Jack La Rue

Acting

Jack La Rue

Born — Died

1902-05-03 — 1984-01-11

Place of birth

New York City, New York, USA

Known for

Acting

Credits

70 titles

Jack La Rue (born Gaspere Biondolillo) was an American stage, screen, and television actor. La Rue went from high school to his first acting job, in Otis Skinner's road company production of Blood and Sand. He performed in Broadway plays from around 1923 to 1931. According to La Rue, while appearing in Mae West's play Diamond Lil, he was spotted by Howard Hawks, who offered him a part in the film Scarface, starring Paul Muni. He moved to Hollywood, where he appeared in numerous films. However, Scarface was not one of them. La Rue stated in a newspaper article that, after four days, Hawks had to replace him with George Raft because La Rue was taller than Muni and had a more powerful voice. L…

Known for

Perry Mason poster
7.7

The cases of master criminal defense attorney Perry Mason and his staff who handled the most difficult of cases in the aid of the innocent.

Perry Mason

1957

Love, American Style poster
6.2

An anthology comedy series featuring a line up of different celebrity guest stars appearing in anywhere from one, two, three, and four short stories or vignettes within an hour about versions of love and romance.

Love, American Style

1969

Lights Out poster
6.0

Lights Out was an extremely popular American old-time radio program, an early example of a network series devoted mostly to horror and the supernatural, predating Suspense and Inner Sanctum. Versions of Lights Out aired on different networks, at various times, from January 1934 to the summer of 1947 and the series eventually made the transition to television. In 1946, NBC Television brought Lights Out to TV in a series of four specials, broadcast live and produced by Fred Coe, who also contributed three of the scripts. NBC asked Cooper to write the script for the premiere, "First Person Singular", which is told entirely from the point of view of an unseen murderer who kills his obnoxious wife and winds up being executed. Variety gave this first episode a rave review ("undoubtedly one of the best dramatic shows yet seen on a television screen"), but Lights Out did not become a regular NBC-TV series until 1949.

Lights Out

1949

The Man from U.N.C.L.E. poster
7.2

Agents Napoleon Solo and Illya Kuryakin work for a secret intelligence service working under the auspices of the U.N. Their immediate superior is Mr. Waverly. Together they operate out of a secret base beneath the streets of New York City, and accesses through several cover business such as Del Floria's Tailor Shop and the Masque Club. This secret intelligence service is called U.N.C.L.E. United Network Command for Law and Enforcement.

The Man from U.N.C.L.E.

1964

The Millionaire poster
5.8

An 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

Tombstone Territory poster
6.9

Tombstone Territory is an American Western series starring Pat Conway and Richard Eastham. The series' first two seasons aired on ABC from 1957 to 1959. The third and final season aired in syndication from 1959 until 1960.

Tombstone Territory

1957

Film credits

1940s · 23 titles

The Sea Hawk poster
7.2

Dashing pirate Geoffrey Thorpe plunders Spanish ships for Queen Elizabeth I and falls in love with Dona Maria, a beautiful Spanish royal he captures.

The Sea Hawk

1940

My Favorite Brunette poster
6.6

Ronnie Jackson is a lowly baby photographer who secretly fantasizes about being a private detective. When a lovely baroness actually mistakes him for one and asks him to help locate her missing husband, Baron Montay, Ronnie finds himself agreeing. Several days later he is on death row whiling away the hours until his execution by recounting to a group of reporters the bizarre tale of how he ended up there.

My Favorite Brunette

1947

Footsteps in the Dark poster
7.0

A high-society gent has a secret life - he writes murder mysteries and hangs out with the police attempting to solve crimes. This causes him no end of problems when his wife wants to know about his little disappearances and exceptionally late nights out.

