PROFILPELAJAR.COM

Otto Kruger
Otto Kruger
	Kruger in 1955
Born	September 6, 1885; Toledo, Ohio, U.S.
Died	September 6, 1974 (aged 89); Woodland Hills, California, U.S.
Resting place	Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Hollywood Hills, California
Years active	1915–1964
Spouse	Sue Kruger (née Susan MacManamy) (m. 1920)
Children	1

Otto Kruger (September 6, 1885 – September 6, 1974)^[1] was an American actor, originally a Broadway matinee idol, who established a niche as a charming villain in films, such as Hitchcock's Saboteur. He also appeared in CBS's Perry Mason and other TV series. He was the grandnephew of South African president Paul Kruger.

Early life and education

Born in Toledo, Ohio,^[2] Kruger was of German descent. He was the son of Bernard Alben Kruger and Elizabeth Winers Kruger,^[3] and the grandnephew of South African pioneer and president Paul Kruger.^[4]

Otto was musically trained, but switched careers and became an actor after studying engineering at the University of Michigan.^[3]

Career

Making his Broadway debut in 1915,^[5]^[6] Kruger quickly became a matinee idol.^[4] Though he started to get noticed in the early 1920s, it was the 1930s when his career was at its height. His sound film debut came in Turn Back the Clock (1933)^[3] and he made an appearance in the film Chained (1934).^[7]

Though he played the hero on occasion, for most of his career, he played the main villain or a charming or corrupt businessman.^[8] One of his best known roles was in the Douglas Sirk film Magnificent Obsession (1954).^[9] Kruger played the supporting role of Judge Percy Mettrick, who unsuccessfully urges Will Kane to leave town in High Noon (1952).^[10] Kruger is also remembered for playing the villain Tobin in Alfred Hitchcock's spy film Saboteur (1942) and mob boss Stevens in the film noir 711 Ocean Drive (1950).^[7]

His television roles included those of Dr. Mumford in the 1959 episode "Experiments in Terror" of the NBC science fiction/adventure series The Man and the Challenge,^{[citation needed]} as Ben Tully in "Gun City" of the ABC western series, The Rebel,^[11] as Franklyn Malleson Ghentin in the 1961 episode "A Fool for a Client" of James Whitmore ABC's legal drama, The Law and Mr. Jones,^[12] and as Karl in the episode "Quite a Woman" of the short-lived 1961 CBS series The Investigators starring James Franciscus.^{[citation needed]}

Kruger made four guest appearances on CBS's Perry Mason.^[13] In his first two appearances, "The Case of the Grumbling Grandfather" (1961) and "The Case of the Counterfeit Crank" (1962), he was cast as Mason's client, and in both episodes was the title character.^[14]^[15] In his final appearance, he played Judge Norris in "The Case of the Missing Button" (1964).^[16]

In 1955, he appeared in the live telecast of The Desert Song as General Birabeau. ^{[citation needed]}

Personal life, later years and honors

On March 20, 1920, Kruger married Broadway actress^[17]^[18]^[19] Susan "Sue" MacManamy. Their daughter, Ottilie Kruger (1926–2005),^[20] was also an actress and was the first wife of pioneering cinematographer Gayne Rescher.^[21]

Kruger supported Thomas Dewey in the 1944 United States presidential election.^[22]

Kruger died at the Motion Picture and Television Country House^[23] in Woodland Hills, California, on his 89th birthday.

Kruger was honored with two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame; one for TV and one for film.^[23]

Partial list of appearances on radio

Kruger appeared as Mr. Hardecker in "After Dinner Story" (airdate October 26, 1943; story by Cornell Woolrich) from the Suspense radio program series.^{[citation needed]}

