
Acting
Ernest Truex
Born — Died
1889-09-18 — 1973-06-26
Place of birth
Kansas City, Missouri, USA
Known for
Acting
Credits
87 titles
Known for
5.3Matinee Theater is an American anthology series that aired on NBC during the Golden Age of Television, from 1955 to 1958. The series, which ran daily in the afternoon, was frequently live. It was produced by Albert McCleery, Darrell Ross, George Cahan and Frank Price with executive producer George Lowther. McCleery had previously produced the live series Cameo Theatre which introduced to television the concept of theater-in-the-round, TV plays staged with minimal sets. Jim Buckley of the Pewter Plough Playhouse recalled: When Al McCleery got back to the States, he originated a most ambitious theatrical TV series for NBC called Matinee Theater: to televise five different stage plays per week live, airing around noon in order to promote color TV to the American housewife as she labored over her ironing. Al was the producer. He hired five directors and five art directors. Richard Bennett, one of our first early presidents of the Pewter Plough Corporation, was one of the directors and I was one of the art directors and, as soon as we were through televising one play, we had lunch and then met to plan next week’s show. That was over 50 years ago, and I’m trying to think; I believe the TV art director is his own set decorator —yes, of course! It had to be, since one of McCleery’s chief claims to favor with the producers was his elimination of the setting per se and simply decorating the scene with a minimum of props. It took a bit of ingenuity.
Matinee Theater
1955
5.9The 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
8.5An 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
6.6The Philco Television Playhouse is an American anthology series that was broadcast live on NBC from 1948 to 1955. Produced by Fred Coe, the series was sponsored by Philco. It was one of the most respected dramatic shows of the Golden Age of Television, winning a 1954 Peabody Award and receiving eight Emmy nominations between 1951 and 1956.
The Philco Television Playhouse
1948
5.4An American radio–television anthology series, created in 1947 by Canadian director Fletcher Markle, who came to CBS from the CBC. Studio One, presented by Westinghouse, was one of the first of the anthology TV programs. The episodes were often abridged remakes of movies from years gone by and many future well-known television and movie actors appeared in the productions.
Studio One
1948
3.8Climax! 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
Film credits
1960s · 1 titles
1950s · 6 titles
6.3This is a story based on fact that follows a husband and wife who emigrate from Scotland to Wisconsin in the 1850s. They work very hard and become welcome citizens of their new town, Eureka. They have six children. They prosper in the husband's boat-building business. But when their eldest is 12, tragedy strikes the family, and the 12-year-old is burdened with a terrible task which he handles as well as any adult could.
All Mine to Give
1957
4.7An alcoholic captain sails a two-master through danger with a call girl and others on board.
Twilight for the Gods
1958
NRThe life and complex relationships of ambitious college professor Walter Hubbard and the titular character, Elizabeth Owen, exploring the deeply intertwined personal and professional conflicts he faces, and how Elizabeth's presence and their history together reshape his trajectory.
If You Knew Elizabeth
1957
8.0Episcopalian minister Gil Allen keeps up his college days interest in boxing by working out at a gym run by his friend, Tom Kelley but declines offers to fight in an actual staged bout, until he realizes he could use the prize money to purchase equipment for local polio victims. Keeping his real identity secret and hoping to step away after one big payday, Gil signs a contract to fight for greedy promoter Gus MacAuliffe.
The Leather Saint
1956
NREdgar Bergen and his dummy, Charlie McCarthy, join Alice on her adventure in Wonderland.
Kraft Television Theatre: Alice in Wonderland
1954
NRChange comes slowly to a small New Hampshire town in the early 20th century. People grow up, get married, live, and die. Milk and the newspaper get delivered every morning, and nobody locks their front doors. This musicalization of Thornton Wilder's classic play stars Frank Sinatra, who introduces the song, "Love and Marriage," which would go on to be immortalized as the theme song to the sitcom "Married with Children."
Our Town
1955
1940s · 31 titles
7.4Walter Burns is an irresistibly conniving newspaper publisher desperate to woo back his paper’s star reporter, who also happens to be his estranged wife. She’s threatening to quit and settle down with a new beau, but, as Walter knows, she has a weakness: she can’t resist a juicy scoop.
His Girl Friday
1940
6.4Judy O'Brien is an aspiring ballerina in a dance troupe. Also in the company is Bubbles, a brash mantrap who leaves the struggling troupe for a career in burlesque. When the company disbands, Bubbles gives Judy a thankless job as her stooge. The two eventually clash when both fall for the same man.
