Lyle Talbot

Acting

Lyle Talbot

Born 1902-02-08 · Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA

Lyle Talbot (born Lisle Henderson) was an American actor on stage and screen, known for his career in film from 1931 to 1960 and for his appearances on television in the 1950s and 1960s. He played Ozzie Nelson's friend and neighbor, Joe Randolph, for ten years in the ABC situation comedy The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet. He began his movie career under contract with Warner Brothers in the early days of sound film. He appeared in more than 150 films, first as a young matinee idol and later as a character actor and star of many B movies. He was a founding member of the Screen Actors Guild and later served on its board. Talbot's long career as an actor is recounted in a book by his youngest daughter, The New Yorker writer Margaret Talbot, entitled The Entertainer: Movies, Magic and My Father's Twentieth Century (Riverhead Books 2012). Most notable among Talbot's film work were his appearances in Three on a Match and 20,000 Years in Sing Sing (both 1932). He played a star running back in College Coach (1933) with Pat O'Brien and Dick Powell, romanced opera singer Grace Moore in One Night of Love in 1934, and pursued Mae West in Go West, Young Man (1936). He was a gangster in Ladies They Talk About and Heat Lightning and a doctor kicking a drinking habit in Mandalay. He co-starred with Pat O'Brien in Oil for the Lamps of China (1935). He appeared opposite Ann Dvorak, Carole Lombard, Barbara Stanwyck, Mary Astor, Ginger Rogers, Loretta Young and Shirley Temple, as well as sharing the screen with Humphrey Bogart, Spencer Tracy and Tyrone Power. Overall, Talbot appeared in some 150 movies.

Acting credits

42nd Street poster
6.9

Broadway director Julian Marsh needs just one more hit show so he can retire and recover his health. It looks like he just may pull it off until temperamental star Dorthy Brock breaks her ankle on the eve of the show's premiere and has to be replaced by her understudy Peggy.

42nd Street

1933

The Mad Magician poster
6.9

Don Gallico is an inventor of stage magic effects who aspires to become a star in his own right. Just before his first performance his act is shut down by capricious manager Ross Ormond who wants Gallico's brilliant buzz saw effect for the act of The Great Rinaldi, an established star. With this defeat, and the humiliation of having already lost his wife Claire to Ormond, Gallico decides it is time to take matters into his own hands.

The Mad Magician

1954

20,000 Years in Sing Sing poster
6.4

Brash hoodlum Tom Connors enters Sing Sing cocksure of himself and disrespectful toward authority, but his tough but compassionate warden changes him.

20,000 Years in Sing Sing

1932

Plan 9 from Outer Space poster
4.2

In California, an old man grieves the loss of his wife, and dies the day after she is buried. However, the space soldier Eros and his mate Tanna use an electric device to resurrect them both, alongside the strong Inspector Clay, who was murdered by the alien-controlled dead couple. When the populations of Hollywood and Washington D.C. see flying saucers on the sky, a colonel, a police lieutenant, a commercial pilot, his wife, and a policeman try to stop the aliens.

Plan 9 from Outer Space

1957

Jail Busters poster
6.7

Slip and Sach go to prison to help a reporter with a story.

Jail Busters

1955

There's No Business Like Show Business poster
6.1

Molly and Terry Donahue, plus their three children, are The Five Donahues. Youngest son Tim meets hat-check girl Vicky and the family act begins to fall apart.

There's No Business Like Show Business

1954

That's Dancing! poster
6.9

A documentary film about dancing on the screen, from its origins after the invention of the movie camera, over the movie musical from the late 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, and 60s, up to the break dance and music videos from the 80s.

That's Dancing!

1985

Gambler's Choice poster
6.2

The professional gambler Ross Hadley is the owner of a posh gaming establishment in the heart of New York...

Gambler's Choice

1944

Ladies They Talk About poster
6.1

A moll, imprisoned after participating in a bank robbery, helps with a breakout plot.

Ladies They Talk About

1933

Federal Man poster
6.5

A government agent travels from the United States to Mexico to nab drug dealers.

