Acting

Lee Prather

Born — Died

1888-05-05 — 1958-01-03

Place of birth

Madison, Nebraska, USA

Known for

Acting

Credits

41 titles

Known for

This Gun for Hire poster
7.0

Sadistic killer-for-hire Philip Raven becomes enraged when his latest job is paid off in marked bills. Vowing to track down his double-crossing boss, nightclub executive Gates, Raven sits beside Gates' lovely new employee, Ellen, on a train out of town. Although Ellen is engaged to marry the police lieutenant who's hunting down Raven, she decides to try and set the misguided hit man straight as he hides from the cops and plots his revenge.

This Gun for Hire

1942

The Walking Dead poster
6.3

Down-on-his-luck John Ellman is framed for a judge's murder. After he's convicted and sentenced to death, witnesses come forth and prove his innocence. But it was too late for a stay to be granted and Ellman is executed. A doctor uses an experimental procedure to restore him to life, though the full outcome is other than expected.

The Walking Dead

1936

Let Us Live poster
6.8

When a confused eyewitness identifies New York City cabbie Brick Tennant as a killer, he is sentenced to death for a murder that he wasn't involved in. Though no one is willing to listen to the innocent prisoner's pleas for freedom, Brick's faithful fiancée, Mary, knows that her lover is innocent because she was with him when the crime was committed. As the scheduled execution draws ever nearer, Mary begins to investigate the murder herself.

Let Us Live

1939

Road Gang poster
7.0

A crusading young reporter planning a series of articles about a corrupt politician is framed for a crime and sentenced to serve five years at a prison farm.

Road Gang

1936

New York Town poster
8.5

Victor Ballard, a happy-go-lucky albeit impoverished sidewalk photographer, shares a New York City studio apartment with Polish immigrant painter Stefan Janowski. The big city doles out joy and misery indiscriminately: In the apartment below Victor and Steve, Gus Nelson learns that his wife has given birth to quintuplets, while the lonely tenant in the apartment below Gus has given up on life and committed suicide.

New York Town

1941

Island of Doomed Men poster
5.5

An undercover agent wrongly punished for murder is paroled to a remote tropical island with a diamond mine slave labor run by a sadistic foreigner.

Island of Doomed Men

1940

Film credits

1940s · 11 titles

This Gun for Hire poster
7.0

Sadistic killer-for-hire Philip Raven becomes enraged when his latest job is paid off in marked bills. Vowing to track down his double-crossing boss, nightclub executive Gates, Raven sits beside Gates' lovely new employee, Ellen, on a train out of town. Although Ellen is engaged to marry the police lieutenant who's hunting down Raven, she decides to try and set the misguided hit man straight as he hides from the cops and plots his revenge.

This Gun for Hire

1942

New York Town poster
8.5

Victor Ballard, a happy-go-lucky albeit impoverished sidewalk photographer, shares a New York City studio apartment with Polish immigrant painter Stefan Janowski. The big city doles out joy and misery indiscriminately: In the apartment below Victor and Steve, Gus Nelson learns that his wife has given birth to quintuplets, while the lonely tenant in the apartment below Gus has given up on life and committed suicide.

New York Town

1941

Island of Doomed Men poster
5.5

An undercover agent wrongly punished for murder is paroled to a remote tropical island with a diamond mine slave labor run by a sadistic foreigner.

Island of Doomed Men

1940

Dr. Broadway poster
6.0

A New York doctor saves a chorus girl from a window ledge, twice, and rounds up racketeers.

Dr. Broadway

1942

The Man Who Returned to Life poster
7.2

An accused killer is granted a reprieve when his victim returns to town in the flesh after an eight-year absence.

The Man Who Returned to Life

1942

Texas Renegades poster
8.0

Marshal Tim Smith is sent to Rawhide to battle rustlers. When the outlaw gang attempts to kill the new Marshal, they get the wrong man. Tim puts his identification on the dead man and poses as a known outlaw. This gets him into the gang where he is given the job of posing as the new Marshal.

Texas Renegades

1940

Tear Gas Squad poster
5.2

A brash night club singer becomes a cop to impress a woman.

Tear Gas Squad

1940

Down Rio Grande Way poster
10.0

Slightly more elaborate than most Charles Starrett westerns, Down Rio Grande Way is set in the mid-19th century, when the Republic of Texas was poised to join the Union. Starrett plays Texas Ranger Steve Martin, who is dispatched to a "renegade" Texas country that refuses to become part of the good old USA. He discovers that the crux of the problem is a local tax collector who, with the help of a crooked newspaper editor, is systematically robbing the citizens of their hard-earned cash, all the while fomenting anti-American sentiments.