Dance, Girl, Dance
1940
5.7In WW I dancer Jerry Jones stages an all-soldier show on Broadway, called Yip Yip Yaphank. Wounded in the War, he becomes a producer. In WW II his son Johnny Jones, who was before his fathers assistant, gets the order to stage a knew all-soldier show, called THIS IS THE ARMY. But in his pesonal life he has problems, because he refuses to marry his fiancée until the war is over.
This Is the Army
1943
5.9A young navy lieutenant is brought in as technical adviser on a song-dance-and-swim film being made by screen star Rosalind Reynolds. Having once done a number with her at a Forces show, the young lad somehow believes she should be his girl. Her boyfriend is just one of those disagreeing.
On an Island with You
1948
7.0An 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
5.0A rebellious young inductee has trouble toeing the line until he meets a retired officer's lovely daughter. James and his band are also drafted and decide to perk up their camp by putting on a big show.
Private Buckaroo
1942
6.2Pop, a security guard at Paramount has told his son that he's the head of the studio. When his son arrives in Hollywood on shore leave with his buddies, Pop enlists the aid of the studio's dizzy switchboard operator in pulling off the charade. Things get more complicated when Pop agrees to put together a show for the Navy starring Paramount's top contract players.
Star Spangled Rhythm
1942
8.0A writer for a radio program needs some fresh ideas to juice up his show. For inspiration, he rents a room with a typical American family and begins to secretly write about their true life antics. The show becomes a big hit, but he begins to feel guilty about his charade when he falls in love with the family's pretty older daughter.
True to Life
1943
5.9A number of different characters unfolding love, hate, and death problems during an evening in a fashionable Latin nightclub.
Club Havana
1945
6.6Members of a well-to-do small community become worried when it is revealed that one of their maids is writing a telling exposé.
The Affairs of Martha
1942
5.5Rhythm of the Islands is set in the South Seas, presumably far away from the shooting war. The nonsensical plotline finds hero Tommy (Allan Jones) posing as a native chief. Joan Holton (Jane Frazee), daughter of a millionaire (Ernest Truex), falls in love with Tommy, unaware that he's a charlatan.
Rhythm of the Islands
1943
3.8Elmer Whippet inherits the Whippet Pickles company and sets out to meet the two stars, Mary Reynolds and John Stowe, of the radio program sponsored by his company, as he thinks their on-air quarreling is real. Two former associates, Jules Kinsey and J.M. Snow cross him up by substituting Susan Blair, an office secretary, for Mary and Elmer thinks the show's writer Paul Stevens is John.
Don't Get Personal
1942
6.3A small-town girl who's made it big in New York as a fashion model returns home, only to find that her somewhat dotty uncle has mortgaged his boarding house to the hilt. In her efforts to help him keep his boarding house, she becomes involved with a handsome young minister and his superior, an older bishop.
The Girl from Manhattan
1948
5.6A Broadway producer's Girl Friday must make sure that her recent marriage is kept secret. If it gets out, she will lose her job. Unfortunately, her new hubby is tired of hiding the truth and creates all kinds of problems when he decides to spill the beans.
Fired Wife
1943
6.7A waitress falls for a foreign businessman (Mohr), while receiving attention from a pair of motorcycle cops, Curtis and Defore. She soon realizes that Mohr is actually a crook and goes back to flirting with her fast cop friends.
We Go Fast
1941
6.7Daisy, the Bumstead's mischievous mutt, makes the family a little extra cash when she wins a contest to become a model for the Navy. From there she becomes the favorite calendar gal. All the attention to the dog, makes Dagwood feel that his position as master of the house is jeopardized. Meanwhile all the attention catches the greedy eyes of gangsters who try and abduct Daisy!
Life with Blondie
1945
7.5An anthropologist unwittingly takes a man disguised as a "primitive man" back to New York as a specimen.
Her Primitive Man
1944
9.0Farce of identical twins and a wife who takes up real estate business.
The Gay Vagabond
1941
6.6Alice Faye plays the title role in this 1940 film biography of the early-20th-century stage star.
Lillian Russell
1940
8.0A henpecked husband and his bossy wife are due for a surprise when the wife's former boyfriend unexpectedly turns up.