Footsteps in the Dark

1941

Dakota poster
5.2

In 1871, professional gambler John Devlin elopes with Sandra "Sandy" Poli, daughter of Marko Poli, an immigrant who has risen to railroad tycoon. Sandy, knowing that the railroad is to be extended into Dakota, plans to use their $20,000 nest egg to buy land options to sell to the railroad at a profit. On the stage trip to Ft. Abercrombie, their fellow passengers are Jim Bender and Bigtree Collins, who practically own the town of Fargo and Devlin is aware that they are prepared to protect the little empire... trying to drive out the farmers by burning their property, destroying their wheat, and blaming the devastation on the Indians. Continuing their journey north on the river aboard the "River Bird', Sandy and John meet Captain Bounce, an irascible old seafarer. Two of Bendender's henchmen, Slagin and Carp, board the boat and relieve John of his $20,000 at gunpoint. Captain Bounce, chasing the robber's dinghy..

Dakota

1945

The Spanish Main poster
6.5

Laurent van Horn is the leader of a band of Dutch refugees on a ship seeking freedom in the Carolinas, when the ship is wrecked on the coast of Cartagene, governed by Don Juan Alvardo, a Spanish ruler. Alvarado has Laurent thrown in prison, but the latter escapes, and five-years later is a pirate leader. He poses as the navigator on a ship in which Contessa Francesca, daughter of a Mexican noble, is traveling on her way to marry Alvarado, whom she has never seen. Laurent's pirates capture the ship and Francesca, in order to save another ship, gives her hand-in-marriage to Laurent, who sails her to the pirate hideout. This irks his jealous pirate comrades Anne Bonney and Captain Benjamin Black. They overpower Laurent and send Francesca to Alvarado, and then Mario du Billar, a trusted right-hand man, makes a deal to deliver Laurent to Alvarado.

The Spanish Main

1945

Ringside Maisie poster
5.6

Young undefeated boxer Terry Dolan, who's been lying to his invalid mother about his career, confides to Maisie that he hates and is terrified by boxing and wants out. Not wanting to let down his best friend and manager Skeets Maguire, who has hopes of him becoming the next champion, he is reluctant to bring up the subject with him. Maisie convinces Terry to tell Skeets, whose unexpected reaction induces him to step into the ring again.

Ringside Maisie

1941

Charlie Chan in Panama poster
6.8

Charlie impersonates an employee of the U.S. government to foil an espionage plot which would destroy part of the Panama Canal, trapping a Navy fleet on its way to the Pacific after maneuvers in the Atlantic.

Charlie Chan in Panama

1940

No Orchids for Miss Blandish poster
6.1

A sheltered heiress is abducted on her wedding night by a trio of cheap hoods.

No Orchids for Miss Blandish

1948

Swamp Woman poster
5.0

Famed striptease artist Ann Corio stars as Annabelle, a cabaret dancer who returns to the Florida bayous whence she came.

Swamp Woman

1941

Pardon My Sarong poster
6.5

A pair of bus drivers accidentally steal their own bus. With the company issuing a warrant for their arrest, they tag along with a playboy on a boat trip that finds them on a tropical island, where a jewel thief has sinister plans for them.

Pardon My Sarong

1942

A Scream in the Dark poster
4.1

A detective tries to prove that a woman is killing her spouses with a spiked umbrella.

A Scream in the Dark

1943

American Empire poster
5.0

Richard Dix as Dan Taylor and Preston S. Foster as Paxton Bryce are two longtime friends seeking their fortune in Texas after the war. The two men decide, not without problems, to establish a cattle empire. Paxton becoming too ambitious, distances himself from Dan and Abby, Paxton's wife. It will only be after a personal tragedy that he will come back to his senses.

American Empire

1942

You Can't Beat the Law poster
5.4

A wild playboy is framed by crooks for a robbery he didn't commit and eventually lands in prison. There he becomes pals with the prison's most hardened criminal, who plans a daring escape.

You Can't Beat the Law

1943

Road to Utopia poster
6.8

While on a ship to Skagway, Alaska, Duke and Chester find a map to a secret gold mine, which had been 'stolen' by thugs. In Alaska to recover her father's map, Sal Van Hoyden falls in with Ace Larson, who secretly wants to steal the gold mine for himself. Duke, Chester, the thugs, Ace and his henchman chase each other all over the countryside—for the map.

