Donald Meek

Born: 1878-07-13

Thomas Donald Meek (14 July 1878 – 18 November 1946) was a Scottish-American actor. He first performed publicly at the age of eight and began appearing on Broadway in 1903. Meek is perhaps best known for his roles in the films You Can't Take It with You (1938) and Stagecoach (1939). He posthumously received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1960. Meek was born in Glasgow to Matthew and Annie Meek. In the 1890s, the Meek family emigrated to Canada and then to the United States. By 1900, they were living in Philadelphia where Meek was employed as a dry goods salesman, according to the United States census of that year with Meek later working on stage. After years on the stage, Meek became a film actor, appearing memorably in several movies including The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Little Miss Broadway, and State Fair. Before becoming an actor, he fought in the Spanish–American War in the United States Army and contracted yellow fever which caused him to lose his hair. He was cast as timid, worried characters in many of his films, and is perhaps best known for his roles as Mr. Poppins in Frank Capra's You Can't Take It With You and as whiskey salesman Samuel Peacock in John Ford's Stagecoach. From 1931 through 1932, Meek was featured as criminologist Dr. Crabtree in a series of 12 Warner Brothers two-reel short subjects written by S.S. Van Dine. Meek and Isabella "Belle" Walken married in Boston in a Methodist church on January 3, 1909. By this marriage, the American-born Belle Meek lost her United States citizenship by taking her husband's British nationality. Donald Meek died of leukaemia on 18 November 1946 in Los Angeles, while filming the role of Mr. Twiddle in Magic Town. A prolific film actor in over 100 Hollywood movies during its Golden Age, he received a posthumous star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. He was entombed in the Fairmount Mausoleum at Fairmount Cemetery in Denver, Colorado.


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You Can't Take It with You

as Mr. Poppins
Released: 1938-09-01

Alice, the only relatively normal member of the eccentric Sycamore family, falls in love with...

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Stagecoach

as Samuel Peacock
Released: 1939-03-03

A group of people traveling on a stagecoach find their journey complicated by the threat of...

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Captain Blood

as Dr. Whacker
Released: 1935-12-26

Dr. Peter Blood, unjustly convicted of treason and exiled from England, becomes a notorious pirate.

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The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

as Sunday School Superintendent
Released: 1938-02-11

Tom Sawyer and his pal Huckleberry Finn have great adventures on the Mississippi River,...

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The Informer

as Peter Mulligan
Released: 1935-05-09

Gypo Nolan is a former Irish Republican Army man who drowns his sorrows in the bottle. He's...

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Mark of the Vampire

as Dr. Doskil
Released: 1935-04-26

Sir Borotyn, a prominent Prague resident, is discovered murdered in his home, with all...

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The Merry Widow

as Valet
Released: 1934-11-02

A prince from a small kingdom courts a wealthy widow to keep her money in the country.

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The Toast of New York

as Daniel Drew
Released: 1937-07-22

After the American Civil War, Jim Fisk, a former peddler and cotton smuggler, arrives in New...

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A Woman's Face

as Herman Rundvik
Released: 1941-05-09

A female blackmailer with a disfiguring facial scar meets a plastic surgeon who offers her the...

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The Return of Frank James

as McCoy
Released: 1940-08-10

Farmer Frank and his ward hunt brother Jesse's killers, the back-shooting Fords.

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State Fair

as Hippenstahl
Released: 1945-08-29

During their annual visit to the Iowa State Fair, the Frake family enjoy many adventures. Proud...

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Jesse James

as McCoy
Released: 1939-01-14

After railroad agents forcibly evict the James family from their family farm, Jesse and Frank...

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The Thin Man Goes Home

as Willie Crump
Released: 1944-12-24

On a trip to visit his parents, detective Nick Charles gets mixed up in a murder investigation.

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Du Barry was a Lady

as Mr. Jones / Duc de Choiseul
Released: 1943-08-13

Hat check man Louis Blore is in love with nightclub star May Daly. May, however, is in love with...