Calling All Husbands
1940
9.0Singer/Dancer Peggy Ryan neither sings nor dances in this comedy in which she plays a secretary, whose life has no romance because she devotes all of her time to her attractive older sister. But she does keep a diary that contains some fact and many fictional entries. One such is read by the wife of her boss who promptly sues for a divorce. Virginia Grey stars in a musical produced by Hall and sings (possibly dubbed) "Makin' a Million" and "Keep Your Chin Up." No spoiler to add that Ryan gets a boyfriend and Hall and Allbritton are reunited before this one runs it course.
Men in Her Diary
1945
10.0Hubert Abercrombie Gumm, a flighty, eccentric screwball acquires a job as an executive at a radio station at the insistence of his only-slightly less eccentric aunt Fannie Handley, who is married to one of the company owners. After mixing up the script pages to the various radio programs, Hubert sets out to get the name of a returning explorer on a contract for the radio station. Other than the title, this film has no connection at all to the 1934 W.C. Fields film of the same title even though some sources give the plot of the Fields' film as the plot of this film.
You're Telling Me
1942
7.0The son of a strict Navy officer falls for the daughter of a musical-comedy star.
Chip Off the Old Block
1944
3.8Mike Abbott just wants to spend a quiet evening at home with his wife, but her collection of zany friends make hash of his hopes.
Twin Beds
1942
6.5Aesop of fable fame poses as an old man and woos away a princess who wants a king for his gold.
Night in Paradise
1946
7.2An old millionaire, who believes he's dying, bequeaths his fortune to a young woman with a fanatical obsession with movie stars. But then the elderly tycoon recovers from his illness and decides he wants his money back. Comedy most notable for its numerous unbilled cameos by Warner Bros. actors.
Always Together
1947
6.0A government pilot (George Brent) falls for a woman (Isa Miranda) helping her partner (John Loder) smuggle diamonds out of South Africa.
Adventure in Diamonds
1940
8.0While attending stenographer school, Tillie Jones meets office boy Mac, who falls in love with her at first sight. Though Tillie likes Mac as a friend, she continually throws him over for handsomer men.
Tillie the Toiler
1941
6.9An elderly gentleman comes to a young woman's aid by pretending to be her uncle. Comedy.
Unexpected Uncle
1941
8.5Family film, based on a Booth Tarkington tale, about a young boy who takes extreme measures to keep the stray dog he befriends.
Little Orvie
1940
4.1A New York magazine sends its editors to South America to find beautiful girls.
Pan-Americana
1945
1930s · 18 titles
6.2The Venetian traveler Marco Polo meets Kublai Khan and foils a plotter with fireworks in medieval China.
The Adventures of Marco Polo
1938
7.2Polly Parrish, a clerk at Merlin's Department Store, is mistakenly presumed to be the mother of a foundling. Outraged at Polly's unmotherly conduct, David Merlin becomes determined to keep the single woman and "her" baby together.
Bachelor Mother
1939
6.5Detective Guy Johnson's client, Willie Heywood, is framed for murder. While Guy hides him so he can catch the real killer, both of them are nabbed by the police, tried, convicted and sentenced to jail: Guy for a year with Willie to be executed. On the way to jail, Guy comes across a clue and escapes from the police.
It's a Wonderful World
1939
6.0A mystery writer and his sweetheart are held hostage by a fugitive gangster, who hopes to enlist their help in devising the perfect murder.
Whistling in the Dark
1933
5.9A drunken college student invites a dance hostess to the big college dance and then forgets he asked her. When she shows up at school, he tries to get rid of her, but she won't leave. Instead, she stays and shows up both him and his classmates' snooty dates.
These Glamour Girls
1939
6.9After retiring from movies to get an education, a man discovers his ex-staff is trying to have him expelled.
Start Cheering
1938
5.1A lawyer is framed for the murder of a young party girl and tries to clear his name.
Slightly Honorable
1939
10.0A budding entrepreneur nearly loses everything after his get-rich quick scheme selling "flunk" insurance to his fellow students goes terribly awry.
Freshman Year
1938
5.6A Chinese general's daughter tracks her father to a slave-labor tyrant's jungle empire.
Island of Lost Men
1939
7.0The Warrior's Husband is a satire of the male and female roles in society set in 800 B.C.. Queen Hippolyta (Marjorie Rambeau) rules Pontus with masculine authority; in fact, it is the women of Pontus who do all the laboring, fighting, and governing. Hippolyta's husband Sapiens (Ernest Truex) is truly a sissy of the first order, and is not unlike most of Pontus' male inhabitants.