Down Rio Grande Way

1942

Outlaws of the Panhandle poster
7.5

Outlaws of the Pandhandle was the last of Charles Starrett's "formula" westerns for Columbia: hereafter, Starrett would be seen only in the guise of frontier medico Steven Monroe or masked do-gooder The Durango Kid. For the moment, however, the star is cast as Jim Endicott, bound and determined to put an end to the underhanded activities of gin-mill operator Faro Jack Vaughn (Norman Willis). The villain's strategy is to get the local cowpunchers tanked up on rotgut that they'll prove to be easy pickings for a gang of rustlers-and will be unable to complete work on a railroad spur which will bypass the outlaws' hideaway.

Outlaws of the Panhandle

1941

Alias Boston Blackie poster
5.7

It is the Christmas Holidays and reformed thief, Boston Blackie goes to Castle Theater to pick up players who will perform for prisoners that are still in prison. He takes a girl with him who has a brother already in prison. She has visited the prison twice in the month, so is not suppose to visit again. However when the group is completed the girl is included as well as Inspector Farrady. One of the clowns in the show is kidnapped and replaced by a con who wants to get even with two ex-partners. Boston Blackie figures out that a con has replaced one of his clowns but is unable to stop him. Blackie's clothes are stolen and a murder is committed. Of course, the Inspector immediately suspects Blackie of being involved. Now it is Blackie's job to find the killer, exonerate himself and help the girl free her brother.

Alias Boston Blackie

1942

Bullets for Rustlers poster
7.0

Steve Beaumont, an operative for the Cattleman's Protective Association, is assigned the difficult task of breaking up a murderous gang of rustlers led by Ed Brock and Strang. He takes Sheriff Webb, Judge Baxter, and rancher Ann Houston into his confidence, and works his way into the rustler stronghold and confidence by "turning rustler" himself.

Bullets for Rustlers

1940

1930s · 30 titles

The Walking Dead poster
6.3

Down-on-his-luck John Ellman is framed for a judge's murder. After he's convicted and sentenced to death, witnesses come forth and prove his innocence. But it was too late for a stay to be granted and Ellman is executed. A doctor uses an experimental procedure to restore him to life, though the full outcome is other than expected.

The Walking Dead

1936

Let Us Live poster
6.8

When a confused eyewitness identifies New York City cabbie Brick Tennant as a killer, he is sentenced to death for a murder that he wasn't involved in. Though no one is willing to listen to the innocent prisoner's pleas for freedom, Brick's faithful fiancée, Mary, knows that her lover is innocent because she was with him when the crime was committed. As the scheduled execution draws ever nearer, Mary begins to investigate the murder herself.

Let Us Live

1939

Road Gang poster
7.0

A crusading young reporter planning a series of articles about a corrupt politician is framed for a crime and sentenced to serve five years at a prison farm.

Road Gang

1936

Joe and Ethel Turp Call on the President poster
5.0

Joe and Ethel Turp are up in arms when their faithful old mailman is fired. Unable to get satisfaction on a municipal level, Joe and Ethel plead their mailman's case to the President himself.

Joe and Ethel Turp Call on the President

1939

Smashing the Spy Ring poster
6.7

G-Men in Washington break up a powerful spy ring and capture the ringleaders.

Smashing the Spy Ring

1938

Little Big Shot poster
7.3

A con man and his partner inherit a dead gangster's precocious daughter.

Little Big Shot

1935

Diamond Jim poster
6.5

A loose biopic based on the life of Gilded Age tycoon "Diamond" Jim Brady.

Diamond Jim

1935

Nick Carter, Master Detective poster
6.0

Detective Nick Carter is brought in to foil spies at the Radex Airplane Factory, where a new fighter plane is under manufacture.

Nick Carter, Master Detective

1939

The Leavenworth Case poster
7.0

Director Lewis D. Collins' 1936 whodunit is about the investigation into the death of an elderly tycoon, who is murdered shortly after announcing he plans to change his will and give away his fortune.

The Leavenworth Case

1936

The Ship That Died poster
5.9

This MGM An Historical Mystery short traces the final voyage of the Mary Celeste, a ship discovered at sea, in December 1872, devoid - for no discernible reason - of crew, passengers and captain. At "the famed nautical court of Gibraltar", investigators propose three hypotheses.

The Ship That Died

1938

Alibi for Murder poster
6.5

A radio commentator named Perry Travis fancies himself a brilliant amateur detective. The cops wish he’d stick to his microphone and let them do the detecting. This proves impossible when a famed scientist is murdered in Perry’s studio, right in the middle of the interview. All evidence points to Perry, and he sets out to clear his name before the Shadow-like villain roaming the hallways of the radio station gets away with murder.

Alibi for Murder

1936

The Girl on the Front Page poster
7.0

The heiress to a powerful newspaper owner gets a job at the paper under an assumed name and helps break up a blackmail racket.