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Barbary Coast

as Sawbuck McTavish
Released: 1935-10-13

Mary Rutledge arrives from the east, finds her fiancé dead, and goes to work at the roulette...

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Peter Ibbetson

as Mr. Slade
Released: 1935-11-07

When his mother dies, young Peter Ibbetson leaves Paris and his best friend, Mary, behind to...

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Double Wedding

as Judge Blynn (uncredited)
Released: 1937-10-15

A bohemian free spirit helps meek Waldo win back his fiancée and falls in love with her...

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Barnacle Bill

as "Pop" Cavendish
Released: 1941-04-07

A fishing boat captain searches for romance in hopes of improving his financial picture.

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Come Live with Me

as Joe Darsie
Released: 1941-01-31

Seeking US citizenship, a Viennese refugee arranges a marriage of convenience with a struggling...

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The Defense Rests

as Fogg
Released: 1934-07-15

A sleazy lawyer's female assistant sets out to end his cheating ways.

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Hollywood Cavalcade

as Lyle P. Stout
Released: 1939-10-13

Starting in 1913 movie director Connors discovers singer Molly Adair. As she becomes a star she...

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Romance in Manhattan

as Minister
Released: 1935-01-11

Karel Novak is an incredibly naive Czech immigrant who is taken under the wing of streetwise New...

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Kind Lady

as Mr. Foster
Released: 1935-12-06

Mary, a woman with good intentions, takes pity on Henry, an artist with no home. What begins as...

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Magic Town

as Mr. Twiddle
Released: 1947-10-07

Rip Smith's opinion-poll business is a failure...until he discovers that the small town of...

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Bathing Beauty

as Chester Klazenfrantz
Released: 1944-06-27

After breaking up with her fiancé, a gym teacher returns to work at a women's college, but a...

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The Whole Town's Talking

as Hoyt
Released: 1935-02-22

Ordinary man-in-the-street Arthur Ferguson Jones leads a very straightforward life. He's never...

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Keeper of the Flame

as Mr Arbuthnot
Released: 1943-04-01

Famed reporter Stephen O'Malley travels to a small town to investigate the death of a national hero.

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Babes on Broadway

as Mr. Stone
Released: 1941-12-31

Penny Morris and Tommy Williams are both starstruck young teens but nobody seems to give them...

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Young Mr. Lincoln

as Prosecutor John Felder
Released: 1939-06-09

In this dramatized account of his early law career in Illinois, Abraham Lincoln is born into a...

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Murder at the Vanities

as Dr. Saunders
Released: 1934-05-18

Shortly before the curtain goes up the first time at the latest performance of Earl Carroll's...

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Three Married Men

as Mr. Frisbee
Released: 1936-09-24

Jennie Mullins and her fiancé Peter Cary are happily in love but their families are miserable...

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Turnabout

as Henry - the Valet
Released: 1940-05-17

Bickering husband and wife Tim and Sally Willows mutter a few angry words to a statue of Buddha...

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The Feminine Touch

as Captain Makepeace Liveright
Released: 1941-10-01

A college professor who believes there's no place for jealousy in modern marriage, John Hathaway...

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Maisie Goes to Reno

as Parsons
Released: 1944-08-15

A Brooklyn showgirl gets mixed up in a divorce between a soldier and his wife.

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Phantom Raiders

as Bartholomew
Released: 1940-06-07

In this second Carter mystery, a mysterious rash of cargo ships sinking in Panama leads insurers...

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China Seas

as Chess Player (uncredited)
Released: 1935-08-09

Captain Alan Gaskell sails the perilous waters between Hong Kong and Singapore with a secret...

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Third Finger, Left Hand

as Mr. Flandrin
Released: 1940-10-11

Magazine editor Margot Merrick pretends to be married in order to avoid advances from male...

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Dr. Ehrlich's Magic Bullet

as Mittelmeyer
Released: 1940-02-23

True story of the doctor who considered it was not immoral to search for a drug that would cure...

