Roscoe Karns
Photoplayd Industry Rating
Not enough rated films yet to compute a weighted score.
Roles are weighted by involvement: director 1.0, screenwriter 0.7, lead 0.8, supporting 0.4, crew 0.1.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Roscoe Karns (September 7, 1891 – February 6, 1970) was an American actor who appeared in nearly 150 films between 1915 and 1964. He specialized in cynical, wise-cracking (and often tipsy) characters, and his rapid-fire delivery enlivened many comedies and crime thrillers in the 1930s and 1940s. Though he appeared in numerous silent films, such as Wings and Beggars of Life, his career didn't really take off until sound arrived. Arguably his best-known film role was the annoying bus passenger Oscar Shapeley, who tries to pick up Claudette Colbert in the Oscar-winning comedy It Happened One Night (1934), quickly followed by one of his best performances as the boozy press agent Owen O'Malley in Howard Hawks' Twentieth Century. (Six years later, he co-starred as one of the reporters in another Hawks classic, His Girl Friday.) In 1937, Paramount teamed him with Lynne Overman as a pair of laconic private eyes in two B comedy-mysteries, Murder Goes to College and Partners in Crime. From 1950 to 1954, Karns played the title role in the popular DuMont Television Network series Rocky King, Inside Detective. His son, character actor Todd Karns, also appeared in that series. From 1959 to 1962, Karns was cast as Admiral Walter Shafer in seventy-three of the ninety-five episodes of the CBS military sitcom/drama series, Hennesey, starring Jackie Cooper in the title role of a United States Navy physician, and Abby Dalton as nurse Martha Hale. His final film was another Hawks comedy, Man's Favorite Sport?, in 1964. Karns was born in San Bernardino, California, and died in Los Angeles. Description above from the Wikipedia article Roscoe Karns, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia
Known for
Credits
It Happened One Night (1934)
as Oscar Shapeley
His Girl Friday (1940)
as McCue
Wings (1927)
as Lieutenant Cameron
The Jazz Singer (1927)
as Agent (uncredited)
Dollar Down (1925)
as Gene Meadows
Man's Favorite Sport? (1964)
as Major Phipps
Alice in Wonderland (1933)
as Tweedledee
They Drive by Night (1940)
as Irish McGurn
Petticoat Politics (1941)
as Joe Higgins
Object: Alimony (1928)
as Al Bryant
The Ten Commandments (1923)
as The Boy in the Rain (uncredited)
Woman of the Year (1942)
as Phil Whittaker
Dirigible (1931)
as Sock McGuire
Warming Up (1928)
as Hippo
Onionhead (1958)
as 'Windy' Woods
You and Me (1938)
as Cuffy
Stowaway (1932)
as Insp. Redding
Clarence (1937)
as Clarence Smith
Front Page Woman (1935)
as Toots O'Grady
Bluff (1924)
as Jack Hallowell
Stage Door Canteen (1943)
as Roscoe Karns
Woman Trap (1936)
as Mopsy
Yokel Boy (1942)
as Al Devers
Ladies Must Live (1940)
as Pete Larrabee
Footsteps in the Dark (1941)
as Monahan
Twentieth Century (1934)
as Owen O'Malley
Gambling Ship (1933)
as Blooey
If I Had a Million (1932)
as Private O'Brien
Beggars of Life (1928)
as Lame Hoppy
Old Acquaintance (1943)
as Charlie Archer
Dangerous to Know (1938)
as Duncan
Red Hot Tires (1935)
as Bud Keene
One Way Passage (1932)
as S.S. Maloa Bartender (uncredited)
You'd Be Surprised (1926)
as Party Guest (uncredited)
Today We Live (1933)
as McGinnis
Night of Mystery (1937)
as Sergeant Heath
His Butler's Sister (1943)
as Fields
That's My Man (1947)
as Toby Gleeton
The Life of the Party (1920)
as Sam Perkins
The Shopworn Angel (1928)
as Dance Director
The Woman in Red (1935)
as Man in court room (uncredited)
The Gay Vagabond (1941)
as Arthur Dixon / Jerry Dixon
Tip-Off Girls (1938)
as Tom Benson aka Tommy Logan
Dancing Co-Ed (1939)
as Joe Drews
Lawyer Man (1932)