The Girl on the Front Page

1936

Juvenile Court poster
6.0

Public Defender Gary Franklin, frustrated by being unable to save criminal Dutch Adams from a death sentence by blaming the slums environment as the cause of Dutch's crimes, enlists the aid of Dutch's sister, Marcia Adams, to get the slum dwellers at appeal for public monies to provide recreational places for the slum kids.

Juvenile Court

1938

Homicide Bureau poster
6.7

After being criticized by the Citizens' League for his inability to cope with a crime wave, Police Captain Haines orders his men in the Homicide Bureau to clean up all their cases, but without violating the constitutional rights of any suspect. Detective Jim Logan is ordered to meet the incoming new-head of the Police Department lab and internal affairs, J.G. Bliss, and takes an instant dislike to her over her attitude toward criminal's rights.

Homicide Bureau

1939

Days of Jesse James poster
5.1

Days of Jesse James is a 1939 American film directed by Joseph Kane and starring Roy Rogers. Bank robbery pulled off by the bank officials, not the usual James gang.

Days of Jesse James

1939

The Spanish Cape Mystery poster
5.6

Ellery Queen's vacation is interrupted when murder strikes next door to his oceanside cabin.

The Spanish Cape Mystery

1935

Hot Money poster
10.0

A thief on the run dumps some hot money in Thelma and Patsy's lap.

Hot Money

1935

Behind the Mike poster
8.0

Complications ensue after a radio producer insults a sponsor.

Behind the Mike

1937

Two-Fisted Sheriff poster
3.8

This is a remake of Columbia's 1932 "Cornered" that starred Tim McCoy. Bob Pearson saves the life of his friend, Sheriff Dick Houston, who has captured two stagecoach bandits and is about to be shot from ambush by a third. Bob is found a few days later near the murdered body of cattleman Herrick with a gun in his hand.

Two-Fisted Sheriff

1937

The Game That Kills poster
6.2

Ferguson is a rough-and-tumble hockey player who discovers that his chosen profession is nothing more than a racket, a plaything for game-fixing racketeers. When his brother is killed in a highly suspicious accident, Ferguson and team trainer Holland join forces to bring the killers to justice.

The Game That Kills

1937

Stronger Than Desire poster
5.5

An attorney handling a murder case is unaware his own wife played a crucial role in the killing.

Stronger Than Desire

1939

Missing Witnesses poster
7.0

A detective and his bumbling sidekick join the crackdown on racketeering in '30s New York City.

Missing Witnesses

1937

Lady Luck poster
6.3

New York manicurist Mamie Murphy plans to marry a rich man, so she repeatedly turns down the proposals of honest reporter David Haines. When she is announced the winner of $2,500 and a ticket worth $150,000 for champion horse Lady Luck, if the horse wins an upcoming race, Mamie is pursued by wealthy sportsman Jack Conroy and nightclub owner and racketeer Tony Morelli.

Lady Luck

1936

Just My Luck poster
9.0

Homer Crow, fired from his laboratory job at the Dunn-Wright Rubber Company, is sure that his formula for an indestructible rubber, called Durex, will be a success. Others are also, and Honer endures many obstacles, prat-falls and staged accidents while striving to protect his inventions.

Just My Luck

1935

Women in Prison poster
8.0

The superintendent of a women's prison is pressured to pardon a member of a criminal gang. When she refuses, her daughter is framed on a manslaughter charge and sent to prison.

Women in Prison

1938

Girls Can Play poster
5.2

The Hollywood Post's sports writer, Jimmy Jones (Charles Quigley), yearns to be a crime reporter, and thus looks for foul play on even the most routine assignments. In writing a piece about a girl's softball team, Jimmy discovers that their sponsor, Foy Harris (John Gallaudet), is a notorious racketeer who has supposedly gone straight. Jimmy suspects Foy is still up to no good. He begins hanging around the team to do a bit of snooping, and also to be near the cute new pitcher, Ann Casey (Jacqueline Wells).

Girls Can Play

1937

Two Gun Law poster
10.0

Hero Bob Larson takes on an impressive triumvirate of villains.

Two Gun Law

1937

Texas Stampede poster
7.0

Sheep raisers, resentful of old injuries from the cattlemen, bar the way to water when dry ranges force the cattle ranchers to drive their herds into the lowlands.

Texas Stampede

1939

Shakedown poster
9.0

A struggling young engineer, Bob Sanderson, refuses to marry the very-rich Edith Stuart until he can support her on his own earnings. He goes to work for her father as a messenger in the telegraph business, and, via his engineering skills, discovers a plot to kidnap Edith.

Shakedown

1936

Flying G-Men poster
8.0

Four flying G-Men protect America against enemy spies; one of the four assumes the identity of The Black Falcon, to befuddle the saboteurs even further.

Flying G-Men

1939