Charles Mcgraw

Actor
Charles Mcgraw

About

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Birth Place
New York City, New York, USA
Born
May 10, 1914
Died
July 29, 1980

Biography

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A tough-looking actor with a distinctive voice, Charles McGraw was equally adept as a character actor or leading man. McGraw began his film career in the 1940s, playing mostly small or un-credited roles. He often played hardened characters on either side of the law during the film noir era, most notably as a hired gun in the classic Hemingway adaptation "The Killers " in 1946. He had a s...

Filmography

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Twilight's Last Gleaming (1977)
Perilous Voyage (1976)
The Killer Inside Me (1976)
Howard Hendricks
A Boy and His Dog (1974)
Preacher
Money to Burn (1973)
Neil Davis
The Longest Night (1972)
Father Chase

Photos & Videos

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Armored Car Robbery - Lobby Card
1 Photo
Blood On The Moon -- (Movie Clip) You'll Make Up The Difference
The Narrow Margin - Publicity Still
1 Photo
The Mad Ghoul - Lobby Cards
8 Photos
Armored Car Robbery (1950) -- (Movie Clip) At The Ballpark

Biography

A tough-looking actor with a distinctive voice, Charles McGraw was equally adept as a character actor or leading man. McGraw began his film career in the 1940s, playing mostly small or un-credited roles. He often played hardened characters on either side of the law during the film noir era, most notably as a hired gun in the classic Hemingway adaptation "The Killers " in 1946. He had a starring role in the crime drama "Roadblock," and in "The Narrow Margin," he played a detective in charge of protecting a woman testifying against gangsters. After over a decade of film roles, he was given the starring role in the 1954 secret agent series "The Adventures of Falcon." He also had a memorable role as Marcellus in the 1960 epic "Spartacus" before gradually evolving into a character actor. Later in his career, he often played law enforcement officers in TV dramas such as "Police Story" or "Emergency!," and he landed a small part in Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds." McGraw also appeared in the 1975 sci-fi cult film "A Boy and His Dog," an adaptation of a Harlan Ellison story. He died tragically in 1980 after falling through a glass shower door.

Filmography

 

Cast (Feature Film)