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Hi, Nellie!

as Durkin
Released: 1934-01-20

Managing Editor Brad Bradshaw refuses to run a story linking the disappearance of Frank Canfield...

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Pennies from Heaven

as Gramp Smith
Released: 1936-11-25

Larry Poole, in prison on a false charge, promises an inmate that when he gets out he will look...

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Air Raid Wardens

as Eustace Middling
Released: 1943-04-04

Two bumblers, failures as businessmen and air raid wardens, stumble across a nest of Nazi...

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College Coach

as Spencer Trask
Released: 1933-11-04

Ruthless Coach Gore creates turmoil at a college by hiring players and alienating students....

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Lost Angel

as Professor Catty
Released: 1943-12-23

Alpha's been raised along scientific principles, and will make Mike Regan a great human interest...

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The Man from Dakota

as Mr. Vestry
Released: 1940-02-16

A frontier scout, a Boston officer and a Russian girl escape with a map past Confederates.

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Love on the Run

as Caretaker
Released: 1936-11-20

A runaway bride and an undercover reporter get caught up in political intrigue as they lead a...

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Sky Murder

as Bartholomew
Released: 1940-09-27

This final Carter film is a lot of fun, with Nick (unwillingly, at first) taking on a ring of...

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Tortilla Flat

as Paul D. Cummings
Released: 1942-05-21

Danny, a poor northern Californian Mexican-American, inherits two houses from his grandfather...

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Artists & Models

as Dr. Zimmer
Released: 1937-08-04

An ad man gets his model girlfriend to pose as a debutante for a new campaign.

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The Captain Hates the Sea

as Josephus Bushmills
Released: 1934-11-02

Alcoholic newspaperman Steve Bramley boards the San Capador for a restful cruise, hoping to quit...

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The Gilded Lily

as Hankerson
Released: 1935-01-25

Secretary Marilyn David falls in love with British aristocrat Charles Gray, to the dismay of her...

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My Little Chickadee

as Amos Budge
Released: 1940-02-09

While on her way by stagecoach to visit relatives out west, Flower Belle Lee is held up by a...

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Goodbye Broadway

as Iradius P. Oglethorpe
Released: 1938-04-01

Pat and Molly Malloy, once famed vaudeville and Broadway performers, arrive to play the small...

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Parnell

as Nicholas Daniel Murphy
Released: 1937-06-04

Irish politician Charles Stewart Parnell struggles to free his country from English rule, but...

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Two in a Crowd

as Bennett
Released: 1936-10-03

When two halves of a thousand-dollar bill are discovered in the snow, the penniless pair that...

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And So They Were Married

as Hotel Manager
Released: 1936-05-10

A bitter widow and a grumpy widower find themselves stuck in a hotel that is cut off from the...

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Maid of Salem

as Ezra Cheeves
Released: 1937-02-12

When a young woman named Barbara Clarke has an affair with adventurer Roger Coverman, it causes...

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Double Danger

as Gordon Ainsley, aka Henry Robinson
Released: 1938-01-28

A crime novelist devises a scheme to catch the thief who has stolen the valuable "Konjer...

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What Every Woman Knows

as Snibby the Jeweler (uncredited)
Released: 1934-10-18

Aspiring young Scottish politician John Shand enters into an unusual agreement with the wealthy...

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The Hole in the Wall

as Goofy
Released: 1929-04-27

Mrs. Ramsey sent Jean Oliver to prison on a false charge. To get even, Jean (disguised as Madame...

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Society Doctor

as Moxley
Released: 1935-01-25

Two surgeons (Chester Morris, Robert Taylor) in love with a nurse (Virginia Bruce) end their...

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The Symphony Murder Mystery

as Dr. Crabtree
Released: 1932-01-13

A cellist is murdered during a symphony concert. Shortly afterwards, the manager of the hall is...

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One Rainy Afternoon

as Judge
Released: 1936-05-13

Suave French actor Philippe Martin provokes a scandal when, in a darkened theater, he mistakes...

