small statue of the Chinese goddess of Destiny. The threesome agree to purchase a sweepstakes ticket and share whatever winnings might accrue.

Three Strangers

1946

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

The Fighting Sullivans poster
6.3

The lives of a close-knit group of brothers growing up in Iowa during the days of the Great Depression and of World War II and their eventual deaths in action in the Pacific theater are chronicled in this film based on a true story.

The Fighting Sullivans

1944

Stallion Road poster
7.5

A veterinarian and a novelist compete for the heart of a lady rancher.

Stallion Road

1947

Under Colorado Skies poster
7.0

Monte Hale has been working as a teller in a Texas bank during the summer to earn money for his medical college expenses during the upcoming year. He is about to leave to return to college when the bank is held up by two members of a notorious gang, headed by Marlowe, leaving Monte with the smoking gun of one of the bandits that killed the bank president. To avoid bringing disgrace on the family of his sweetheart, Julia Collins, by revealing that it was her brother Jeff, supposedly working in Denver, who induced him to open the back door of the bank to let the robbers in, Monte allows suspicion to rest on him until he can clear himself.

Under Colorado Skies

1947

Love and Learn poster
6.7

A wealthy socialite bored with her life meets and falls in love with a struggling songwriter on the verge of leaving New York and quitting the music business.

Love and Learn

1947

Deep Valley poster
5.6

A shy California farm girl falls head-over-heels in love with Barry Burnett, a fugitive from a chain gang building a road through the wilderness.

Deep Valley

1947

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 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

The Bold Frontiersman poster
7.0

Rocky Lane and his horse Black Jack must protect the gold which drought bedeviled ranchers have raised to build a dam from bad guy Smiling Jim.

The Bold Frontiersman

1948

Rocky poster
8.0

Out fishing one day, painter John Hammond and his son Chris come across Bert Hillman, the foreman of a local ranch. He and his ranch hand are searching for a wild dog that killed one of their sheep. They find the animal and kill it, along with one of its puppies, but after they leave Hammond and his son discover another puppy still alive. They take it home and call it Rocky. John believes that a dog descended from sheep-killers will himself become a sheep-killer someday, but e gives his son a chance to raise and train the dog, hoping that he can train the killer instinct from it. Unfortunately, local farmers have reported an epidemic of sheep-killings, and they suspect that Rocky is responsible for them.

Rocky

1948

Open Secret poster
6.9

A couple discovers that their friend has gone missing. Their investigation leads them to believe that antisemites are behind the disappearance.

Open Secret

1948

No artwork available
7.7

Criminals aboard a train to the infamous penitentiary plot an escape, and receive outside help in their attempt.

Train to Alcatraz

1948

Series credits

Perry Mason poster
7.7

The cases of master criminal defense attorney Perry Mason and his staff who handled the most difficult of cases in the aid of the innocent.

Perry Mason

1957

Perry Mason poster
7.7

The cases of master criminal defense attorney Perry Mason and his staff who handled the most difficult of cases in the aid of the innocent.

Perry Mason

1957

Perry Mason poster
7.7

The cases of master criminal defense attorney Perry Mason and his staff who handled the most difficult of cases in the aid of the innocent.

Perry Mason

1957

Perry Mason poster
7.7

The cases of master criminal defense attorney Perry Mason and his staff who handled the most difficult of cases in the aid of the innocent.

Perry Mason

1957

Murder, She Wrote poster
7.5

An unassuming mystery writer turned sleuth uses her professional insight to help solve real-life homicide cases.

Murder, She Wrote

1984

Murder, She Wrote poster
7.5

An unassuming mystery writer turned sleuth uses her professional insight to help solve real-life homicide cases.

Murder, She Wrote

1984

M*A*S*H poster
7.9

The 4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital is stuck in the middle of the Korean war. With little help from the circumstances they find themselves in, they are forced to make their own fun. Fond of practical jokes and revenge, the doctors, nurses, administrators, and soldiers often find ways of making wartime life bearable.