Road to Utopia

1946

East of the River poster
6.2

Two troublesome boys grow into very different men, one becoming a hoodlum and the other embracing college but both are in-love with the same girl.

East of the River

1940

Cornered poster
6.2

A World War II veteran hunts down the Nazi collaborators who killed his wife.

Cornered

1945

X Marks the Spot poster
4.5

A private detective, soon to enlist in the army, is drawn into one final case when his police officer father is killed in the line of duty. Soon his prime suspect is murdered as well, and he finds himself framed for the crime. As more witnesses get murdered, he finds himself on the run from both the police and former Prohibition violators who seem to have found a new racket.

X Marks the Spot

1942

Highways by Night poster
7.3

A young millionaire (Richard Carlson) joins the real world and meets a maid (Jane Randolph) and mobsters.

Highways by Night

1942

Fugitive from a Prison Camp poster
9.0

Sheriff Holt is determined to prove that prisoners can be rehabilitated and released into society in this prison drama. In charge of a new kind of program, the sheriff places inmates in a clean environment and makes them build a road. Despite the improved conditions, the criminals continue to pull off a few shady shenanigans as an innocent man who is sent there soon discovers.

Fugitive from a Prison Camp

1940

The Payoff poster
5.9

The city's District Attorney is murdered, and a newspaper reporter investigates. He starts finding out that everything wasn't quite as cut and dried as it appeared to be.

The Payoff

1942

Murder in the Music Hall poster
5.3

An orchestra leader turns sleuth to clear his ice-skating girlfriend for murder.

Murder in the Music Hall

1946

The Desert Song poster
6.0

Paul Hudson, leads a group of desert bandits against some Nazis, who want to use them as cheap labor for their railroad.

The Desert Song

1944

Secret Service In Darkest Africa poster
7.0

An American secret agent travels to Africa to infiltrate a Nazi spy ring.

Secret Service In Darkest Africa

1943

1930s · 29 titles

A Farewell to Arms poster
6.1

A tale of the World War I love affair, begun in Italy, between American ambulance driver Lt. Frederic Henry and British nurse Catherine Barkley. Eventually separated by Frederic's transfer, tremendous challenges and difficult decisions face each as the war rages on.

A Farewell to Arms

1932

I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang poster
7.8

A World War I veteran’s dreams of becoming a master architect evaporate in the cold light of economic realities. Things get even worse when he’s falsely convicted of a crime and sent to work on a chain gang.

I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang

1932

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

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

The Daring Young Man poster
10.0

The Daring Young Man is hotshot-reporter Don McLane, played by James Dunn. Always on the prowl for a good story, McLane is persistently outscooped by his rival, sob sister Martha Allen (Mae Clarke). After several reels of double-crossing one another, hero and heroine give in to the inevitable and fall in love. But as Martha waits at the altar in her wedding gown, McLane is off on another crusade, this time getting himself arrested to expose corruption within the prison system.

The Daring Young Man

1935

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

Captains Courageous poster
7.4

Harvey, the arrogant and spoiled son of an indulgent absentee-father, falls overboard from a transatlantic steamship and is rescued by a fishing vessel on the Grand Banks. Harvey fails to persuade them to take him ashore, nor convince the crew of his wealth. The captain offers him a low-paid job, until they return to port, as part of the crew that turns him into a mature, considerate young man.

Captains Courageous

1937

Hollywood on Parade No. B-10 poster
NR

Essentially an advertisement for Murder at the Vanities (1934). Features Chico Marx, W.C. Fields, Duke Ellington and many others.

Hollywood on Parade No. B-10

1934

The Story of Temple Drake poster
6.5

The coquettish granddaughter of a respected small-town judge is stranded at a bootleggers’ hide-out, subjected to an act of nightmarish sexual violence, and plunged into a criminal underworld that threatens to swallow her up completely.

