Douglas Spencer

Acting

Douglas Spencer

Born — Died

1910-02-10 — 1960-10-06

Place of birth

Princeton, Illinois, USA

Known for

Acting

Credits

69 titles

Douglas Spencer (born July 4, 1910 – March 5, 1960) was an American actor, best known for his roles in classic science fiction films and film noirs during the 1940s and 1950s. Spencer was born in Baltimore, Maryland. He was drawn to the entertainment industry early on and began his career in theater before transitioning to films. He often played characters with a tough, no-nonsense edge, making him a popular choice for a variety of roles in films of the time. Spencer's big break came when he landed a role in the influential science fiction film *The Thing from Another World* (1951), directed by Christian Nyby and produced by Howard Hawks. In the film, Spencer played the role of a reporter …

Known for

Bonanza poster
7.5

The High-Sierra adventures of Ben Cartwright and his sons as they run and defend their ranch while helping the surrounding community.

Bonanza

1959

The Twilight Zone poster
8.5

An anthology series containing drama, psychological thriller, fantasy, science fiction, suspense, and/or horror, often concluding with a macabre or unexpected twist.

The Twilight Zone

1959

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

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

The Rebel poster
5.1

After the end of the Civil War, a former Confederate Army private roams the Wild West, and, as a rogue drifter, gets involved in helping out various settlers threatened by various bad guys... THE REBEL is a 76-episode American western television series starring Nick Adams that debuted on the ABC network from 1959 to 1961. The Rebel was one of the few Goodson-Todman Productions outside of their game show ventures. Beginning in December 2011, The Rebel reruns began to air Saturday mornings on Me-TV.

The Rebel

1959

Studio 57 poster
7.5

Studio 57 is an American anthology series that was broadcast on the now-defunct DuMont Television Network from September 1954 to September 1955, and in syndication from 1955 to 1956.

Studio 57

1954

Film credits

1950s · 29 titles

Shane poster
7.3

A weary gunfighter attempts to settle down with a homestead family, but a smouldering settler and rancher conflict forces him to act.

Shane

1953

Monkey Business poster
6.7

Research chemist Barnaby Fulton works on a fountain of youth pill for a chemical company. One of the labs chimps gets loose in the laboratory and mixes chemicals, but then pours the mix into the water cooler. When trying one of his own samples, washed down with water from the cooler, Fulton begins to act just like a twenty-year-old and believes his potion is working. Soon his wife and boss are also behaving like children.

Monkey Business

1952

River of No Return poster
6.7

An itinerant farmer and his young son help a heart-of-gold saloon singer search for her estranged husband.

River of No Return

1954

The Thing from Another World poster
6.7

Scientists and US Air Force officials fend off a blood-thirsty alien organism while investigating at a remote arctic outpost.

The Thing from Another World

1951

A Place in the Sun poster
7.3

A young social climber wins the heart of a beautiful heiress but his former girlfriend's pregnancy stands in the way of his ambition.

A Place in the Sun

1951

The Diary of Anne Frank poster
7.2

The true, harrowing story of a young Jewish girl who, with her family and their friends, is forced into hiding in an attic in Nazi-occupied Amsterdam.

The Diary of Anne Frank

1959

The Kentuckian poster
5.8

A frontiersman and his son fight to build a new home in Texas.

The Kentuckian

1955

Houdini poster
6.6

By the early 1900s, the extraordinary Houdini earned an international reputation for his theatrical tricks and daring feats of extrication from shackles, ropes, handcuffs and... Scotland Yard's jails.

Houdini

1953

Trouble Along the Way poster
6.1

Struggling to retain custody of his daughter following his divorce, football coach Steve Williams finds himself embroiled in a recruiting scandal at the tiny Catholic college he is trying to bring back to football respectability.

Trouble Along the Way

1953

Pardners poster
6.7

Rich momma's boy Wade Kingsley Jr. an Eastern dude, tries to follow in his murdered father's footsteps by returning to the West to partner up with Slim Moseley Jr.,the son of his father's former partner. Wade overcomes Slim's initial reluctance to accept him by using his fortune to buy a prize cow and new car to help Slim in his job as foreman on the Kingsley family ranch, currently under siege by a gang of outlaws called "masked raiders." Wade generously tries to pay off the ranch's mortgage with $15,000 of his own money, but unfortunately neither "pardner" realizes that respected banker Dan Hollis, the son of their fathers' murderer, is the leader of the gang.

Pardners

1956

Father of the Bride poster
7.0

Proud father Stanley Banks remembers the day his daughter, Kay, got married. Starting when she announces her engagement through to the wedding itself, we learn of all the surprises and disasters along the way.