M*A*S*H

1972

Get Smart poster
8.0

Maxwell Smart, a hilariously inept and maladroit secret agent for CONTROL, battles the nefarious—though equally incompetent—KAOS.

Get Smart

1965

Petticoat Junction poster
5.9

The Bradley family are proud owners of the Shady Rest Hotel. Kate and her three young daughters do the job of running the hotel.

Petticoat Junction

1963

The Beverly Hillbillies poster
6.9

Jed Clampett's swamp is loaded with oil. When a wildcatter discovers the huge pool, Jed sells his land to the O.K. Oil Company and at the urging of cousin Pearl, moves his family to a 35-room mansion in Beverly Hills, California.

The Beverly Hillbillies

1962

The Beverly Hillbillies poster
6.9

Jed Clampett's swamp is loaded with oil. When a wildcatter discovers the huge pool, Jed sells his land to the O.K. Oil Company and at the urging of cousin Pearl, moves his family to a 35-room mansion in Beverly Hills, California.

The Beverly Hillbillies

1962

The Rifleman poster
7.1

The Rifleman is an American Western television program starring Chuck Connors as rancher Lucas McCain and Johnny Crawford as his son, Mark McCain. It was set in the 1880s in the town of North Fork, New Mexico Territory. The show was filmed in black-and-white, half-hour episodes. "The Rifleman" aired on ABC from September 30, 1958 to April 8, 1963 as a production of Four Star Television. It was one of the first prime time series to have a widowed parent raise a child.

The Rifleman

1958

The Incredible Hulk poster
7.2

During an experiment gone bad, radiation turns a scientist into a raging green behemoth whenever he becomes agitated. Unable to control his transformations, David Banner searches for a cure as he crosses the country, fugitive-style, with a dogged tabloid reporter on his trail.

The Incredible Hulk

1977

Leave It to Beaver poster
6.9

An inquisitive and often naïve boy, Theodore 'The Beaver' Cleaver, has adventures at home, in school, and around his suburban neighborhood. The show also starred Barbara Billingsley and Hugh Beaumont as Beaver's parents, June and Ward Cleaver, and Tony Dow as Beaver's brother Wally. The show has attained an iconic status in the US, with the Cleavers exemplifying the idealized suburban family of the mid-20th century.

Leave It to Beaver

1957

Hart to Hart poster
6.9

Wealthy couple Jonathan and Jennifer Hart, a self-made millionaire and his journalist wife, moonlight as amateur detectives.

Hart to Hart

1979

Hart to Hart poster
6.9

Wealthy couple Jonathan and Jennifer Hart, a self-made millionaire and his journalist wife, moonlight as amateur detectives.

Hart to Hart

1979

Hart to Hart poster
6.9

Wealthy couple Jonathan and Jennifer Hart, a self-made millionaire and his journalist wife, moonlight as amateur detectives.

Hart to Hart

1979

My Three Sons poster
6.6

A widower and aeronautical engineer named Steven Douglas raises three sons with the help of his father-in-law, and later the boys' great-uncle. An adopted son, a stepdaughter, wives, and another generation of sons join the loving family in later seasons.

My Three Sons

1960

Four Star Playhouse poster
6.8

Four Star Playhouse is an American television anthology series that ran from 1952 to 1956, sponsored in its first bi-weekly season by The Singer Company; Bristol-Myers became an alternate sponsor when it became a weekly series in the fall of 1953. The original premise was that Charles Boyer, Ida Lupino, David Niven, and Dick Powell would take turns starring in episodes. However, several other performers took the lead from time to time, including Ronald Colman and Joan Fontaine. Blake Edwards was among the writers and directors who contributed to the series. Edwards created the recurring character of illegal gambling house operator Willie Dante for Dick Powell to play on this series. The character was later revamped and spun off in his own series starring Howard Duff, then-husband of Lupino. The pilot for Meet McGraw, starring Frank Lovejoy, aired here, as did another episode in which Lovejoy recreated his role of Chicago newspaper reporter Randy Stone, from the radio drama Nightbeat.