The Warrior's Husband
1933
5.5A baby is passed from hand to hand after her father abandons her.
Little Accident
1939
7.0A young city girl from a poor family is invited to spend the summer at a camp for girls from wealthy families. At first made fun of and ridiculed because of her background, she determines to show the snooty rich girls she's just as good as they are.
The Under-Pup
1939
7.0When her sister dies, a nightclub singer is left with her children. In order to raise the children properly, she leaves her singing career and takes her new family to a farm. However, her greedy manager--seeing his "cash cow" slipping away--goes to court to have her declared legally incompetent.
Everybody Dance
1936
6.0Four bandits swoop down on a California bank and flee with $98,000, leaving a truck as the only clue to their identity. Jane Hartman, bank secretary, recognizes the truck as one on which her brother Charles worked. Fleeing to her brother, she is trapped by the gang, composed of its master-mind, Gibbs, Sidney, a gunman, and Randall, a blackballed airplane pilot. Under threat of bodily harm to her brother, she lures truck-driver Tony Andrews to the hideout, and he is forced to help them in their escape attempt.
Ambush
1939
8.0In this musical comedy, two star-struck small town kids head for the Big Apple and become famous for their jitterbug act. Their fame doesn't last long, but they had fun anyway. Songs include: "Baltimore Bubble," "Gingham Gown," "Just a Bore," "Wasn't It You," "Kaneski Waltz" (Frank Skinner, Charles Henderson).
Swing, Sister, Swing
1938
7.5A fast-talking philanderer and sometime reporter gets caught up in an octogenarian antiquarian's scheme to steal a classical masterwork, the famous Venus of Asterville.
Get That Venus
1933
Ernest Truex is a lawyer feuding for no clear reason with the lawyer across the hall. Truex gets a woman seeking a divorce; the lawyer across the hall gets the husband. Each must produce evidence of infidelity, which they do .... of their clients.
Gentlemen of the Bar
1934
Ernest Truex and family throwing a dinner party.
His Lucky Day
1934
1910s · 4 titles
NRA partially lost film, with only one surviving reel. A movie released in 1914 directed by Edwin S. Porter.
A Good Little Devil
1914
NRA young American broker at large in London.
An American Citizen
1914
1.0A lost film. A wealthy young man's marriage to a mountain girl he meets while hunting is disastrous until she abandons him and later reappears incognito as a tutored and sophisticated woman.
Caprice
1913
NRA patriotic but short American man tries without luck to qualify for the Army, but can't get in until a knock on the head raises a lump high enough for him to pass the height requirement. Meanwhile, his lady friend decides to become a Secret Service agent, though she is unable to keep the fact a secret, even from the German spies she hopes to apprehend.
Come on In
1918
Series credits
5.3Matinee Theater is an American anthology series that aired on NBC during the Golden Age of Television, from 1955 to 1958. The series, which ran daily in the afternoon, was frequently live. It was produced by Albert McCleery, Darrell Ross, George Cahan and Frank Price with executive producer George Lowther. McCleery had previously produced the live series Cameo Theatre which introduced to television the concept of theater-in-the-round, TV plays staged with minimal sets. Jim Buckley of the Pewter Plough Playhouse recalled: When Al McCleery got back to the States, he originated a most ambitious theatrical TV series for NBC called Matinee Theater: to televise five different stage plays per week live, airing around noon in order to promote color TV to the American housewife as she labored over her ironing. Al was the producer. He hired five directors and five art directors. Richard Bennett, one of our first early presidents of the Pewter Plough Corporation, was one of the directors and I was one of the art directors and, as soon as we were through televising one play, we had lunch and then met to plan next week’s show. That was over 50 years ago, and I’m trying to think; I believe the TV art director is his own set decorator —yes, of course! It had to be, since one of McCleery’s chief claims to favor with the producers was his elimination of the setting per se and simply decorating the scene with a minimum of props. It took a bit of ingenuity.
Matinee Theater
1955
5.9The 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
5.9The 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
8.5An 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
8.5An 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
6.6The Philco Television Playhouse is an American anthology series that was broadcast live on NBC from 1948 to 1955. Produced by Fred Coe, the series was sponsored by Philco. It was one of the most respected dramatic shows of the Golden Age of Television, winning a 1954 Peabody Award and receiving eight Emmy nominations between 1951 and 1956.