Father of the Bride

1950

The Unholy Wife poster
4.7

A woman marries a man for his wealth, then concocts a plan to kill him, take his money, and run off with her lover. Things go wrong when they accidentally kill the wrong person.

The Unholy Wife

1957

Man from Del Rio poster
6.5

Mexican gunfighter Dave Robles outdraws the town's outlaw-turned-sheriff and is invited to fill the dead man's shoes. But a tin star doesn't bring automatic respectability and Robles is shunned by the town's leading citizens. His popularity with its less-savory element, particularly saloonkeeper Bannister, wanes dramatically, too, as he starts to take his job seriously. It is his love for a decent, caring woman that keeps Dave in town, but can she convince him to lay down his gun and start a new life?

Man from Del Rio

1956

Smoke Signal poster
6.9

Capt. Harper's cavalry patrol returns to the fort to find it besieged by Ute Indians. The apparent cause is the recapture of Army traitor Brett Halliday, who deserted to the Utes in a previous war; but Brett has a different story. With capture imminent, the only chance for the surviving men (and one woman) is to boat down a wild, uncharted river, where Harper and Halliday must pull together, like it or not.

Smoke Signal

1955

A Man Alone poster
5.8

A gunfighter, stranded in the desert, comes across the aftermath of a stage robbery, in which all the passengers were killed. He takes one of the horses to ride to town to report the massacre, but finds himself accused of it. He also finds himself accused of the murder of the local banker, and winds up hiding in the basement of a house where the local sheriff, who is very sick, lives with his daughter.

A Man Alone

1955

Warpath poster
6.0

John Vickers has spent eight years hunting for the three men who murdered the woman he loved. He finds one, Woodson, and kills him in a gunfight, but not before learning that the other two men have joined the U.S. Cavalry.

Warpath

1951

Saddle the Wind poster
6.7

Steve Sinclair is a world-weary former gunslinger, now living as a peaceful farmer. Things go wrong when his wild younger brother Tony arrives on the scene with his new bride Joan Blake.

Saddle the Wind

1958

The Three Faces of Eve poster
7.2

A doctor treats a woman suffering from multiple personality disorder.

The Three Faces of Eve

1957

This Island Earth poster
6.0

Aliens have landed and are hiding on Earth, but need Earth’s scientists to help them fight an inter-planetary war.

This Island Earth

1955

Something to Live For poster
6.9

Advertising executive Alan Miller, a recovered alcoholic who now does interventions on behalf of Alcoholics Anonymous, is called to help Broadway actress Jenny Carey whose developing career is threatened by an increasing dependence on alcohol. Alan's growing interest in Jenny strains his marriage to Edna, with whom he has two children.

Something to Live For

1952

Union Station poster
6.5

Police catch a break when suspected kidnappers are spotted on a train heading towards Union Station. Police, train station security and a witness try to piece together the crime and get back the blind daughter of a rich business man.

Union Station

1950

The Redhead and the Cowboy poster
5.4

Gil Kyle finds himself caught up in the politics and unrest of the American Civil War and soon gets himself framed for a murder. His only alibi is Candace Bronson, who is aiding the Confederate cause and has left the territory to deliver a vital message about a Yankee gold shipment. So he sets off in pursuit, running into desperados, government agents, and guerrilla fighters, who are more interested in profit than ideals. Written by Alfred Jingle

The Redhead and the Cowboy

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

She's Back on Broadway poster
6.0

When Catherine Terris's career in Hollywood hits the skids, she heads back to the site of her first great triumphs...Broadway! She takes the lead in a play which is being directed by Gordon Evans, the man who was both her Svengali and her lover. Evans is still bitter that she walked out on him to become the toast of Hollywood years earlier. Can Terris and Evans put aside their mutual animosity long enough to make a go of this production. The way things start off, it doesn't seem likely.

She's Back on Broadway

1953

The Raid poster
6.6

A group of confederate prisoners escape to Canada and plan to rob the banks and set fire to the small town of Saint Albans in Vermont. To get the lie of the land, their leader spends a few days in the town and finds he is getting drawn into its life and especially into that of an attractive widow and her son.

The Raid

1954

Omar Khayyam poster
5.8

In the 11th century Seljuk Empire, Persian poet and mathematician Omar Khayyam's lover marries the Shah but the Shah, whose life is threatened by a sect of assassins, appoints Omar royal advisor.

