Jack Kruschen


Actor
Jack Kruschen

About

Birth Place
Winnipeg, Manitoba, CA
Born
March 20, 1922

Biography

Jack Kruschen was a film and television character actor with over 200 screen credits to his name. He developed an early interest in radio theater and drama, and began performing in local radio plays while still in high school. During the '40s he worked on numerous programs commissioned for the Armed Forces Radio Service, and made his film debut in 1949 with a supporting role in the gangs...

Family & Companions

Marjorie Ullman
Wife
Secretary. Married in January 1947; divorced in 1951.
Violet R Mooring
Wife
Married in 1963.

Biography

Jack Kruschen was a film and television character actor with over 200 screen credits to his name. He developed an early interest in radio theater and drama, and began performing in local radio plays while still in high school. During the '40s he worked on numerous programs commissioned for the Armed Forces Radio Service, and made his film debut in 1949 with a supporting role in the gangster film "Red, Hot and Blue." Kruschen worked steadily through the early '50s in such films as "No Way Out" and "Abbott and Costello Go to Mars," and landed supporting roles on numerous TV series, including "Dragnet," "Zorro," and "The Loretta Young Show." He appeared as a soldier cut down by Martians in the 1960 film " The Angry Red Planet," and that same year earned an Oscar nomination for his role as Jack Lemmon's neighbor in the critically acclaimed "The Apartment." Kruschen later portrayed an attorney in the 1962 thriller "Cape Fear" and landed recurring roles on such TV series as "Emergency!" and "Busting Loose." In 1982 he appeared on the sketch comedy show "No Soap, Radio" and was cast in the primetime series "Remington Steele" and "Hill Street Blues." From 1985 to 1989 he appeared as Grandpa Papadapolis on the sitcom "Webster," and later landed roles on "Full House" and "Empty Nest."

Filmography

 

Cast (Feature Film)

'Til There Was You (1997)
Hart to Hart: Home Is Where the Hart Is (1994)
Arthur Miller's American Clock (1993)
Dark Mirror (1984)
Smithson
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1981)
Sunburn (1979)
The Time Machine (1978)
The Incredible Rocky Mountain Race (1977)
Satan's Cheerleaders (1977)
Mountain Man (1976)
Madden Surveyor
The November Plan (1976)
Log of the Black Pearl (1975)
Jocko Roper
Freebie and the Bean (1974)
Deadly Harvest (1972)
Emergency! (1972)
Senator Mike Wolski
The Million Dollar Duck (1971)
Dr. Gottlieb
Caprice (1967)
Matthew Cutter
The Happening (1967)
Inspector
Harlow (1965)
Louis B. Mayer
Dear Brigitte (1965)
Dr. Volker
The Unsinkable Molly Brown (1964)
Christmas Morgan
McLintock! (1963)
Birnbaum
Cape Fear (1962)
Dave Grafton
Follow That Dream (1962)
Carmine
Convicts 4 (1962)
Resko's father
Lover Come Back (1961)
Dr. Linus Tyler
The Ladies' Man (1961)
The Last Voyage (1960)
Chief Engineer Pringle
Studs Lonigan (1960)
Charlie the Greek
The Angry Red Planet (1960)
Chief Warrant Officer Sam Jacobs
Where the Boys Are (1960)
Max
Seven Ways from Sundown (1960)
Beeker
The Gazebo (1960)
Cab driver
The Bellboy (1960)
Jack Emulsion
The Apartment (1960)
Dr. Dreyfuss
The Buccaneer (1959)
Hans
The Jayhawkers! (1959)
Cattleman
Beloved Infidel (1959)
Beach bum
Fräulein (1958)
Corp. Grischa
Cry Terror! (1958)
Charles Pope
The Decks Ran Red (1958)
Alex Cole
Badlands of Montana (1957)
Cavalry Sergeant
Reform School Girl (1957)
Aleck Horvath
Hear Me Good (1957)
Gaffer
The Benny Goodman Story (1956)
Murph Podolsky
Outside the Law (1956)
Phil Schwartz
Julie (1956)
Det. Mace
Dial Red O (1955)
Lloyd Lavalle
The Night Holds Terror (1955)
Detective Pope
Soldier of Fortune (1955)
Austin Stoker
Prince of Players (1955)
Rabble-rouser
Carolina Cannonball (1955)
Hogar
Tennessee Champ (1954)
Andrews
Money from Home (1954)
Short Boy
Untamed Heiress (1954)
Louie
It Should Happen to You (1954)
Joe
The Great Diamond Robbery (1954)
Café owner
The Long, Long Trailer (1954)
Mechanic
Ma and Pa Kettle on Vacation (1953)
Jacques
A Blueprint for Murder (1953)
Hal Cole
Fast Company (1953)
"Doc"
Abbott and Costello Go to Mars (1953)
Harry
The War of the Worlds (1953)
Salvatore
Confidence Girl (1952)
Sgt. Quinn
Just Across the Street (1952)
Character
Tropical Heat Wave (1952)
Stickey Langley
Meet Danny Wilson (1952)
Heckler
Shadow in the Sky (1952)
Intern
The Miracle of Our Lady of Fatima (1952)
Sidonio
Gambling House (1951)
Burly Italian
Comin' Round the Mountain (1951)
Gangster
Cuban Fireball (1951)
Lefty
The People Against O'Hara (1951)
Uniformed detective
The Lemon Drop Kid (1951)
Muscleman
Where Danger Lives (1950)
Casey
Young Man with a Horn (1950)
Cab driver
Women from Headquarters (1950)
Sam Chase
Woman From Headquarters (1950)
Red, Hot and Blue (1949)
Steve