Four Star Playhouse

1952

Four Star Playhouse poster
6.8

Four Star Playhouse is an American television anthology series that ran from 1952 to 1956, sponsored in its first bi-weekly season by The Singer Company; Bristol-Myers became an alternate sponsor when it became a weekly series in the fall of 1953. The original premise was that Charles Boyer, Ida Lupino, David Niven, and Dick Powell would take turns starring in episodes. However, several other performers took the lead from time to time, including Ronald Colman and Joan Fontaine. Blake Edwards was among the writers and directors who contributed to the series. Edwards created the recurring character of illegal gambling house operator Willie Dante for Dick Powell to play on this series. The character was later revamped and spun off in his own series starring Howard Duff, then-husband of Lupino. The pilot for Meet McGraw, starring Frank Lovejoy, aired here, as did another episode in which Lovejoy recreated his role of Chicago newspaper reporter Randy Stone, from the radio drama Nightbeat.

Four Star Playhouse

1952

Four Star Playhouse poster
6.8

Four Star Playhouse is an American television anthology series that ran from 1952 to 1956, sponsored in its first bi-weekly season by The Singer Company; Bristol-Myers became an alternate sponsor when it became a weekly series in the fall of 1953. The original premise was that Charles Boyer, Ida Lupino, David Niven, and Dick Powell would take turns starring in episodes. However, several other performers took the lead from time to time, including Ronald Colman and Joan Fontaine. Blake Edwards was among the writers and directors who contributed to the series. Edwards created the recurring character of illegal gambling house operator Willie Dante for Dick Powell to play on this series. The character was later revamped and spun off in his own series starring Howard Duff, then-husband of Lupino. The pilot for Meet McGraw, starring Frank Lovejoy, aired here, as did another episode in which Lovejoy recreated his role of Chicago newspaper reporter Randy Stone, from the radio drama Nightbeat.

Four Star Playhouse

1952

Dragnet poster
6.5

Follows the cases of a dedicated Los Angeles police detective, Sergeant Joe Friday, and his partners. The show takes its name from the police term "dragnet", meaning a system of coordinated measures for apprehending criminals or suspects.

Dragnet

1951

Climax! poster
3.8

Climax! is an American anthology series that aired on CBS from 1954 to 1958. The series was hosted by William Lundigan and later co-hosted by Mary Costa. It was one of the few CBS programs of that era to be broadcast in color. Many of the episodes were performed and broadcast live.

Climax!

1954

Cheyenne poster
6.2

Cheyenne Bodie was a big man, a former army scout who went west after the American Civil War and drifted from job to job, here a cowboy, there a lawman, and always a larger-than-life hero. CHEYENNE is an American western television series of 108 black-and-white episodes broadcast on ABC from 1955 to 1963. The show was the first hour-long western, and in fact the first hour-long dramatic series of any kind, with continuing characters, to last more than one season. It was also the first series to be made by a major Hollywood film studio which did not derive from its established film properties, and the first of a long chain of Warner Brothers original series produced by William T. Orr.

Cheyenne

1955

Starsky & Hutch poster
7.4

Streetwise Detective David Starsky partners up with a more intellectual partner, Kenneth 'Hutch' Hutchinson, to protect citizens and patrol the streets of Bay City.

Starsky & Hutch

1975

The Lucy Show poster
7.1

The Lucy Show is an American sitcom that aired on CBS from 1962–68. It was Lucille Ball's follow-up to I Love Lucy. A significant change in cast and premise for the 1965–66 season divides the program into two distinct eras; aside from Ball, only Gale Gordon, who joined the program for its second season, remained. For the first three seasons, Vivian Vance was the co-star. The earliest scripts were entitled The Lucille Ball Show, but when this title was declined, producers thought of calling the show This Is Lucy or The New Adventures of Lucy, before deciding on the title The Lucy Show. Ball won consecutive Emmy Awards as Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series for the series' final two seasons, 1966–67 and 1967–68.

The Lucy Show

1962

All in the Family poster
7.8

Archie Bunker, a working class bigot, constantly squabbles with his family over the important issues of the day.

All in the Family

1971

The Munsters poster
7.9

A family of friendly monsters that have misadventures all while never quite understanding why people react to them so strangely.