The Philco Television Playhouse
1948
5.4An American radio–television anthology series, created in 1947 by Canadian director Fletcher Markle, who came to CBS from the CBC. Studio One, presented by Westinghouse, was one of the first of the anthology TV programs. The episodes were often abridged remakes of movies from years gone by and many future well-known television and movie actors appeared in the productions.
Studio One
1948
3.8Climax! 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
7.8A television anthology series hosted by Alfred Hitchcock featuring dramas, thrillers, and mysteries.
Alfred Hitchcock Presents
1955
7.8A television anthology series hosted by Alfred Hitchcock featuring dramas, thrillers, and mysteries.
Alfred Hitchcock Presents
1955
5.1An anthology series adapted from the radio program of the same name. Like the radio program, many scripts were adaptations of literary classics by well-known authors. Classic authors such as Edgar Allan Poe, Agatha Christie, and Charles Dickens all had stories adapted for the series, while contemporary authors such as Roald Dahl and Gore Vidal also contributed.
Suspense
1949
6.6Family man Jim Anderson copes with the everyday problems among his wife Margaret and their three children as they experience day-to-day changes.
Father Knows Best
1954
6.8Hazel is an American sitcom about a fictional live-in maid named Hazel Burke and her employers, the Baxters. The five-season, 154-episode series aired in primetime from September 28, 1961 until April 11, 1966 and was produced by Screen Gems. The show aired on NBC for its first four seasons, and then on CBS for its final season. The first season, except for one color episode was in black and white, the remainder in color. The show was based on the popular single-panel comic strip by cartoonist Ted Key, which appeared in the Saturday Evening Post.
Hazel
1961
6.6This 1959-1963 television situation comedy series follows the lives of the Mitchell family, Henry, Alice, and their only child Dennis, an energetic, trouble-prone, mischievous, but well-meaning boy, who often tangles with his peace-and-quiet-loving neighbor George Wilson, a retired salesman, or, later, with George's brother John, a writer. Dennis is basically a good, well-intentioned boy who always tries to help people, but who winds up making situations worse – often at Mr. Wilson's expense.
Dennis the Menace
1959
7.8Kraft Television Theater is an American, well-received anthology series presenting live television dramas.
Kraft Television Theatre
1947
5.8An 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
6.8The DuPont Show with June Allyson is an American anthology drama series which aired on CBS from September 21, 1959 to April 3, 1961 with rebroadcasts continuing until June 12, 1961. The series was hosted by actress June Allyson.
The DuPont Show with June Allyson
1959
6.7Lux 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
6.7Lux 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
6.2Pete and Gladys is an American situation comedy television series starring Harry Morgan and Cara Williams that aired on CBS on Mondays at 8:00 p.m. Eastern and Pacific time for two seasons, beginning on September 19, 1960. The last episode was broadcast on September 10, 1962.
Pete and Gladys
1960
8.0No synopsis available yet.
Inner Sanctum
1954
7.5The Ann Sothern Show is an American sitcom starring Ann Sothern that aired on CBS for 93 episodes. The series began on October 6, 1958, and ended on September 25, 1961. The Ann Sothern Show was Sothern's second sitcom for CBS. Her first series, Private Secretary, ended in 1957 after a contract dispute occurred between Sothern and Secretary's producer Jack Chertok. Several of Private Secretary's cast members appeared in the show.
The Ann Sothern Show
1958
9.0The Tom Ewell Show is an American television situation comedy that aired on CBS during the 1960-61 television season.
The Tom Ewell Show
1960
After the death of his parents, seven-year-old Jamie is moved from relative to relative until he finally arrives at the home of his aunt Laurie and grandfather.
Jamie
1953
6.0Grindl is an American situation comedy that began in the fall of 1963 on NBC, originally sponsored by Procter & Gamble. The show, starring Imogene Coca in the title role, lasted for one season.
Grindl
1963
Cameo Theatre was an American anthology series that aired on NBC during the Golden Age of Television, from 1950 to 1955.
Cameo Theatre
1950
NRAn anthology series based in New York City which attracted a high caliber group of actors, often Broadway stars. Stories were both drama and comedies, some original but others adaptions of films and plays.
The Ford Theatre Hour
1948