Federal Man

1950

Ringside poster
5.0

Joe O'Hara finds out he has a damaged optic nerve just before a boxing match for the title. He needs the money badly, so he doesn't delay the fight. The opponent discovers Joe's weakness and pounds on his eyes, causing him to go blind.

Ringside

1949

Strange Impersonation poster
6.1

A female research scientist conducting experiments on a new anesthetic has a very bad week. Her scheming assistant intentionally scars her face, her almost-fiancee appears to have deserted her and she finds herself being blackmailed by a women she accidentally knocked down with her car.

Strange Impersonation

1946

Batman and Robin poster
5.7

This 15-chapter serial pits Batman and Robin against The Wizard, who uses a device that allows him to control machinery to hold the city hostage.

Batman and Robin

1949

With This Ring poster
6.0

Dramatised promotional film for the Miller Brewing Company.

With This Ring

1954

With a Song in My Heart poster
6.1

Jane Froman, an aspiring songstress, lands a job in radio with help from pianist Don Ross, whom she later marries. Jane's popularity soars, and she leaves on a European tour... but her plane crashes in Lisbon, and she is partially crippled. Unable to walk without crutches, Jane nevertheless goes on to entertain the Allied troops in World War II.

With a Song in My Heart

1952

Glen or Glenda poster
4.7

Glen doesn't dare tell his fiancée Barbara that he is a transvestite known as Glenda; in addition, Alan is undergoing medical treatment to become a woman named Anne; both stories are told by a psychiatrist.

Glen or Glenda

1953

Colorado Ambush poster
7.5

As was customary in his late Monogram westerns, Johnny Mack Brown plays an undercover agent in Colorado Ambush. Brown is sent to Colorado to stem the activities of a particularly vicious outlaw gang

Colorado Ambush

1951

The Purchase Price poster
6.5

Nightclub singer Joan Gordon runs away from her gangster boyfriend to become a mail-order bride to a struggling North Dakota farmer. Their relationship has a rocky start, but just as Joan realizes she's developing feelings for her husband, her old boyfriend arrives to win her back.

The Purchase Price

1932

One Night of Love poster
5.5

Mary Barrett is an aspiring opera singer who is taken under the wings of a famous operatic maestro, Guilio Monterverdi. After spending endless working hours together and arguing, their relationship develops into love. But, jealousy and misunderstandings prevent Mary and Guilio from acknowledging their true feelings.

One Night of Love

1934

The Secret Bride poster
6.2

Before Ruth Vincent, daughter of a state governor, and state attorney general Robert Sheldon can announce their marriage, the governor is accused of bribe-taking. To avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest, they decide to keep their marriage secret. The political intrigue becomes more involved, and no one is quite what they seem. Soon Sheldon and Ruth must decide between saving the governor's career and an innocent person's life.

The Secret Bride

1934

Three on a Match poster
6.3

Although Vivian Revere is seemingly the most successful of a trio of reunited schoolmates, she throws it away by descending into a life of debauchery and drugs.

Three on a Match

1932

Miss Pinkerton poster
5.9

Scion of the once-rich Mitchell family, Herbert Wynn is found shot to death. Nurse Adams, bored by hospital routine, is recruited by the police to ferret out clues as she tends to Wynn's elderly aunt Julia. Jokingly given the 'rank' of Miss Pinkerton, after the famous detective agency, Adams probes into the mystery, but not before a second death.

Miss Pinkerton

1932

The Falcon Out West poster
5.3

When a Texas playboy is murdered in a New York City nightclub the Falcon investigates. When he learns that the victim was slipped rattlesnake venom, the trail leads to Texas, his own kidnapping and near death.

The Falcon Out West

1944

Feudin' Fools poster
5.5

Sach learns that he has inherited a farm in rural hillbilly country, and when he and the Boys arrive there, they find themselves mixed up with a hillbilly clan named Smith who'll shoot anybody named Jones, plus a gang of bank robbers.

Feudin' Fools

1952