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Barbary Coast Gent

as Bradford Bellamy I
Released: 1944-09-01

Honest Plush Brannon is a con-man thrown out of the Barbary Coast in San Francisco in the 1880s...

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She Couldn't Take It

as Uncle Wyndersham
Released: 1935-10-08

The wealthy Van Dyke family are constantly in the media for outrageous behavior, much to the...

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Village Tale

as Charlie
Released: 1935-06-15

The insidious typical talk of a small town makes a young man and the married woman he is in love...

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The Wild Man of Borneo

as Professor Charles W. Birdo
Released: 1941-01-24

A medicine show man tries to con people into believing he's a legitimate stage actor.

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The Ghost Comes Home

as Mortimer Hopkins, Sr.
Released: 1940-03-08

Comic mayhem results when a small town pet store owner, mistakenly believed killed during a sea...

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Star Dust

as Sam Wellman
Released: 1940-04-06

When Hollywood film studios reject her because she's too young, an Arkansas woman sets out to...

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Seven Sweethearts

as Reverend Howgan, the Minister
Released: 1942-11-13

Little Delft, Michigan follows the customs of old-world Holland and is known for its Tulip...

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Nick Carter, Master Detective

as Bartholomew, the bee man
Released: 1939-12-13

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

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Old Man Rhythm

as Paul Parker
Released: 1935-08-02

Romantic rivalries between father and son enrolled at the same college.

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They Got Me Covered

as Little Old Man
Released: 1943-03-04

Bumbling reporter Robert Kittredge has been fired after bungling his latest assignment. His...

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Blondie Takes a Vacation

as Jonathan N. Gillis
Released: 1939-07-20

Blondie and Dagwood are in charge of operations at a mountain motel. The elderly owners of the...

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Hold That Co-ed

as Dean Thatcher
Released: 1938-09-16

An egotistical politician believes he can win votes by turning a small college's hapless...

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The Fabulous Joe

as Henry Cadwallader, Lawyer
Released: 1947-08-28

Milo Terkel's life is never the same after he is willed a dog named Joe. Milo buys his wife a...

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You're a Sweetheart

as Conway Jeeters
Released: 1937-12-26

A Broadway producer is in a quandary when he discovers that the opening of his newest big...

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Little Miss Broadway

as Willoughby Wendling
Released: 1938-07-29

An orphan is provisionally adopted by the manager of a hotel populated by show business people....

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Biography of a Bachelor Girl

as Mr. Irish, Moose Village General Store
Released: 1935-01-04

Everyweek Newsmagazine editor Richard Kurt pursues famous free-spirited portrait artist Marion...

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The Return Of Peter Grimm

as Mayor Everett Bartholomew
Released: 1935-09-13

The ghost of a recently deceased family patriarch tries to help his surviving relatives, in part...

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Breakfast for Two

as Justice of the Peace
Released: 1937-10-22

After a night on the town, Jonathan Blair wakes to find that Texan Valentine Ransome has...

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Baby Face Harrington

as Seriah Skinner
Released: 1935-04-12

Thanks to a series of comic mishaps, a timid, small-town office clerk finds himself wanted by...

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Colonel Effingham's Raid

as Doc Buden
Released: 1946-01-24

The story takes place in 1940. On the eve of America's entry in World War II, a colonel retired...

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Behind The Headlines

as Potter
Released: 1937-05-14

A radio reporter sets out to rescue his ex-girlfriend when she is kidnapped by gangsters.

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Make a Wish

as Joseph
Released: 1937-09-01

While vacationing at a boys' camp, the rambunctious Chip Winters befriends a famed composer...

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Maisie Gets Her Man

as Mr. Stickwell
Released: 1942-06-01

Struggling performers, Sothern and Skelton's lives are thrown off gear when they are caught with...

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Having Wonderful Time

as P.U. Rogers
Released: 1938-07-01

Teddy Shaw, a bored New York office girl, goes to a camp in the Catskill Mountains for rest and...

