Barton MacLane

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Barton MacLane (born December 25, 1902 in Columbia , South Carolina , † January 1, 1969 in Santa Monica , California ) was an American actor .

life and career

The beginnings

MacLane attended Wesleyan University in Connecticut , where he made a name for himself as a football player. These sporting successes brought in 1926 a first film role as a football player in the sports drama The Quarterback . MacLane took a liking to acting, dropped out and attended the American Academy of Dramatic Arts . He then played on various American stages, such as New York's Broadway .

Film and television career

Initially, he only took on minor roles in feature film productions. a. in the Marx Brothers comedy The Cocoanuts . From the mid-1930s he was offered more important roles. In the process, MacLane often played die-hard, irritable characters on both sides of the law - both gangsters and cops. He was cast in supporting roles as a counterpart to numerous top stars of the 1930s and 1940s: As gang boss "Al Kruger" alongside Edward G. Robinson in the thriller Who Owns the City? , also as gang boss "Loder" next to Boris Karloff in the horror film Die Rache des Toten and as an unscrupulous archaeologist next to Johnny Weissmueller in Tarzan and the Amazons and as Capt. Benjamin Black in The Anglerfish of Cartagena . He played two of his most famous roles with Humphrey Bogart and directed by John Huston : In the crime classic Die Spur des Falken (1941) based on the novel by Dashiell Hammett , he was the persistent "Detective Lt. Dundy ”to see; and in Huston's adventure film The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948) he played the contractor McCormick.

His other well-known films include the Fritz Lang Western Raid of the Ogallala , Victor Fleming's Jekyll and Hyde adaptation Doctor and Demon with Spencer Tracy in the title roles, the tragic comedy The Lower Ten Thousand with Bette Davis and Glenn Ford in the leading roles; and Anthony Mann's biopic The Glenn Miller Story with James Stewart in the title role of the famous band leader. In a positive role, he became popular in the 1930s: in the Torchy Blaine film series about a young, incorruptible journalist (played by Glenda Farrell ) played MacLane their Langzeitverlobten, "Lt. Steve McBride ”. In total, MacLane starred in over 150 films during his career; in 30 of them - mostly B-movies - he also played the leading role. He was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his services to the cinema .

In addition, MacLane appeared from the 1950s as a guest star in various television series such as Smoking Colts , The Monkees and Perry Mason . In addition, he played 1960-1962 in the Western series Outlaws the lead role of "Marshall Frank Caine" and belonged from 1965 to 1969 for the main cast of the fantasy series I Dream of Jeannie , in which he as NASA -General "Martin Peterson" the chief supervisor of the Main character Tony Nelson ( Larry Hagman ) embodied.

MacLane also wrote several scripts and plays. In 1932 he was able to sell the first of these pieces with the title Rendezvous to the producer Arthur Hopkins, which paved the way for him to a contract with the Warner Brothers film studios.

Private life

In 1940 he bought a ranch in Madera County , California , where he spent his free time between two film projects with his second wife, fellow actor Charlotte Wynters (1899-1991). From his first marriage he was the father of two children. MacLane was known as an avid card player and even invented a card holder for canasta . On New Year's Day 1969, MacLane died in California from cancer at the age of 66 .

Filmography (selection)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Charlotte Wynters at the Internet Movie Database
  2. ↑ Fansite of "Bewitching Jeannie"
personal data
SURNAME MacLane, Barton
BRIEF DESCRIPTION US-American actor
DATE OF BIRTH December 25, 1902
PLACE OF BIRTH Columbia, South Carolina
DATE OF DEATH 1st January 1969
Place of death Santa Monica , California