John Qualen

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia John Qualen (born Johan Mandt Kvalen, December 8, 1899 – September 12, 1987) was a Canadian-American character actor of Norwegian heritage who specialized in Scandinavian roles. Qualen was born in Vancouver, British Columbia, the son of immigrants from Norway; his father was a Lutheran minister and changed the family's original surname, "Kvalen", to "Qualen" – though some sources give Oleson, later Oleson Kvalen as Qualen's earlier surnames. His father's ministering meant many moves and John was 20 when he graduated from Elgin High School in 1920. Though he was awarded a scholarship to Northwestern University after he won an oratory contest he never attended college. In a Milwaukee Journal interview he said he needed to start working and did so with the Chattaqua Circuit. Eventually reaching Broadway, he gained his big break as the Swedish janitor in Elmer Rice's Street Scene. His movie career began when he recreated the role in the film version. This was followed by his appearance in John Ford's Arrowsmith (1931) which began a more than thirty year membership in the director's "stock company", with important supporting roles in The Searchers (1956), Two Rode Together (1961), The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962) and Cheyenne Autumn (1964). Appearing in well over one hundred films, and acting extensively on television into the 1970s, Qualen performed many of his roles with various accents, usually Scandinavian, often intended for comic effect. Three of his more memorable roles showcase his versatility. Qualen assumed a Midwestern dialect as Muley, who recounts the destruction of his farm by the bank in Ford's The Grapes of Wrath (1940), and as the confused killer Earl Williams in Howard Hawks' classic comedy His Girl Friday (also 1940). As Berger, the jewelry-selling Norwegian resistance member in Michael Curtiz' Casablanca (1942), he essayed a light Scandinavian accent, but put on a thicker Mediterranean accent as the homeward-bound fisherman Locota in William Wellman's The High and the Mighty (1954) Qualen was treasurer of The Authors Club and historian of The Masquers, Hollywood's social group for actors. John Qualen was blind in his later years. He died of heart failure in 1987 in Torrance, California, and was interred in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale. He was survived by his three daughters.