Omar Khayyam

1957

Untamed Frontier poster
7.3

The Denbow family denies access across their land to homesteaders. To evade a murder charge, Glenn Denbow marries Jane, the only witness who's in love with him. But the woman favors the settlers...

Untamed Frontier

1952

Short Cut to Hell poster
5.8

A hitman is found out because he was paid off in traceable stolen money. On the run, he kidnaps the girlfriend of the police detective in charge of his pursuit; she tries to convince him to surrender before it's too late.

Short Cut to Hell

1957

Cole Younger, Gunfighter poster
6.6

An outlaw must decide whether to stick his neck out for an innocent man.

Cole Younger, Gunfighter

1958

1940s · 27 titles

Double Indemnity poster
8.1

An insurance representative is seduced by a dissatisfied housewife into a scheme of insurance fraud and murder that arouses the suspicion of his colleague, a claims investigator.

Double Indemnity

1944

The Lost Weekend poster
7.6

Longtime alcoholic Don Birnam has been sober for ten days and appears to be over the worst... but his craving has just become more insidious. Evading a country weekend planned by his brother and girlfriend, he begins a four-day bender that just might be his last – one way or another.

The Lost Weekend

1945

The Dark Corner poster
6.6

Ex-con turned private investigator Bradford Galt suspects someone is following him and maybe even trying to kill him. With the assistance of his spunky secretary, Kathleen Stewart, he dives deep into a mystery in search of answers.

The Dark Corner

1946

Night Has a Thousand Eyes poster
6.8

When heiress Jean Courtland attempts suicide, her fiancée Elliott Carson probes her relationship with John Triton. In flashback, we see how stage mentalist Triton starts having terrifying flashes of true precognition. Now years later, he desperately tries to prevent tragedies in the Courtland family.

Night Has a Thousand Eyes

1948

The Big Clock poster
7.3

George Stroud, a crime magazine's crusading editor, has to postpone a vacation with his wife - again - when a glamorous blonde is murdered and he is assigned by his publishing boss to find the killer. As the investigation proceeds to its conclusion, Stroud must try to disrupt his ordinarily brilliant investigative team as they increasingly build evidence that he is the killer.

The Big Clock

1948

The Heiress poster
7.8

In 1840s New York, the uneventful and boring days of the daughter of a wealthy doctor come to an end when she meets a dashing poorer man — who may or may not be after her inheritance.

The Heiress

1949

Alias Nick Beal poster
6.8

After straight-arrow district attorney Joseph Foster says in frustration that he would sell his soul to bring down a local mob boss, a smooth-talking stranger named Nick Beal shows up with enough evidence to seal a conviction. When that success leads Foster to run for governor, Beal's unearthly hold on him turns the previously honest man corrupt, much to the displeasure of his wife and his steadfast minister.

Alias Nick Beal

1949

It Happens Every Spring poster
6.6

A scientist discovers a formula that makes a baseball which is repelled by wood. He promptly sets out to exploit his discovery.

It Happens Every Spring

1949

Million Dollar Baby poster
6.3

A sudden windfall has unexpected consequences on a working class girl during the Great Depression.

Million Dollar Baby

1941

My Friend Irma poster
6.9

Prototype dumb blonde Irma and her slacker, wheeler-dealer boyfriend Al interfere in the love life of Irma's level-headed room mate Jane.

My Friend Irma

1949

Little Nellie Kelly poster
6.8

Nellie Kelly, the daughter of Irish immigrants, patches up differences between her father and maternal grandfather while rising to the top on Broadway.

Little Nellie Kelly

1940

Lady Scarface poster
5.4

A Chicago gang led by Slade carries out an audacious brokerage robbery. Lieutenant Bill Mason takes the case, continuing his friendly-enemy relationship with crime reporter Ann Rogers. One gang member is caught; eventually, others follow. But Mason hasn't a clue to Slade, principally because he's unaware she's a woman.

Lady Scarface

1941

Christmas in July poster
7.0

An office clerk loves entering contests in the hopes of someday winning a fortune and marrying the girl he loves. His latest attempt is the Maxford House Coffee Slogan Contest. As a joke, some of his co-workers put together a fake telegram which says that he won the $25,000 grand prize.

Christmas in July

1940

Bride of Vengeance poster
5.4

The tiny independent duchy of Ferrara is located between Casare Borgia's Rome and Venice, and Borgia has plans to conquer Venice via Ferrara. He murders his sister's husband and makes it appear that Alfonso D'Este of Ferrara was behind the killing. To avenge herself against Ferrara and D'Este, Lucretia Borgia marries D'Este and intends to poison him. But...she falls in love with him.

