Roscoe Karns

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: Acting

Born: San Bernardino, California, USA, 1891-09-06

Died: 1970-02-06

No.	Year	Title	Role	Vote Average
1	1915	Mr. Carlson of Arizona		0
2	1915	From Champion to Tramp	The Girl's Father	0
3	1915	A Species of Mexican Man		0
4	1915	A Western Governor's Humanity	The Sheriff	0
5	1919	Poor Relations	Henry	0
6	1920	The Family Honor	Dal Tucker	0
7	1920	The Life of the Party	Sam Perkins	52
8	1922	Her Own Money	Jerry Woodward	0
9	1922	The Trouper		0
10	1923	Other Men's Daughters	Hubert	0
11	1923	The Ten Commandments	The Boy in the Rain (uncredited)	65
12	1924	The Midnight Express	Switch Hogan	30
13	1925	The Overland Limited	Patrick Henry Madden	0
14	1926	You'd Be Surprised	Party Guest (uncredited)	65
15	1927	Ten Modern Commandments	Benny Burnaway	0
16	1927	Wings	Lieutenant Cameron	72
17	1927	The Jazz Singer	Agent (uncredited)	61
18	1928	Beau Sabreur	Buddy	0
19	1928	The Trail of '98	Man on Ship (uncredited)	62
20	1928	The Desert Bride	Pvt. Terry	47
21	1928	Something Always Happens	George	0
22	1928	The Vanishing Pioneer	Ray Hearn	0
23	1928	Warming Up	Hippo	0
24	1928	Win That Girl	Johnny Norton II	0
25	1928	Beggars of Life	Lame Hoppy	71
26	1928	Moran of the Marines	Swatty	0
27	1928	Jazz Mad	Sol Levy	0
28	1928	The Shopworn Angel	Dance Director	0
29	1929	The Flying Fleet	Shipwrecked Radio Operator (uncredited)	63
30	1929	Copy	City Editor John Mack	0
31	1929	This Thing Called Love	Harry Bertrand	0
32	1929	New York Nights	Johnny Dolan	48
33	1930	Troopers Three	Bugs	70
34	1930	Safety in Numbers	Bertram Shapiro	50
35	1930	Little Accident	Gilbert	0
36	1930	Man Trouble	Scott	50
37	1930	The Costello Case	Blair	0
38	1930	The Gorilla	Simmons	0
39	1931	Dirigible	Sock McGuire	56
40	1931	Many a Slip	Stan Price	0
41	1931	Laughing Sinners	Fred Geer	54
42	1931	Pleasure	Arnie	35
43	1931	Left Over Ladies	'Scoop'	0
44	1931	Ladies of the Big House	Frank - Twenty Questions player (uncredited)	60
45	1932	Stowaway	Insp. Redding	50
46	1932	Play Girl	Gambler (uncredited)	52
47	1932	The Roadhouse Murder	Dale	42
48	1932	Week-End Marriage	Jim Davis	60
49	1932	Two Against the World	Segall, reporter	56
50	1932	The Crooked Circle	Harry Carter	48
51	1932	One Way Passage	S.S. Maloa Bartender (uncredited)	73
52	1932	Night After Night	Leo	62
53	1932	They Call It Sin	Brad - Rehearsal Director (uncredited)	58
54	1932	If I Had a Million	Private O'Brien	67
55	1932	Under-Cover Man	Dannie	45
56	1932	Lawyer Man	Merritt - Reporter (uncredited)	58
57	1933	Grand Slam	Contest Radio Announcer	37
58	1933	A Lady's Profession	Tony	0
59	1933	Today We Live	McGinnis	62
60	1933	Gambling Ship	Blooey	52
61	1933	One Sunday Afternoon	Snappy Downer	63
62	1933	The Women in His Life	Aloysius Lester	40
63	1933	Alice in Wonderland	Tweedledee	60
64	1934	It Happened One Night	Oscar Shapeley	78
65	1934	Come On, Marines!	Spud McGurke	50