Twilight's Last Gleaming (1977)
Perilous Voyage (1976)
The Killer Inside Me (1976)
Howard Hendricks
A Boy and His Dog (1974)
Preacher
Money to Burn (1973)
Neil Davis
The Longest Night (1972)
Father Chase
The Night Stalker (1972)
Chandler (1971)
Bernie Oakman
Johnny Got His Gun (1971)
Mike Burkeman
O'Hara, United States Treasury: Operation Cobra (1971)
Agent Joe Flagg
The Devil and Miss Sarah (1971)
Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here (1969)
Frank Wilson
Pendulum (1969)
Deputy Chief Hildebrand
Hang 'Em High (1968)
Sheriff Ray Calhoun
In Cold Blood (1967)
Perry's father
The Busy Body (1967)
Fred Harwell
It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963)
Lieutenant
The Birds (1963)
Sebastian Sholes
The Horizontal Lieutenant (1962)
Col. Charles Korotny
Cimarron (1960)
Bob Yountis
Spartacus (1960)
Marcellus
The Wonderful Country (1959)
Doc Stovall
The Man in the Net (1959)
Steve Ritter
The Defiant Ones (1958)
Capt. Frank Gibbons
Saddle the Wind (1958)
Larry Venables
Twilight for the Gods (1958)
Yancey
Joe Dakota (1957)
Cal Moore
Joe Butterfly (1957)
Sergeant Jim McNulty
Slaughter on Tenth Avenue (1957)
Lt. Anthony Vosnick
Away All Boats (1956)
Lieut. Mike O'Bannion
Toward the Unknown (1956)
Col. R. H. "Mickey" McKee
The Cruel Tower (1956)
Harry "Stretch" Clay
The Bridges at Toko-Ri (1955)
Cmdr. Wayne Lee
War Paint (1954)
Sgt. Clarke
Loophole (1954)
Gus Slavin
Thunder Over the Plains (1953)
Ben Westman
The Narrow Margin (1952)
Det. Sgt. Walter Brown
One Minute to Zero (1952)
Sgt. Baker
Roadblock (1951)
Joe Peters
Double Crossbones (1951)
Capt. [Bloodthirsty] Ben Wickett
His Kind of Woman (1951)
Thompson
Side Street (1950)
Stanley Simon
Ma and Pa Kettle Go to Town (1950)
Shotgun Mike Munger [also known as Jones]
Armored Car Robbery (1950)
Lt. Jim Cordell
Once More, My Darling (1949)
Herman Schmelz
The Story of Molly X (1949)
Captain Breen
Border Incident (1949)
Jeff Amboy
The Black Book (1949)
Sergeant
The Threat (1949)
Arnold "Red" Kluger
Hazard (1948)
Chick
Blood on the Moon (1948)
Milo Sweet
T-Men (1948)
Moxie
The Hunted (1948)
Detective
Berlin Express (1948)
Col. Johns
The Farmer's Daughter (1947)
Fisher
The Gangster (1947)
Dugas
The Long Night (1947)
Policeman [Ed Stevens]
The Big Fix (1947)
Armiston
Roses Are Red (1947)
Duke
On the Old Spanish Trail (1947)
Harry Blaisdell
Brute Force (1947)
Andy
The Killers (1946)
Al
The Seventh Cross (1944)
Allbright
The Impostor (1944)
Menessier
The Mad Ghoul (1943)
Garrity
Destroyer (1943)
Assistant. chief engineer
They Came to Blow Up America (1943)
Zellerbach
Corvette K-225 (1943)
E.R.A.
The Moon Is Down (1943)
Ole
Tonight We Raid Calais (1943)
Corporal
Two Tickets to London (1943)
Hendrik
The Undying Monster (1942)
Stredwick

Cast (Special)

Diagnosis: Danger (1963)
Dr Simon Oliver

Life Events

Photo Collections

 
1 Photo
Armored Car Robbery - Lobby Card
Here is a Lobby Card from RKO's Armored Car Robbery (1950). Lobby Cards were 11" x 14" posters that came in sets of 8. As the name implies, they were most often displayed in movie theater lobbies, to advertise current or coming attractions.
1 Photo
The Narrow Margin - Publicity Still
Here is a Publicity Still from The Narrow Margin (1952), starring Charles McGraw and Marie Windsor. Publicity stills were specially-posed photos, usually taken off the set, for purposes of publicity or reference for promotional artwork.
8 Photos
The Mad Ghoul - Lobby Cards
Here are several Lobby Cards from Universal Pictures' The Mad Ghoul (1943). Lobby Cards were 11" x 14" posters that came in sets of 8. As the name implies, they were most often displayed in movie theater lobbies, to advertise current or coming attractions.

