Jack La Rue

Acting

Biography

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. Later, however, Raft turned down the role of the despicable villain in The Story of Temple Drake, fearing it would damage his screen image, so the part went to La Rue. Sometimes mistaken for Humphrey Bogart, he played thugs and gangsters for the most part. However, director Frank Borzage atypically cast him as a priest in the 1932 version of A Farewell to Arms simply because, according to newspaper columnist Hubbard Keavy, he was "tired of seeing conventional characters". La Rue stated he turned down a role in The Godfather and many parts in the television series The Untouchables because of the way they portrayed Italian-Americans. La Rue died of a heart attack at Saint John's Health Center in Santa Monica, California, at the age of 81. He was buried in Holy Cross Cemetery, Culver City, California.

Filmography Movies

Acting

MOVIE

42nd Street

6.9(0.2K)

A producer puts on what may be his last Broadway show, and at the last moment a chorus girl has to replace the star.

Radio Patrol

10.0(0.0K)

A policeman in need of money is persuaded to take a $1000 bribe to stay away the night a packing house is to be robbed.

American Empire

5.0(0.0K)

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.

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American Empire

Pierre - Beauchard Henchman

MOVIE

A Farewell to Arms

6.2(0.2K)

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.

Fugitive from a Prison Camp

9.0(0.0K)

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.

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Fugitive from a Prison Camp

Red Nelson

MOVIE

Man Against Woman

5.0(0.0K)

Johnny McCloud, a tough police inspector given more to fisticuffs than investigating has the hots for torch-singer Lola Parker, but Miss Parker is much taken with a good-looking crook named George Perry. This does not bother McCloud, as he not only gets his man behind bars but takes the man's woman also.

The Story of Temple Drake

6.5(0.0K)

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.

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The Story of Temple Drake

Trigger

MOVIE

Cornered

6.2(0.0K)

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

Road to Utopia

6.7(0.0K)

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.

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Road to Utopia

LeBec