66	1934	Twentieth Century	Owen O'Malley	68
67	1934	Shoot the Works	Sailor Burke	50
68	1934	I Sell Anything	Monk	45
69	1935	Wings in the Dark	Nick Williams	64
70	1935	Red Hot Tires	Bud Keene	58
71	1935	The Woman in Red	Man in court room (uncredited)	60
72	1935	Four Hours to Kill!	Johnson	50
73	1935	Alibi Ike	Carey	58
74	1935	Front Page Woman	Toots O'Grady	58
75	1935	Two-Fisted	Chick Moran	70
76	1936	Woman Trap	Mopsy	0
77	1936	Border Flight	Calico Smith	60
78	1936	Three Married Men	Peter Cary	0
79	1936	Cain and Mabel	Reilly	61
80	1937	Clarence	Clarence Smith	0
81	1937	Murder Goes to College	Sim Perkins	30
82	1937	Night of Mystery	Sergeant Heath	0
83	1937	On Such a Night	Joe Flynn	0
84	1937	Partners in Crime	Sim Perkins	0
85	1938	Scandal Street	Austin Brown	0
86	1938	Dangerous to Know	Duncan	61
87	1938	Tip-Off Girls	Tom Benson aka Tommy Logan	60
88	1938	You and Me	Cuffy	67
89	1938	Thanks for the Memory	George Kent	56
90	1939	King of Chinatown	Rep Harrigan	58
91	1939	Dancing Co-Ed	Joe Drews	62
92	1939	Everything's on Ice	Felix Miller	48
93	1939	That's Right – You're Wrong	Mal Stamp	57
94	1940	His Girl Friday	McCue	74
95	1940	Double Alibi	Jeremiah Jenkins	45
96	1940	Saturday's Children	Willie Sands	64
97	1940	They Drive by Night	Irish McGurn	69
98	1940	Ladies Must Live	Pete Larrabee	60
99	1940	Meet the Missus	Joe Higgins	0
100	1941	Petticoat Politics	Joe Higgins	0
101	1941	Footsteps in the Dark	Monahan	69
102	1941	Black Eyes and Blues	Alfred Harmon	0
103	1941	The Gay Vagabond	Arthur Dixon / Jerry Dixon	0
104	1941	Half Shot at Sunrise	Henry Warren	0
105	1941	Road to Happiness	Charley Grady	55
106	1942	A Tragedy at Midnight	Cassidy	40
107	1942	Woman of the Year	Phil Whittaker	69
108	1942	Yokel Boy	Al Devers	47
109	1942	You Can't Escape Forever	'Mac' McTurk	54
110	1943	My Son, The Hero	Big-Time Morgan	0
111	1943	Stage Door Canteen	Roscoe Karns	58
112	1943	Riding High	Shorty	45
113	1943	His Butler's Sister	Fields	71
114	1943	Old Acquaintance	Charlie Archer	69
115	1944	Minstrel Man	Lasses White	50
116	1944	The Navy Way	Frankie Gimble	57
117	1944	Hi, Good Lookin'!	Archie	57
118	1946	One Way to Love	Hobie Simmons	70
119	1946	I Ring Doorbells	Stubby	0
120	1946	Avalanche	Red Kelly	0
121	1947	Vigilantes of Boomtown	Bill Delaney	25
122	1947	That's My Man	Toby Gleeton	60
123	1948	The Inside Story	Eustace Peabody	65
124	1948	Devil's Cargo	Lt. Hardy	55
125	1948	Speed to Spare	Kangaroo	50
126	1948	Texas, Brooklyn & Heaven	Officer Carmody	53
127	1958	Onionhead	'Windy' Woods	55
128	1964	Man's Favorite Sport?	Major Phipps	69

No.	Year	Title	Role	Vote Average
1	1950	Inside Detective	Police Inspector Rocky King	0
2	1950	Rocky King, Detective	Police Inspector Rocky King	0
3	1954	December Bride		55
4	1954	December Bride	Charley Allen	55
5	1957	Richard Diamond, Private Detective	Ed Church	62
6	1959	Hennesey		60
7	1962	The Lucy Show	Mr. Foley	70

Roscoe Karns

Film

Television