Videos

Movie Clip

Blood On The Moon -- (Movie Clip) You'll Make Up The Difference Rilling (Robert Preston) brings pal Jim (Robert Mitchum) to meet crooked partner Pindalest (Frank Faylen), explaining his proposition, in Robert Wise's high-brow Western Blood On The Moon, 1948.
Armored Car Robbery (1950) -- (Movie Clip) At The Ballpark Little noted at the time but much praised in retrospect, director Richard Fleischer opens with cops Cordell and Phillips (Charles McGraw, James Flavin) racing to the old L-A Wrigley Field, where they don't realize crook Purvus (William Talman) is timing them, in Amored Car Robbery, 1951.
His Kind Of Woman (1951) -- (Movie Clip) Where Do Old Gangsters Go To Die? Opening is narrated by Charles McGraw who will soon appear as gang henchman Thompson, introducing Raymond Burr as exiled gangster Ferraro (modeled on Lucky Luciano), who calls Corle (Paul Frees), John Mylong their third party, John Farrow directing, in His Kind Of Woman, starring Robert Mitchum and Jane Russell.
Threat, The (1949) -- (Movie Clip) Open, Kluger's Out Straight to business, no attempt to disguise the locale (L-A) or the state prison (Folsom), but only Robert Shayne as cop Murphy is properly introduced, though the danger (in the person of un-seen Charles McGraw) is made clear, in The Threat, 1949, directed by Felix Feist, with Michael O’Shea and Virginia Grey.
Threat, The (1949) -- (Movie Clip) I Wouldn't Stand There Thugs Nick and Lefty (Anthony Caruso, Frank Richards) making like friendly painters for cops guarding the office of the DA MacDonald (Frank Conroy), who’s been threatened by escaped killer “Red” Kluger (Charles McGraw), who makes his first to-camera appearance here, in the little-known low-rent Noir The Threat, 1949.
Threat, The (1949) -- (Movie Clip) We Need Gas Escaped killer Kluger (Charles McGraw) is inside the truck, with his hostages, on whom he plots revenge, tied up in a sedan, so his man Lefty (Frank Richards) and hijacked trucker Turner (Don McGuire) are the front-men, encountering cop Kenneth Patterson and grease monkey Peter Duchow, in The Threat, 1949.
Threat, The (1949) -- (Movie Clip) She Spill Anything? Vengeful escaped gangster Kluger (Charles McGraw) is laying into his hostages, the D-A (Frank Conroy) and cop Williams (Michael O’Shea), with help from his goons (Anthony Caruso, Frank Richards), when he makes clear what he’s after from also-abducted ex-girlfriend Carol (Virginia Grey), in The Threat, 1949, directed by Felix Feist.
Roadblock (1951) -- (Movie Clip) I Didn't See A Thing The crystalline, clever opening, from the screenplay credited to Steve Fisher and George Bricker from a story by Richard Landau and Daniel Mainwaring, Charles McGraw holds the gun, worrying Peter Brocco, with Louis-Jean Heydt, direction by Harold Daniels, in Roadblock, 1951.
Roadblock (1951) -- (Movie Clip) Does That Make Me Poison? After not-fully meeting in the Cincinnati airport, insurance investigator Joe (Charles McGraw), flying home, deduces that fetching fellow traveler Diane (Joan Dixon) has snagged a half-price fare to L-A by posing as his wife, early in Roadblock, 1951.
Roadblock (1951) -- (Movie Clip) Happiness Doesn't Count On the morning-after being obliged to share a Kansas hotel room because she pretended to be his wife in order to get a cheap seat on a TWA flight to Los Angeles that was grounded by weather, insurance investigator Joe (Charles McGraw) and maybe-grifter Diane (Joan Dixon) get tighter, in Roadblock, 1951.
Roadblock (1951) -- (Movie Clip) So Swell Of You Some weeks after they met by chance and she semi-snubbed him, insurance detective Joe (Charles McGraw), following a series of fur heists, finds Diane (Joan Dixon), who has no visible means of support, on the arm of a notorious crime boss (Lowell Gilmore) at an L-A club, Martha Mears the singer, in Roadblock, 1951.
Armored Car Robbery (1950) -- (Movie Clip) When You Kill A Cop Cops Cordell (Charles McGraw) and Ryan (Don McGuire) are just settling in to watch the stripper and gang moll they plan to interview, when Mapes (Steve Brodie), from the heist gang shows up, bare knuckle interrogation following, in Richard Fleischer's Armored Car Robbery, 1950.

Trailer

One Minute To Zero (1952) -- Original Trailer Noisy and spectacular, if uninformative, theatrical trailer for producer Edmund Grainger’s contemporary Korean War drama, One Minute To Zero, 1952.
Threat, The (1949) -- (Original Trailer) RKO’s relatively compelling, plot-driven trailer for the 1949 Noir programmer The Threat, with Michael O’Shea, Virginia Grey, Charles McGraw and Julie Bishop.

Bibliography

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