Bride of Vengeance

1949

Fall In poster
6.5

An Army sergeant's photographic memory puts him in conflict with a Nazi spy.

Fall In

1942

Lucky Partners poster
6.1

Two strangers split a sweepstake prize to go on a fake honeymoon with predictable results.

Lucky Partners

1940

Princess O'Rourke poster
6.5

A down-to-earth pilot charms a European princess on vacation in the United States.

Princess O'Rourke

1943

Red, Hot and Blue poster
6.2

In her attempts to make a splash on Broadway, a lively would-be-actress lands herself in hot water with the mob.

Red, Hot and Blue

1949

The Sainted Sisters poster
7.3

Two female con artists from New York City, fleeing the law with money from their latest scam, hide out in a small town in Maine, near the Canadian border. However, this small town's residents aren't quite as unsophisticated as the girls think they are.

The Sainted Sisters

1948

Kitty poster
5.7

Pickpocket Kitty's life changes when painter Thomas Gainsborough makes her portrait. The artwork gains the attention of Sir Hugh Marcy, who later decides to use her for his benefit.

Kitty

1945

Trapped poster
6.0

Secret Service agents make a deal with a counterfeiting inmate to be released on early parole if he will help them recover some bogus moneymaking plates, but he plans to double-cross them.

Trapped

1949

Follow Me Quietly poster
6.3

When it rains in the city, a serial killer known as "The Judge" looks for his next strangling victim. For months, the madman has been stalking at night, leaving behind clues, but police efforts have been fruitless. Constructing a life-size dummy of the murderer, police Lt. Harry Grant is growing obsessed with capturing him, and always following Grant is the relentless reporter Ann Gorman looking to break the story, but the hunt continues.

Follow Me Quietly

1949

A Date with the Falcon poster
6.5

In the second film of the series (and not a second part of anything), Gay Lawrence, aka The Falcon, is about to depart the city to marry his fiancée, Helen Reed, when a mystery girl, Rita Mara, asks for his aid in disposing of a secret formula for making synthetic diamonds. He deliberately allows himself to be kidnapped by the gang for which Rita works. His aide, "Goldy" Locke, trails the kidnappers and brings the police. But the head of the gang escapes, and the Falcon continues the pursuit.

A Date with the Falcon

1942

Incendiary Blonde poster
5.1

Paramount's highly-fictionalized 1945 musical biography of Texas Guinan, the Roaring '20s New York nightclub owner and celebrity with alleged underworld connections who famously greeted her customers with the phrase, "Hello, suckers!"

Incendiary Blonde

1945

The Mexican Spitfire's Baby poster
4.6

An advertising executive and his temperamental wife adopt a war orphan who turns out to be a beautiful woman.

The Mexican Spitfire's Baby

1941

Adventure Island poster
5.5

Travelers find themselves marooned on an island with a maniacal self-made ruler.

Adventure Island

1947

Men Against the Sky poster
4.6

A draftswoman, the sister of an aging, alcoholic pilot, secretly uses her brother's ideas to solve design problems for an experimental military plane in an attempt to save the company and salvage her brother's reputation.

Men Against the Sky

1940

Series credits

Bonanza poster
7.5

The High-Sierra adventures of Ben Cartwright and his sons as they run and defend their ranch while helping the surrounding community.

Bonanza

1959

The Twilight Zone poster
8.5

An anthology series containing drama, psychological thriller, fantasy, science fiction, suspense, and/or horror, often concluding with a macabre or unexpected twist.

The Twilight Zone

1959

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

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

The Rebel poster
5.1

After the end of the Civil War, a former Confederate Army private roams the Wild West, and, as a rogue drifter, gets involved in helping out various settlers threatened by various bad guys... THE REBEL is a 76-episode American western television series starring Nick Adams that debuted on the ABC network from 1959 to 1961. The Rebel was one of the few Goodson-Todman Productions outside of their game show ventures. Beginning in December 2011, The Rebel reruns began to air Saturday mornings on Me-TV.

The Rebel

1959

Studio 57 poster
7.5

Studio 57 is an American anthology series that was broadcast on the now-defunct DuMont Television Network from September 1954 to September 1955, and in syndication from 1955 to 1956.

Studio 57

1954

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

Lux Video Theatre poster
6.7

Lux Video Theatre is an American anthology series that was produced from 1950 until 1959. The series presented both comedy and drama in original teleplays, as well as abridged adaptations of films and plays.

Lux Video Theatre

1950

Wire Service poster
9.0

Wire Service is an American drama series that aired on ABC as part of its 1956-57 season lineup.

Wire Service

1956