The Story of Temple Drake

1933

The Kennel Murder Case poster
6.1

Philo Vance, accompanied by his prize-losing Scottish terrier, investigates the locked-room murder of a prominent and much-hated collector whose broken Chinese vase provides an important clue.

The Kennel Murder Case

1933

Trapped by G-Men poster
7.0

Granite-jawed Jack Holt performs a dual role in Columbia's Trapped by G-Men.

Trapped by G-Men

1937

Strike Me Pink poster
6.6

Meek Eddie Pink becomes manager of an amusement park beset by mobsters.

Strike Me Pink

1936

Miss Fane's Baby Is Stolen poster
6.0

Miss Madeline Fane is a famous California screen star who has been devoted to her baby son Michael since her husband's death the previous year. One morning she awakens to find Michael has been kidnapped. After a day, she calls in the police, who instantly begin an all-out search.

Miss Fane's Baby Is Stolen

1934

The Girl in 419 poster
4.2

A hospital surgeon (James Dunn) protects a mystery woman (Gloria Stuart) who knows too much about a card-game murder.

The Girl in 419

1933

Good Dame poster
7.0

A chorus girl gets stranded in a small midwestern town. Against her better judgement, she hooks up with a smooth-talking con artist who says he can help her get out of town.

Good Dame

1934

The Bridge of Sighs poster
8.0

Assistant District Attorney Jeffery Powell has just sent an innocent man to prison for the murder of a gambler. Powell is in love with, Marion Courtney, but he's unaware that Marion is the sister of the innocent man he sent to prison. Marion gets herself committed to a women's prison to get proof from inmate, Evelyn 'Duchess' Thane, that her brother is innocent. Powell learns of Marion's plight and believes she's in love with the man he sent to prison.

The Bridge of Sighs

1936

Special Agent poster
6.2

A federal tax agent goes undercover as a reporter and, working with a mobster's pretty bookkeeper, infiltrates a crime ring to catch the racketeer. When she agrees to testify, an informant exposes them and she's kidnapped.

Special Agent

1935

Times Square Lady poster
7.0

A young Iowa woman inherits her late estranged father's New York business, but the dead man's crooked associates think they can outwit the naive heir and seize control.

Times Square Lady

1935

That I May Live poster
7.3

Crooks use a man's safe-cracking skills then involve him in more crime after he spends three years in jail. He falls in love with a waitress and they go to work for a traveling salesman.

That I May Live

1937

Christopher Strong poster
5.9

A romance develops between a happily married middle-aged British politician and an adventurous young aviatrix.

Christopher Strong

1933

His Night Out poster
7.0

When a meek purchasing agent is told by a quack doctor that he only has three months to live, he gets involved with a bank robbery and kidnapped by the gang.

His Night Out

1935

Night World poster
6.8

"Happy" MacDonald and his unfaithful wife own a Prohibition era night club. On this eventful night, he is threatened by bootleggers, and the club's star dancer falls in love with a young socialite who drinks to forget a personal tragedy, among other incidents.

Night World

1932

Little Big Shot poster
7.3

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

Little Big Shot

1935

After the Dance poster
6.5

Though he was protecting her when he accidentally killed a man, Mabel Kane (Thelma Todd) refuses to testify on behalf of her dance partner Jerry Davis (George Murphy), and he's sent to jail. In a riot, a hostile convict (Jack La Rue) forces Jerry to help him escape, so Jerry takes to the streets himself. Nightclub entertainer Anne Taylor (Nancy Carroll) meets him, and convinces her boss Louis (Arthur Hohl) to hire him as her partner.

After the Dance

1935

Under the Big Top poster
6.7

Director Karl Brown's 1938 circus drama stars Marjorie Main as a tough, fur-coat-wearing circus boss who raises her orphaned niece to be a trapeze star.