Filmography

Year	Film	Role	Director	Notes
1915	A Mother's Confession	Harold Patterson	Ivan Abramson
1923	Under the Red Robe	Henri de Cocheforet	Alan Crosland
1933	Turn Back the Clock	Ted Wright	Edgar Selwyn
	Beauty for Sale	Mr. Sherwood	Richard Boleslawski
	Ever in My Heart	Hugo Wilbrandt	Archie Mayo
	The Prizefighter and the Lady	Willie Ryan	Howard_Hawks (uncredited)
	Gallant Lady	Phillip Lawrence	Gregory La Cava
	The Women in His Life	Kent 'Barry' Barringer	George B. Seitz
1934	The Crime Doctor	Dan Gifford	Charles Kerr
	Men in White	Dr. Levine	Ryszard Bolesławski
	Paris Interlude	Sam	Edwin L. Marin
	Treasure Island	Dr. Livesey	Victor Fleming
	Springtime for Henry	Henry Dewlip	Frank Tuttle
	Chained	Richard I. Field	Clarence Brown
1935	Vanessa: Her Love Story	Ellis Herries	William K. Howard
1935	Two Sinners	Henry Vane	Arthur Lubin
1936	Living Dangerously	Dr. Stanley Norton	Herbert Brenon
1936	Dracula's Daughter	Jeffrey Garth	Lambert Hillyer
1937	The Barrier	Stark	Lesley Selander
	Glamorous Night	King Stefan	Brian Desmond Hurst
	They Won't Forget	Gleason	Mervyn_LeRoy
	Counsel for Crime	William Mellon	John Brahm
1938	Housemaster	Charles Donkin	Herbert Brenon
	Star of the Circus	Garvin	Albert de Courville
	I Am the Law	Eugene Ferguson	Alexander Hall
	Exposed	William Reardon	Harold D. Schuster
	Thanks for the Memory	Gil Morrell	George Archainbaud
1939	Disbarred	Tyler Craden	Robert Florey
	The Gang's All Here	Mike Chadwick	Thornton Freeland
	Black Eyes	Ivan Ivanovich Petroff	Herbert Brenon
	The Zero Hour	Julian Forbes	Sidney Salkow
	Scandal Sheet	Jim Stevenson	Nick Grinde
	A Woman Is the Judge	Steven Graham	Nick Grinde
	Another Thin Man	Van Slack	W. S. Van Dyke
1940	Dr. Ehrlich's Magic Bullet	Dr. Emil von Behring	William Dieterle
	Seventeen	Sylvanus Baxter	Louis King
	The Man I Married	Heinrich Hoffman	Irving Pichel
	A Dispatch from Reuter's	Dr. Magnus	William Dieterle
1941	Mercy Island	Dr. Sanderson	William Morgan
1941	The Men in Her Life	Victor	Gregory Ratoff
1942	Saboteur	Charles Tobin	Alfred Hitchcock
1942	Friendly Enemies	Anton Miller	Allan Dwan
1943	Hitler's Children	Albert Pasavy	Edward Dmytryk
	Power of the Press	Howard Rankin	Lew Landers
	Corregidor	Dr. Jan Stockman	William Nigh
	Night Plane from Chungking	Colonel Henkel	Ralph Murphy
	Stage Door Canteen	Himself	Frank Borzage
	Tarzan's Desert Mystery	Paul Hendrix	Wilhelm Thiele
1944	Knickerbocker Holiday	Roosevelt	Harry Joe Brown
	Cover Girl	John Coudair	Charles Vidor
	Storm Over Lisbon	Alexis Vanderlyn	George Sherman
	They Live in Fear	Matthew Van Camp	Josef Berne
	Murder, My Sweet	Jules Amthor	Edward Dmytryk
1945	Escape in the Fog	Paul Devon	Budd Boetticher (as Oscar Boetticher Jr.)
	The Great John L.	Richard Martin	Frank Tuttle
	Wonder Man	District Attorney	H. Bruce Humberstone
	The Chicago Kid	John Mitchell	Frank McDonald
	Jungle Captive	Mr. Stendahl	Harold Young
	On Stage Everybody	James Carlton	Jean Yarbrough
	Allotment Wives	Whitey Colton	William Nigh
	The Woman Who Came Back	Rev. Jim Stevens	Walter Colmes
1946	The Fabulous Suzanne	Hendrick Courtney Sr.	Steve Sekely
1946	Duel in the Sun	Mr. Langford	King Vidor
1947	Love and Learn	Andrew Wyngate	Frederick de Cordova
1948	Smart Woman	D.A. Bradley Wayne	Edward A. Blatt
	Lulu Belle	Harry Randolph	Leslie Fenton
	Romance on the High Seas	Wedding Guest	Michael Curtiz	uncredited
1950	711 Ocean Drive	Carl Stephans	Joseph M. Newman
1951	Payment on Demand	Ted Prescott	Curtis Bernhardt
1951	Valentino	Mark Towers	Lewis Allen
1952	High Noon	Judge Percy Mettrick	Fred Zinnemann
1953	Schlagerparade	Remer	Erik Ode
1954	Magnificent Obsession	Edward Randolph	Douglas Sirk
1954	Black Widow	Gordon Ling	Nunnally Johnson
1955	The Last Command	Stephen F. Austin	Frank Lloyd
1958	The Colossus of New York	Dr. William Spensser	Eugène Lourié
1959	The Young Philadelphians	John Marshall Wharton	Vincent Sherman
1960	Cash McCall	Will Atherson	Joseph Pevney
1962	The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm	The King	George Pal (fairy tale sequences)
1964	Sex and the Single Girl	Dr. Anderson	Richard Quine
1964	Della	Walter Garrick	Robert Gist

Television

The Nash Airflyte Theater (November 23, 1950) in "Suppressed Desires"^[24]
Lights Out (1951) as Carlton Dane
Lux Video Theatre (1955–1956) as Host
The Rebel (1959) as Ben Tully
Perry Mason (1961–1964) as Judge Norris/Timothy Balfour Sr./August Dalgran/J. J. Gideon
The Law and Mr. Jones (1961) as Franklyn Malleson Ghent
Frontier Circus (1961) as General Frederic Jellich
The Investigators (1961) as Karl (episode "Quite a Woman")
Thriller (1962) as Bert Farrington
Checkmate (1962) as George Emory
Dr. Kildare (1962) as Louis Conrad
Bonanza (1963) as Judge Whitaker
The Desert Song (1955) as General Birabeau