Acting
Carol Bruce
Born 1919-11-15 · Great Neck, Long Island, New York, USA
Carol Bruce was an American band singer, Broadway star, and film and television actress. Bruce began her career as a singer in the late 1930s with Larry Clinton and his band, and later sang with Ben Bernie's orchestra in 1940-1941. Bruce made her Broadway debut in Louisiana Purchase, with songs by Irving Berlin, who discovered her at a nightclub in Newark, New Jersey. She was the first actress to play the role of Julie in a Broadway production of Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II's Show Boat since the 1932 Broadway revival. Bruce played the role onstage in 1946 and garnered favorable comparisons to Helen Morgan, who had originated the role onstage in 1927 and repeated it in both the 1932 revival and the 1936 film. Bruce appeared with Abbott and Costello in Keep 'Em Flying (1941). Her first serious film role was in This Woman Is Mine (1941). She had supporting roles many years later in the films American Gigolo (1980) and Planes, Trains and Automobiles. After a long career as a singer and in films, Bruce is probably best-remembered for her recurring role as the domineering and meddlesome Lillian "Mama" Carlson (mother of the station manager played by Gordon Jump) on CBS' WKRP in Cincinnati.
Acting credits
7.3An irritable marketing executive, Neal Page, is heading home to Chicago for Thanksgiving when a number of delays force him to travel with a well meaning but overbearing shower curtain ring salesman, Del Griffith.
Planes, Trains and Automobiles
1987
6.2Julian makes a lucrative living as an escort to older women in the Los Angeles area. He begins a relationship with Michelle, a local politician's wife, without expecting any pay. One of his clients is murdered and Detective Sunday begins pumping him for details on his different clients, something he is reluctant to do considering the nature of his work. Julian begins to suspect he's being framed. Meanwhile Michelle begins to fall in love with him.
American Gigolo
1980
6.2Littlefoot’s grandfather falls gravely ill, and the only hope for his recovery is the "Golden Night Flower" found in the treacherous Land of the Mists. Along with his loyal friends, Littlefoot embarks on a journey to retrieve the cure, joined by a shy newcomer named Ali, a long-necked dinosaur from a migrating herd. As they navigate the foggy, swamp-filled terrain, they are hunted by a pair of predators—a sharp-eyed bird and a massive crocodile—and must overcome their mistrust of the unfamiliar environment.
The Land Before Time IV: Journey Through the Mists
1996
6.2When a barnstorming stunt pilot decides to join the air corps, his two goofball assistants decide to go with him. Since the two are Abbott & Costello, the air corps doesn't know what it's in for.
Keep 'Em Flying
1941
4.5Three seafaring fur traders fall in love with a female stowaway they discover aboard their ship. Many adventures follow.
This Woman Is Mine
1941
Another of the series of Educational Pictures' comedy shorts headlining comic strip artist Jefferson Machamer. He joins a correspondence school to study drawing and sets up his desk in the post office where he can get his mail quickly. He has a section of private letter-boxes, and, as he opens each one, the artists models are seen there representing the various lessons.
Koo Koo Korrespondance Skool
1937
5.3The story takes place at a summer theater in the Berkshire Mountains, where heroine Joan Barry (Carol Bruce) is staging a Broadway-bound musical comedy. Only one problem: two guest stars are shot and killed on two successive evenings, right in front of the audience. Hoping to solve the mystery, detective William Demarest demands that everyone -- actors and theatergoers alike -- return the following weekend to restage the show. But with no major performer willing to assume the fatal guest-star slot, Joan is forced to hire the Three Jolly Jesters (Al, Harry and Jimmy Ritz), Manhattan washroom attendants with showbiz aspirations.
Behind the Eight Ball
1942
10.0Tough and exacting coach Geneva whips track star Lucy into shape for an upcoming Olympic event. Geneva's training proves to be so gruelling that Lucy eventually runs away into an outside world full of apathy and hostility.
The Girl Who Returned
1969