Harry Lauter

Acting

Harry Lauter

Born 1914-06-19 · White Plains, New York, USA

American character actor specializing in villainous roles. Born in White Plains, New York to Herman E. and Franceska Lauter, he was raised in Denver, Colorado. Although it has been suggested that he appeared briefly in a couple of films during the Thirties, his real movie career began in 1946. He came to be a familiar presence in low-budget films, serials, and television programs in the 1950s, though he only once really came close to stardom, as one of the leads in the television series "Tales of the Texas Rangers (1955)". Most of his career was spent as a serviceable second lead or heavy, though he continued to play bit parts in larger pictures. The son of an artist, he devoted much of his energy late in life to his own painting and running an art gallery. He died in 1990.

Acting credits

The Day the Earth Stood Still poster
7.5

An alien and a robot land on Earth after World War II and tell mankind to be peaceful or face destruction.

The Day the Earth Stood Still

1951

It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World poster
7.0

A group of strangers come across a man dying after a car crash who proceeds to tell them about the $350,000 he buried in California. What follows is the madcap adventures of those strangers as each attempts to claim the prize for himself.

It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World

1963

Escape from the Planet of the Apes poster
6.4

The world is shocked by the appearance of three talking chimpanzees, who arrived mysteriously in a spacecraft. Intrigued by their intelligence, humans use them for research - until the apes attempt to escape.

Escape from the Planet of the Apes

1971

Miami Exposé poster
6.0

A police detective baits killer gamblers with a mob witness (Patricia Medina) in the Everglades.

Miami Exposé

1956

Fighting Lawman poster
6.0

A US Marshal hunts down three bank robbers that are living under new identities.

Fighting Lawman

1953

Batman poster
6.4

The Dynamic Duo faces four super-villains who plan to hold the world for ransom with the help of a secret invention that instantly dehydrates people.

Batman

1966

The Satan Bug poster
6.1

A US government germ warfare lab has had an accident. The first theory is that one of the germs has been released and killed several scientists. The big fear is that a more virulent strain, named The Satan Bug because all life can be killed off by it should it escape, may have been stolen.

The Satan Bug

1965

The Big Heat poster
7.7

After the suspicious suicide of a fellow cop, tough homicide detective Dave Bannion takes the law into his own hands when he sets out to smash a vicious crime syndicate.

The Big Heat

1953

Return of the Gunfighter poster
6.1

A gunfighter and a cowboy help a Mexican girl avenge the land-related murder of her parents.

Return of the Gunfighter

1967

Earth vs. the Flying Saucers poster
6.1

Test space rockets exploding at liftoff and increased reporting of UFO sightings culminate in a direct attempt by alien survivors of a dead, extra-galactic civilization to invade Earth from impervious flying saucers, using ray-weapons of mass destruction.

Earth vs. the Flying Saucers

1956

Jet Pilot poster
5.5

John Wayne stars as U.S. Air Force aviator Jim Shannon, who's tasked with escorting a Soviet pilot (Janet Leigh) claiming -- at the height of the Cold War -- that she wants to defect. After falling in love with and wedding the fetching flyer, Shannon learns from his superiors that she's a spy on a mission to extract military secrets. To save his new wife from prison and deportation, Shannon devises a risky plan in this 1957 drama.

Jet Pilot

1957

This Woman Is Dangerous poster
5.9

A crime gang leader is losing her sight, so while her lover goes into hiding, she checks in to the hospital for extensive surgery to recover her eyesight. There she is treated by a handsome young doctor. As expected not only does the doctor successfully open her eyes, he also opens her heart for him.

This Woman Is Dangerous

1952

White Heat poster
7.6

A psychopathic criminal with a mother complex makes a daring break from prison and then leads his old gang in a chemical plant payroll heist. After the heist, events take a crazy turn.

White Heat

1949

Flying Leathernecks poster
5.8

Major Daniel Kirby takes command of a squadron of Marine fliers just before they are about to go into combat. While the men are well meaning, he finds them undisciplined and prone to always finding excuses to do what is easy rather than what is necessary. The root of the problem is the second in command, Capt. Carl 'Griff' Griffin. Griff is the best flier in the group but Kirby finds him a poor commander who is not prepared to make the difficult decision that all commanders have to make - to put men in harm's way knowing that they may be killed.

Flying Leathernecks

1951

Twelve O'Clock High poster
7.2

In the early days of daylight bombing raids over Germany, General Frank Savage must take command of a 'hard luck' bomber group. Much of the story deals with his struggle to whip his group into a disciplined fighting unit in spite of heavy losses, and withering attacks by German fighters over their targets.

Twelve O'Clock High

1949

A Foreign Affair poster
7.1

In occupied Berlin, an army captain is torn between an ex-Nazi café singer and the US congresswoman investigating her.

A Foreign Affair

1948

The Red Ball Express poster
6.0

August 1944: proceeding with the invasion of France, Patton's Third Army has advanced so far toward Paris that it cannot be supplied. To keep up the momentum, Allied HQ establishes an elite military truck route.

The Red Ball Express

1952

Lonely are the Brave poster
7.4

A fiercely independent cowboy arranges to have himself locked up in jail in order to then escape with an old friend who has been sentenced to the penitentiary.

Lonely are the Brave

1962

Bunco Squad poster
6.1

Police sergeants Johnson and McManus take on Los Angeles confidence tricksters. Con man Tony Wells, lining up rich widow Jessica Royce as his latest mark, sets up a false paranormal society with other charlatans to convince the credulous Jessica that her late son is speaking to her through their sham seances. When the plan leads to murder, Johnson and McManus must bring the group down before they kill again.

Bunco Squad

1950

The Last Hurrah poster
7.2

In a changing world where television has become the main source of information, Adam Caulfield, a young sports journalist, witnesses how his uncle, Frank Skeffington, a veteran and honest politician, mayor of a New England town, tries to be reelected while bankers and captains of industry conspire in the shadows to place a weak and manageable candidate in the city hall.

The Last Hurrah

1958

I Was a Male War Bride poster
6.9

After marrying an American lieutenant with whom he was assigned to work in post-war Germany, a French captain attempts to find a way to accompany her back to the States under the terms of the War Bride Act.

I Was a Male War Bride

1949

It Came from Beneath the Sea poster
5.7

A giant octopus, whose feeding habits have been affected by radiation from H-Bomb tests, rises from the Mindanao Deep to terrorize the California Coast.

It Came from Beneath the Sea

1955

Rancho Notorious poster
6.5

A man in search of revenge infiltrates a ranch, hidden in an inhospitable region, where its owner, Altar Keane, gives shelter to outlaws fleeing from the law in exchange for a price.

Rancho Notorious

1952

Yukon Gold poster
5.0

In this Yukon adventure, a gold mining community is rocked by a murder. A Mountie investigates and encounters a female gambler. Action ensues, but justice prevails.

Yukon Gold

1952