Film Production - Main (Feature Film)

The Big Knife (1955)
Casting Supervisor

Cast (Special)

Nick and Nora (1975)
Sergeant Steinmetz (Guest)

Life Events

1941

Served in the US Army, achieving rank of technical sergeant

1949

First major film role in "Red, Hot and Blue"

1960

Had co-starring role in "The Apartment"; garnered Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination

1962

Broadway debut in the musical "I Can Get It for You Wholesale", featuring Barbra Streisand and Elliot Gould

1969

Co-starred in the London staging of the musical "Promises, Promises", reprising his film role in this show based on "The Apartment"

Videos

Movie Clip

Blueprint For Murder, A (1953) -- (Movie Clip) It All Adds Up Delicate business as Jean Peters, as young stepmother Lynn Cameron, is grilled by police detectives (Jack Kruschen, Barney Phillips and Charles Tannen) who have reluctantly concluded she poisoned her stepdaughter, and her brother-in-law Cam (Joseph Cotten) dares not let on that he agrees, in Andrew L. Stone’s A Blueprint For Murder, 1953.
Last Voyage, The (1960) -- (Movie Clip) Get Me A Crowbar! The first encounter for the captain (George Sanders), whose priority so far has been to preserve calm despite the fire on board, with the Hendersons (Robert Stack, Dorothy Malone and Tammy Marihugh as Jill), then Woody Strode, Jack Kruschen and Richard Norris in the engine room, in independent producer Andrew L. Stone’s The Last Voyage, 1960.
Cape Fear (1962) -- (Movie Clip) Constant Attention Police chief Dutton (Martin Balsam) informs lawyer Bowden (Gregory Peck) that his stalker Cady (Robert Mitchum) has arrived with an attorney (Jack Kruschen), leading to a tense meeting, in J. Lee Thompson's original Cape Fear, 1962.
Decks Ran Red, The -- (Movie Clip) Does It Bother The Captain? Worried first-time captain Rumill (James Mason) gets dominated by cook's wife Mahia (Dorothy Dandridge), while conspiring crewmen Scott (Broderick Crawford) and Leroy (Stuart Whitman) intimidate their stooge Mace (David Cross), in Andrew L. Stone's The Decks Ran Red, 1958.
Freebie And The Bean (1974) -- (Movie Clip) Mr. Inconspicuous More banter between boastful James Caan and counterpunching Alan Arkin (whose character is Mexican-American), San Francisco cops staking out a Detroit hit-man, shooting on Pine Street in Nob Hill, matters almost getting serious, in writer-director Richard Rush’s Freebie And the Bean, 1974.
Apartment, The (1960) -- (Movie Clip) You Should See My Backhand Bud (Jack Lemmon) "serves" dinner for Fran (Shirley MacLaine), rallying after her suicide attempt, but they're interrupted by her brother-in-law Karl (Johnny Seven), in a famous scene from Billy Wilder's The Apartment, 1960.
Unsinkable Molly Brown, The -- (Movie Clip) Belly Up To The Bar Just hired at Christmas Morgan's saloon in Leadville, Molly (Debbie Reynolds), without experience but expected to sing, discovers one of the signature tunes by Meredith Willson, choreography by Peter Gennaro, early in The Unsinkable Molly Brown, 1964.
Silent Partner, The -- (TV Clip) Special Oscar Opening scenes from the George Marshall-directed episode of Screen Director's Playhouse, Joe E. Brown as a famous director attending the Academy Awards, Buster Keaton his former star, ZaSu Pitts a fan in the bar next door, in The Silent Partner, 1955.

Family

Morris Kruschen
Father
Watchmaker.
Sophie Kruschen
Mother

Companions

Marjorie Ullman
Wife
Secretary. Married in January 1947; divorced in 1951.
Violet R Mooring
Wife
Married in 1963.

Bibliography