Known For: Acting

Born: Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, 1899-12-06

Died: 1987-09-12

No.	Year	Title	Role	Vote Average
1	1931	Street Scene	Karl Olsen (as John M. Qualen)	68
2	1931	Arrowsmith	Henry Novak (uncredited)	64
3	1933	Counsellor at Law	Breitstein	66
4	1933	Let's Fall in Love	Bjorkman	75
5	1933	Let's Fall in Love	Svente Bjorkman	75
6	1934	Hi, Nellie!	Steve (uncredited)	65
7	1934	Sing and Like It	Oswald (as John M. Qualen)	40
8	1934	Upperworld	Janitor	63
9	1934	He Was Her Man	Dutch, Santa Avila's Cabbie	67
10	1934	Straight Is the Way	Mr. Clapman (uncredited)	55
11	1934	Servants' Entrance	Detective	0
12	1934	Our Daily Bread	Chris (as John T. Qualen)	68
13	1934	365 Nights in Hollywood	Prof. Herman Ellenbogen	0
14	1935	Charlie Chan in Paris	Concierge, Dufresne's Hotel (bit)	65
15	1935	One More Spring	Auctioneer	58
16	1935	The Great Hotel Murder	Ole	58
17	1935	Chasing Yesterday	Coccoz	35
18	1935	Black Fury	Mike Shemanski	65
19	1935	The Farmer Takes a Wife	Sol Tinker	61
20	1935	Doubting Thomas	Von Blitzen	70
21	1935	Silk Hat Kid	Mr. Fossbender	60
22	1935	Orchids to You	Smith	0
23	1935	Thunder in the Night	Hotel Porter	55
24	1935	The Three Musketeers	Planchet	64
25	1935	Whipsaw	Will Dabson	62
26	1935	Man of Iron	Collins	60
27	1936	Ring Around the Moon	Bill Harvey	40
28	1936	Wife vs. Secretary	Mr. Jenkins (uncredited)	68
29	1936	The Country Doctor	Asa Wyatt	60
30	1936	Meet Nero Wolfe	Olaf	65
31	1936	Girls' Dormitory	Toni	59
32	1936	The Road to Glory	Duflous	63
33	1936	Reunion	Asa Wyatt	0
34	1937	Seventh Heaven	Sewer Rat	66
35	1937	Fifty Roads to Town	Sheriff Dow	0
36	1937	Angel's Holiday	Waldo Everett	55
37	1937	She Had to Eat	Sleepy	50
38	1937	Fit for a King	Otto	50
39	1937	Nothing Sacred	Fireman (uncredited)	62
40	1937	The Bad Man of Brimstone	Loco	60
41	1938	Joy of Living	Oswego	57
42	1938	The Chaser	Lars	60
43	1938	Five of a Kind	Asa Wyatt	42
44	1938	The Mad Miss Manton	Night Watchman at Subway Construction Site	64
45	1938	The Strange Case of Dr. Meade	Stoner	50
46	1939	Stand Up and Fight	Davy	58
47	1939	Let Us Live	Dan (uncredited)	68
48	1939	Mickey the Kid	Mailman	0
49	1939	Thunder Afloat	Milo	59
50	1939	Honeymoon in Bali	Meek Man (uncredited)	62
51	1939	Four Wives	Frank	53
52	1940	His Girl Friday	Earl Williams	74
53	1940	Blondie on a Budget	Ed Fuddle	60
54	1940	The Grapes of Wrath	Muley Graves	78
55	1940	Saturday's Children	First Carpenter (uncredited)	64
56	1940	Ski Patrol	Gustaf	37
57	1940	On Their Own	Peters	0
58	1940	Babies for Sale	Howard Anderson	55
59	1940	Angels Over Broadway	Charles Engle	59
60	1940	Knute Rockne All American	Lars Knutson Rockne	61
61	1940	The Long Voyage Home	Axel	66
62	1940	Youth Will Be Served	Clem Howie	10
63	1941	Model Wife	The Janitor	0
64	1941	Million Dollar Baby	Dr. Patterson	60
65	1941	Out of the Fog	Olaf Johnson	64
66	1941	The Shepherd of the Hills	Coot Royal	66
67	1941	New Wine	Hasslinger's Clerk	0
68	1941	All That Money Can Buy	Miser Stevens	70
69	1942	Jungle Book	The Barber	63
70	1942	Larceny, Inc.	Sam Bachrach	69
71	1942	Tortilla Flat	Jose Maria Corcoran	54
72	1942	Arabian Nights	Aladdin	60
73	1942	Breakdowns of 1942	Self	60
74	1943	Casablanca	Berger	82
75	1943	Swing Shift Maisie	Horatio Curley	65
76	1944	The Impostor	Monge	60
77	1944	An American Romance	Anton Dubechek	59
78	1944	Dark Waters	Uncle Norbert	58
79	1945	Roughly Speaking	Svend Olsen	68
80	1945	River Gang	Uncle Bill	0
81	1945	Captain Kidd	Bart Blivens	60
82	1945	Adventure	Model T	62
83	1947	Song of Scheherazade	Lorenzo	58
84	1947	High Conquest	Peter Oberwalder Sr.	0
85	1947	The Fugitive	A Refugee Doctor	59
86	1948	Reaching from Heaven	The Stranger	0
87	1948	Alias a Gentleman	No End	65
88	1948	My Girl Tisa	Svenson	0
89	1948	16 Fathoms Deep	Capt. Athos	45
90	1948	Hollow Triumph	Swangron	65
91	1949	The Big Steal	Julius Seton	65
92	1950	Captain China	Geech	50
93	1950	Buccaneer's Girl	Vegetable Seller	56
94	1950	The Jackpot	Mr. Ferguson (uncredited)	69
95	1950	Woman on the Run	Maibus	68
96	1950	The Flying Missile	Lars Hansen	49
97	1951	Belle Le Grand	Corky McGee	30
98	1951	Goodbye, My Fancy	Professor Dingley	59
99	1952	Hans Christian Andersen	Burgomaster	63
100	1953	Ambush at Tomahawk Gap	Jonas P. Travis	65
101	1953	I, the Jury	Dr. R.H. Vickers, Veterinarian	57
102	1954	The High and the Mighty	Jose Locota	59
103	1954	Passion	Gaspar Melo	52
104	1954	The Other Woman	Papasha	55
105	1955	Man on a Bus	Second Prisoner	40
106	1955	The Sea Chase	Chief Engineer Schmitt	61
107	1955	Unchained	Leonard Haskins	0
108	1955	At Gunpoint	Livingstone	63
109	1956	The Searchers	Lars Jorgensen	77
110	1956	Johnny Concho	Jake	37
111	1957	The Big Land	Sven Johnson	64
112	1958	The Gun Runners	Pop	60
113	1958	My World Dies Screaming	Jonah Snell	58
114	1958	Revolt in the Big House	Doc	62
115	1959	Anatomy of a Murder	Deputy Sheriff Sulo	79
116	1960	Hell Bent for Leather	Old Ben	62
117	1960	Elmer Gantry	Sam - Storekeeper	73
118	1960	North to Alaska	Logger	65
119	1961	Two Rode Together	Ole Knudsen	64
120	1962	The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance	Peter Ericson	78
121	1963	Donovan's Reef	Deckhand Who Cries 'Man Overboard' (uncredited)	62
122	1963	The Prize	Oscar	68
123	1964	7 Faces of Dr. Lao	Luther Lindquist	69
124	1964	Cheyenne Autumn	Svenson (uncredited)	67
125	1964	Those Calloways	Ernie Evans	62
126	1965	I'll Take Sweden	Olaf	50
127	1965	The Sons of Katie Elder	Charlie Biller	70
128	1965	A Patch of Blue	Mr. Faber	76
129	1966	A Big Hand for the Little Lady	Jesse Buford	71
130	1968	Firecreek	Hall	64
131	1968	P.J.	Poppa	52
132	1969	Doc	Luke	0
133	1969	Hail, Hero!	Billy Hurd	60
134	1972	Getting Away from It All	Charlie Erickson	0
135	1973	Frasier, the Sensuous Lion	Old Man on Porch	57
136	1993	La Classe américaine	V12 (archive footage) (uncredited)	76