as Merritt - Reporter (uncredited)
My Son, The Hero (1943)
as Big-Time Morgan
Three Married Men (1936)
as Peter Cary
Riding High (1943)
as Shorty
Texas, Brooklyn & Heaven (1948)
as Officer Carmody
The Roadhouse Murder (1932)
as Dale
King of Chinatown (1939)
as Rip Harrigan
Conquering the Woman (1922)
as Shorty Thompson
Shoot the Works (1934)
as Sailor Burke
Something Always Happens (1928)
as George
The Midnight Express (1924)
as Switch Hogan
Grand Slam (1933)
as Contest Radio Announcer
Cain and Mabel (1936)
as Reilly
Her Own Money (1922)
as Jerry Woodward
One Sunday Afternoon (1933)
as Snappy Downer
Scandal Street (1938)
as Austin Brown
Laughing Sinners (1931)
as Fred Geer
You Can't Escape Forever (1942)
as 'Mac' McTurk
Thanks for the Memory (1938)
as George Kent
Come On, Marines! (1934)
as Spud McGurke
Wings in the Dark (1935)
as Nick Williams
The Inside Story (1948)
as Eustace Peabody
Two Against the World (1932)
as Segall, reporter
A Lady's Profession (1933)
as Tony
Elmer and Elsie (1934)
as Rocky Cott
They Call It Sin (1932)
as Brad - Rehearsal Director (uncredited)
The Trouper (1922)
Actor
Night After Night (1932)
as Leo
The Trail of '98 (1928)
as Man on Ship (uncredited)
Murder Goes to College (1937)
as Sim Perkins
On Such a Night (1937)
as Joe Flynn
Border Flight (1936)
as Calico Smith
Vigilantes of Boomtown (1947)
as Bill Delaney
The Flying Fleet (1929)
as Shipwrecked Radio Operator (uncredited)
Four Hours to Kill! (1935)
as Johnson
Saturday's Children (1940)
as Willie Sands
Copy (1929)
as City Editor John Mack
Week-End Marriage (1932)
as Jim Davis
Minstrel Man (1944)
as Lasses White
Beau Sabreur (1928)
as Buddy
The Family Honor (1920)
as Dal Tucker
One Way to Love (1946)
as Hobie Simmons
The Women in His Life (1933)
as Aloysius Lester
Half Shot at Sunrise (1941)
as Henry Warren
The Navy Way (1944)
as Frankie Gimble
Road to Happiness (1941)
as Charley Grady
Two-Fisted (1935)
as Chick Moran
Play Girl (1932)
as Gambler (uncredited)
High Pressure (1932)
as Telephone Salesman (uncredited)
Double Alibi (1940)
as Jeremiah Jenkins
Under-Cover Man (1932)
as Dannie
Ladies of the Big House (1931)
as Frank - Twenty Questions player (uncredited)
Partners in Crime (1937)
as Sim Perkins
That's Right – You're Wrong (1939)
as Mal Stamp
I Sell Anything (1934)
as Monk
The Vanishing Pioneer (1928)
as Ray Hearn
Alibi Ike (1935)
as Carey
Many a Slip (1931)
as Stan Price
Jazz Mad (1928)
as Sol Levy
Troopers Three (1930)
as Bugs
A Tragedy at Midnight (1942)
as Cassidy
The Crooked Circle (1932)
as Harry Carter
Win That Girl (1928)
as Johnny Norton II
Everything's on Ice (1939)
as Felix Miller
Mr. Carlson of Arizona (1915)
Actor
New York Nights (1929)
as Johnny Dolan
Moran of the Marines (1928)
as Swatty
The Costello Case (1930)
as Blair
Hi, Good Lookin'! (1944)
as Archie
Devil's Cargo (1948)
as Lt. Hardy
The Desert Bride (1928)
as Pvt. Terry
Meet the Missus (1940)
as Joe Higgins
Ten Modern Commandments (1927)
as Benny Burnaway
Little Accident (1930)
as Gilbert
The Gorilla (1930)
as Simmons
I Ring Doorbells (1946)
as Stubby
Pleasure (1931)
as Arnie
Poor Relations (1919)
as Henry
Left Over Ladies (1931)
as 'Scoop'
The Foolish Virgin (1924)
as Chuck Brady
Ritzy (1927)
as Smith's Valet
Speed to Spare (1948)
as Kangaroo
This Thing Called Love (1929)
as Harry Bertrand
Avalanche (1946)
as Red Kelly
Three Cheers for Love (1936)
as Doc 'Short Circuit' Wilson
Safety in Numbers (1930)
as Bertram Shapiro
The Man Tamer (1921)
as Bradley P. Caldwell Jr
Other Men's Daughters (1923)
as Hubert
Man Trouble (1930)
as Scott
Black Eyes and Blues (1941)
as Alfred Harmon
The Overland Limited (1925)
as Patrick Henry Madden
A Species of Mexican Man (1915)
Actor
From Champion to Tramp (1915)
as The Girl's Father
A Western Governor's Humanity (1915)
as The Sheriff