Under the Big Top

1938

To the Last Man poster
5.9

In Kentucky just after the Civil War, the Hayden-Colby feud leads to Jed Colby being sent to prison for 15 years for murder. The Haydens head for Nevada and when Colby gets out of prison he heads there also seeking revenge. The head of the Hayden family tries to avoid more killing but the inevitable showdown has to occur, complicated by Lynn Hayden and Ellen Colby's plans to marry.

To the Last Man

1933

Valley of the Giants poster
6.7

A lumberman takes on a sleezy corporate giant wanting to move in and do whatever it takes to drive everyone else out of business.

Valley of the Giants

1938

Mind Your Own Business poster
10.0

Nature reporter Orville Shanks retreats to the woods for material for his "Our Wild Friends" column and to volunteer for his favorite cause, the Boy Scouts. When Orville's editor, Crane, orders him to spice up his column, Orville's wife Melba writes a gossip column using animals as metaphors for people. Crane loves Melba's article and gives Orville a raise, and the column becomes a hit.

Mind Your Own Business

1936

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

Series credits

Perry Mason poster
7.7

The cases of master criminal defense attorney Perry Mason and his staff who handled the most difficult of cases in the aid of the innocent.

Perry Mason

1957

Love, American Style poster
6.2

An anthology comedy series featuring a line up of different celebrity guest stars appearing in anywhere from one, two, three, and four short stories or vignettes within an hour about versions of love and romance.

Love, American Style

1969

Lights Out poster
6.0

Lights Out was an extremely popular American old-time radio program, an early example of a network series devoted mostly to horror and the supernatural, predating Suspense and Inner Sanctum. Versions of Lights Out aired on different networks, at various times, from January 1934 to the summer of 1947 and the series eventually made the transition to television. In 1946, NBC Television brought Lights Out to TV in a series of four specials, broadcast live and produced by Fred Coe, who also contributed three of the scripts. NBC asked Cooper to write the script for the premiere, "First Person Singular", which is told entirely from the point of view of an unseen murderer who kills his obnoxious wife and winds up being executed. Variety gave this first episode a rave review ("undoubtedly one of the best dramatic shows yet seen on a television screen"), but Lights Out did not become a regular NBC-TV series until 1949.

Lights Out

1949

The Man from U.N.C.L.E. poster
7.2

Agents Napoleon Solo and Illya Kuryakin work for a secret intelligence service working under the auspices of the U.N. Their immediate superior is Mr. Waverly. Together they operate out of a secret base beneath the streets of New York City, and accesses through several cover business such as Del Floria's Tailor Shop and the Masque Club. This secret intelligence service is called U.N.C.L.E. United Network Command for Law and Enforcement.

The Man from U.N.C.L.E.

1964

The Millionaire poster
5.8

An 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

Tombstone Territory poster
6.9

Tombstone Territory is an American Western series starring Pat Conway and Richard Eastham. The series' first two seasons aired on ABC from 1957 to 1959. The third and final season aired in syndication from 1959 until 1960.

Tombstone Territory

1957

MGM Parade poster
7.5

The original concept of the show was to allow the viewer to see the inner workings of a movie studio and featured interviews with MGM stars and explanations of how movies were made. Later, the format changed to show edited versions of MGM films.

MGM Parade

1955

The Girl from U.N.C.L.E. poster
6.9

The Girl from U.N.C.L.E. is an American spy-fi TV series that aired on NBC for one season from September 16, 1966 to April 11, 1967. The series was a spin-off from The Man from U.N.C.L.E. and used the same theme music composed by Jerry Goldsmith, which was rearranged into a slightly different, harder-edged arrangement by Dave Grusin.

The Girl from U.N.C.L.E.

1966

General Electric Theater poster
6.8

General Electric Theater is an American anthology series hosted by Ronald Reagan that was broadcast on CBS radio and television. The series was sponsored by General Electric's Department of Public Relations.

General Electric Theater

1953

General Electric Theater poster
6.8

General Electric Theater is an American anthology series hosted by Ronald Reagan that was broadcast on CBS radio and television. The series was sponsored by General Electric's Department of Public Relations.

General Electric Theater

1953