No.	Year	Title	Role	Vote Average
1	1948	The Philco Television Playhouse	Gus Gruntle	63
2	1950	Lux Video Theatre	Eddie	63
3	1951	Racket Squad		60
4	1951	Schlitz Playhouse of Stars	Pop Bradshaw	73
5	1951	Schlitz Playhouse of Stars	Peleg Brewster	73
6	1951	Dragnet		64
7	1953	General Electric Theater		63
8	1954	Public Defender	Ames	60
9	1954	Father Knows Best	Old Man	65
10	1954	December Bride		55
11	1954	Climax!	Geist	33
12	1955	The Millionaire	Harry Stonewall Jackson	50
13	1955	Cheyenne		58
14	1955	Alfred Hitchcock Presents	Mr. Stepp	77
15	1955	Alfred Hitchcock Presents	Elmer Shore	77
16	1955	Alfred Hitchcock Presents	Mr. Crabtree	77
17	1957	Sugarfoot	Jens Jensen	48
18	1957	Maverick		68
19	1957	Maverick	Leland Mills	68
20	1957	The Real McCoys	Frank	56
21	1958	Sea Hunt		66
22	1958	Bronco		52
23	1958	The Donna Reed Show	Zeke	62
24	1958	Yancy Derringer	Capt. Sven Larsen	56
25	1958	Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse		58
26	1959	Tightrope		55
27	1959	The Third Man		67
28	1959	The Alaskans		55
29	1960	Tate	Sam	45
30	1960	Thriller	Streetcar Conductor	64
31	1960	The Barbara Stanwyck Show		62
32	1960	The Andy Griffith Show	Henry Bennett	76
33	1961	Mister Ed		68
34	1961	Mister Ed	Milo Simmons	68
35	1961	Dr. Kildare	Mr. Callahan	55
36	1961	Ben Casey		56
37	1962	The Virginian	Gosta Swenson	65
38	1963	Burke's Law	Richard Prince (uncredited)	60
39	1963	My Favorite Martian	Matt	60
40	1964	No Time for Sergeants		10
41	1965	Green Acres	Mr. Appleby	73
42	1965	Green Acres	Willie Dunhill	73
43	1966	Shane	Old Man	60
44	1966	The Girl from U.N.C.L.E.	Dr. Elmer Spritzer	66
45	1966	Jericho		65
46	1970	The Odd Couple	Groundskeeper	78
47	1970	The Odd Couple	Mr. Larson	78
48	1970	The Odd Couple	Sam	78
49	1970	The Partridge Family	The Old Man	67
50	1972	The Streets of San Francisco	Frank Casey	69

John Qualen

Film

Television