The Munsters

1964

One Step Beyond poster
5.7

Alcoa Presents: One Step Beyond is an American anthology series that dramatized purportedly real-life supernatural and paranormal experiences. The series was hosted by John Newland and ran for three seasons on ABC from January 1959 to July 1961.

One Step Beyond

1959

Amazing Stories poster
7.5

A truly amazing, fantastical, science fiction, funny and odd, and sometimes scary, sad and endearing anthology series presented by Steven Spielberg with guest appearances by many famous actors, actresses, and directors.

Amazing Stories

1985

The Lone Ranger poster
6.7

The Lone Ranger is an American western television series that ran from 1949 to 1957, starring Clayton Moore with Jay Silverheels as Tonto. The live-action series initially featured Gerald Mohr as the episode narrator. Fred Foy served as both narrator and announcer of the radio series from 1948 to its finish and became announcer of the television version when story narration was dropped there. This was by far the highest-rated television program on the ABC network in the early 1950s and its first true "hit".

The Lone Ranger

1949

Family Affair poster
6.7

Family Affair is an American sitcom that aired on CBS from September 12, 1966 to September 9, 1971. The series explored the trials of well-to-do civil engineer and bachelor Bill Davis as he attempted to raise his brother's orphaned children in his luxury New York City apartment. Davis' traditional English gentleman's gentleman, Mr. Giles French, also had adjustments to make as he became saddled with the responsibility of caring for 15-year-old Cissy and the 6-year-old twins, Jody and Buffy. The show ran for 138 episodes. Family Affair was created and produced by Don Fedderson, also known for My Three Sons and The Millionaire.

Family Affair

1966

The Jack Benny Program poster
7.8

Laugh along with funnyman Jack Benny as he brings his underplayed humor to TV along with regular performers from his radio show days.

The Jack Benny Program

1950

The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show poster
7.2

Burns and Allen, an American comedy duo consisting of George Burns and his wife, Gracie Allen, worked together as a comedy team in vaudeville, films, radio and television and achieved great success over four decades.

The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show

1950

The Man from U.N.C.L.E. poster
7.2

Agents Napoleon Solo and Illya Kuryakin work for a secret intelligence service working under the auspices of the U.N. Their immediate superior is Mr. Waverly. Together they operate out of a secret base beneath the streets of New York City, and accesses through several cover business such as Del Floria's Tailor Shop and the Masque Club. This secret intelligence service is called U.N.C.L.E. United Network Command for Law and Enforcement.

The Man from U.N.C.L.E.

1964

Richard Diamond, Private Detective poster
6.8

Richard Diamond, Private Detective is an American detective drama which aired on radio from 1949 to 1953, and on television from 1957 to 1960.

Richard Diamond, Private Detective

1957

The Millionaire poster
5.8

An anthology series that explored the ways sudden and unexpected wealth changed life for better or for worse. It told the stories of people who were given one million dollars from a benefactor who insisted they never know him, with one exception.

The Millionaire

1955

The Millionaire poster
5.8

An anthology series that explored the ways sudden and unexpected wealth changed life for better or for worse. It told the stories of people who were given one million dollars from a benefactor who insisted they never know him, with one exception.

The Millionaire

1955

Kolchak: The Night Stalker poster
7.7

Kolchak: The Night Stalker is an American television series that aired on ABC during the 1974–1975 season. It featured a fictional Chicago newspaper reporter who investigated mysterious crimes with unlikely causes, particularly those that law enforcement authorities would not follow up. These often involved the supernatural or even science fiction, including fantastic creatures.

Kolchak: The Night Stalker

1974

Bronco poster
6.0

Bronco is a Western series on ABC from 1958 through 1962. It was shown by the BBC in the United Kingdom. The program starred Ty Hardin as Bronco Layne, a former Confederate officer who wandered the Old West, meeting such well-known individuals as Wild Bill Hickok, Billy the Kid, Jesse James, Theodore Roosevelt, Belle Starr, Cole Younger, and John Wesley Hardin.

Bronco

1958