Charles McGraw
Charles McGraw
Gravel-voiced, granite-faced stage actor Charles McGraw made his first film The Moon is Down in 1943. At first it seemed as though McGraw would spend his movie career languishing in villainy, but while working at RKO in the late 1940s-early 1950s, the actor developed into an unorthodox but fascinating leading man. His shining hour (actually 72 minutes) was the role of the embittered detective assigned to protect mob witness Marie Windsor in the 1952 noir classic The Narrow Margin. McGraw continued being cast in the raffish-hero mold on television, essaying the lead in the 1954 syndicated series Adventures of Falcon and assuming the Bogartesque role of café owner Rick Blaine in the 1955 weekly TV adaptation of Casablanca (1955) (his last regular TV work was the supporting part of Captain Hughes on the 1971 Henry Fonda starrer The Smith Family). Active until the mid-1970s, Charles McGraw growled and scowled his way through such choice character roles as gladiator trainer Marcellus in Spartacus (1960), Sebastian Sholes in Hitchcock's The Birds (1963), and The Preacher in the cult favorite A Boy and His Dog (1975). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Filmography of Charles McGraw:
- T-Men with Dennis O'Keefe , Alfred Ryder , Wallace Ford , June Lockhart , Reed Hadley , Lyle Latell , Mira McKinney , Cecil Weston , John Newland
- The Busybody with Sid Caesar , Robert Ryan , Anne Baxter , Kay Medford , Jan Murray , Richard Pryor , Ben Blue , Dom DeLuise , Bill Dana , Godfrey Cambridge , George Jessel
- Brute Force with Burt Lancaster , Hume Cronyn , Charles Bickford , Yvonne DeCarlo , Ann Blyth , Howard Duff , Jeff Corey , Jay C. Flippen , John Harmon , John Hoyt , Sam Levene , Ray Teal , Crane Whitley , Herbert Heywood , Al Hill , Kenneth MacDonald , Frank Marlowe , Howard M. Mitchell , Gene Roth , Glenn Strange , Billy Wayne
- It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World with Spencer Tracy , Milton Berle , Sid Caesar , Buddy Hackett , Mickey Rooney , Ethel Merman , Phil Silvers , Dick Shawn , Jimmy Durante , Buster Keaton , Jonathan Winters , Edie Adams , Dorothy Provine , Eddie "Rochester" Anderson , Ben Blue , William Demarest , Peter Falk , Paul Ford , Leo Gorcey , Edward Everett Horton , Don Knotts , Carl Reiner , Andy Devine , Sterling Holloway , Marvin Kaplan , ZaSu Pitts , Madlyn Rhue , Arnold Stang , Jesse White , Lloyd Corrigan , Norman Fell , Jim Backus , Joe E. Brown , Stanley Clements , Howard DaSilva , Larry Fine , Moe Howard , Allen Jenkins , Harry Lauter , Mike Mazurki , Roy Roberts , Terry-Thomas , Doodles Weaver , Jerry Lewis
- Spartacus with Kirk Douglas , Laurence Olivier , Jean Simmons , Charles Laughton , Peter Ustinov , Tony Curtis , John Gavin , Nina Foch , Herbert Lom , John Ireland , Joanna Barnes , Harold J. Stone , Woody Strode , John Hoyt , Ted DeCorsia , Saul Gorss , Charles Frank Horvath , Cliff Lyons , Eddie Parker , Gil Perkins , Chuck Roberson , Dale vanSickel , Anthony Hopkins
- Hang 'em High with Clint Eastwood , Ed Sr. Begley , Pat Hingle , Ben Johnson , Bruce Dern , Bert Freed , Ned Romero , Bob Steele , Alan Jr. Hale , Dennis Hopper , L.Q. Jones
Charles McGraw Trivia