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Janie Gets Married

as Harley P. Stowers
Released: 1946-06-22

Newlywed Janie's (Joan Leslie) World War II-veteran husband (Robert Hutton) goes to work at her...

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The Wall Street Mystery

as Doctor Crabtree
Released: 1931-11-04

When the apparent murder of two stockbrokers are discovered in their Wall Street office. Police...

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Two Girls and a Sailor

as Mr. Nizby
Released: 1944-06-14

A sailor helps two sisters start up a service canteen. The sailor soon becomes taken with...

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The Last Gentleman

as Judd Barr, Cabot's son
Released: 1934-04-27

In New England circa 1933, a niece is reported missing and presumed dead and Cabot Barr (George...

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The Omaha Trail

as Engineer Jonah McCleod
Released: 1942-09-01

The coming of the railroad to the West triggers an Indian war.

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Wayward

as Hotel Clerk (uncredited)
Released: 1932-02-19

Story of a mother's antagonism to her son's wife. Based on the novel "Wild Beauty" by Mateel...

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Rise and Shine

as Professor Philip Murray
Released: 1941-11-21

The college president, the head cheerleader and a gambling gangster try to keep a flunking...

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The Bride Comes Home

as The Judge
Released: 1935-12-25

A penniless socialite is hired by two young men as a front in their plan to start a magazine....

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Blonde Inspiration

as 'Dusty' King
Released: 1941-02-07

A writer of pulp Westerns cranks out more words than his editor and publisher want to pay for.

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Personal Maid

as Pa Ryan
Released: 1931-09-12

Nora Ryan, a poor Irish girl, living in New York decides to change her life by working as a...

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The Studio Murder Mystery

as Dr. Crabtree
Released: 1932-02-17

When the leading lady of a motion picture is murdered in the middle of a scene, Inspector Carr...

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Happiness C.O.D.

as Thomas Sherridan
Released: 1935-10-14

A young man, hard-pressed to pay off his mortgage and support his family, decides that he'll get...

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Bedside

as Dr. George Wiley
Released: 1934-01-27

Bob Brown uses his bedside manner to charm his patients while his partner makes the actual...

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Going Hollywood: The '30s

as (archive footage)
Released: 1984-01-01

Robert Preston hosts this documentary that shows what people of the 1930s were watching as they...

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Six Cylinder Love

as Richard Burton
Released: 1923-11-04

After buying a car, Richard Burton finds that his wife and daughter have become unreasonably...

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Rationing

as Wilfred Ball
Released: 1944-03-24

A small-town butcher has problems coping with meat rationing.

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Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch

as Mr. Wiggs
Released: 1934-10-28

The Wiggs family plan to celebrate Thanksgiving in their rundown shack with leftover stew,...

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Hullabaloo

as Mr. Clyde Perkins
Released: 1940-10-25

A radio actor faces trouble when a science-fiction story causes the audience to panic.

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The Skull Murder Mystery

as Dr. Crabtree
Released: 1932-03-01

When a skeleton is dug up in an alley, a mysterious Chinese merchant and his eccentric upstairs...

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Affairs of Geraldine

as Casper Millhouse
Released: 1946-11-18

When the wealthy Mrs. Cooper passes away, she divides her estate between her sons, Henry and...

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Old Hutch

as Mr. Gunnison
Released: 1936-09-25

Life changes in surprising ways when a lazy, unemployed husband and father finds a box...

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Because of Him

as Martin
Released: 1946-01-18

A young woman who wants to break into the theater schemes to become the protege of a famous...

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The Girl Habit

as Jonesy
Released: 1931-06-27

A Lothario tries to get arrested as protection from the gangster husband who has threatened him.

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The Housekeeper's Daughter

as Editor Wilson
Released: 1939-10-26

A mobster's moll leads a newsman, cub reporter and photographer to a scoop.

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The Week End Mystery

as Dr. Amos Crabtree
Released: 1931-12-01

During a rainstorm at a remote manor house, Richard Crayell plays host to several guests. At...

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