Paul Douglas
Birth : 1907-04-11, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Death : 1959-09-11
History
Paul Douglas (April 11, 1907 – September 11, 1959) was an American actor.
Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania as Paul Douglas Fleischer, Douglas began his career as a stage actor. He made his Broadway debut in 1936 as the Radio Announcer in Doty Hobart and Tom McKnight's Double Dummy at the John Golden Theatre. In 1946 he won both a Theatre World Award and a Clarence Derwent Award for his portrayal of Herry Brock in Garson Kanin's Born Yesterday.
Douglas began appearing in films in 1949. He may be best-remembered for two baseball comedy movies, Angels in the Outfield (1951) and It Happens Every Spring (1949). He also played Richard Widmark's police partner in the thriller Panic in the Streets, frustrated newlywed Porter Hollingsway in A Letter to Three Wives, Sgt. Kowalski in The Big Lift, businessman Josiah Walter Dudley in Executive Suite and a con man turned monk in When in Rome. In 1950, Douglas was host of the 22nd annual Academy Awards. Douglas also worked on radio as the announcer for The Ed Wynn Show and he was the first host of NBC Radio's "Horn & Hardart Children's Hour!". In April 1959 Douglas appeared as Lucy Ricardo's television morning show boss in the "Lucy Wants a Career" episode of The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour.
Douglas was originally cast in the 1960 episode of The Twilight Zone called "The Mighty Casey", a role written for him by Rod Serling, based on his character in Angels in the Outfield, but Douglas died the same week after production of the episode had been completed. His role was taken over by Jack Warden, and most of the episode was refilmed several months later.
He was married five times, last to actress Jan Sterling from 1950 until his death. They had a son, Adams Douglas (1955–2003).
Paul Douglas died on September 11, 1959 of a heart attack in Hollywood, California at the age of 52. Film director Billy Wilder and co-writer I.A.L. ('Izzy') Diamond had just offered him the role of Jeff Sheldrake in the movie The Apartment that went to Fred MacMurray instead. Wilder later said: "I saw him and his wife, Jan Sterling, at a restaurant, and I realized he was perfect, and I asked him right there in the parking lot. About two days before we were to start, he had a heart attack and died. Iz and I were shattered."
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Pop Larkin
Tax collector Lorenzo Charlton comes to the Larkins' farm to ask why Pop Larkins hasn't paid his back taxes. Charlton has to stay for a day to try to estimate the income from the farm, but it isn't easy to calculate when the farmer has such a lovely daughter.
Professore Golfiero Paganica
A poor girl is convinced she is the daughter of a prince.
Chris Nolan
The story of Jimmy Walker who became mayor of New York in the '20s.
Rocco
To earn extra money, a prim schoolteacher takes a second job as secretary to the uncouth owner of a boisterous nightclub.
Mike Wilson
An American reporter smells a story when he is stranded in an Iron Curtain country where the local dictator is using gamma rays to transform children into mutated henchmen.
Edward L. McKeever
Laura Partridge is a very enthusiastic small stockholder of 10 shares in International Projects, a large corporation based in New York. She attends her first stockholder meeting ready to question the board of directors from their salaries to their operations.
Gus MacAuliffe
Episcopalian minister Gil Allen keeps up his college days interest in boxing by working out at a gym run by his friend, Tom Kelley but declines offers to fight in an actual staged bout, until he realizes he could use the prize money to purchase equipment for local polio victims. Keeping his real identity secret and hoping to step away after one big payday, Gil signs a contract to fight for greedy promoter Gus MacAuliffe.
Joe MacBeth
A gangster's wife drives him to kill as she pushes him to the top.
Vic Leonard
In Colombia, mining engineer Rian Mitchell discovers Carrero, the lost emerald mine of the Conquistadors, but has to contend with notorious local bandit El Moro's gang and with coffee planter Catherine Knowland's love.
Josiah Walter Dudley
When the head of a large manufacturing firm dies suddenly from a stroke, his vice-presidents vie to see who will replace him.
Calvin B. Marshall, the American
The poor, elderly—and the wily, when it comes to parting those who can afford it from their money—Scottish skipper of a broken-down old 'puffer' boat tricks an American tycoon into paying him to transport his personal cargo. When the tycoon learns of the trick, he attempts to track down the boat and remove his possessions.
Commentator
Because of his luxurious fur coat, a hammy actor becomes involved with crooks. His coat resembles the one that a gang's fence wears, and he is continually finding stolen jewelry in his coat pockets. When the gang learns that he is planning to turn the loot over to Scotland Yard, they go gunning for him and wound him while he is on stage performing 'Falstaff.' And, although wounded, he continues with his performance, trouper that he is that believes the show must go on, while the police are apprehending the gunmen.
Harry Phillips
An aging actress has a hard time admitting she is too old to play the ingenue role anymore.
Andrew McBain
A divorced socialite decides to join the Army because she hopes it will enable her to see more of her boyfriend, a Colonel. She soon encounters many difficulties with the Army lifestyle. Moreover, her ex-husband is working as a consultant with the Army, and he uses his position to disrupt her romantic plans by making her join a group of WACs who are testing new equipment.
Hector Woodruff
A Justice of the Peace performed weddings a few days before his license was valid. A few years later five couples learn they have never been legally married.
Jerry D'Amato
An embittered woman seeks escape in marriage, only to fall for her husband’s best friend.
Joe Brewster
An American fugitive flees to Rome and tries to elude capture by masquerading as a priest.
Aloysius X. 'Guffy' McGovern
The short-tempered manager of the Pittsburgh Pirates mends his ways in return for a little divine assistance.
Man on Park Bench (uncredited)
Rich, eccentric T.J. Banner adopts a feral cat who becomes an affectionate pet he names Rhubarb. Then T.J. dies, leaving to Rhubarb most of his money and a pro baseball team, the Brooklyn Loons. When the team protests, publicist Eric Yeager convinces them Rhubarb is good luck. But Eric's fiancée Polly seems to be allergic to cats, and the team's success may mean new hazards for Rhubarb.
Harry Joplin
Former football star Harry Joplin is down on his luck, both in his career and in his married life. He seems convinced of his own unworthiness, but a chance to play in a charity football game helps him see his life in a new light.
Police Ofcr. Charlie Dunnigan
A young man, morally destroyed by his parents not loving him and by the fear of being not capable to make his girlfriend happy, rises on the ledge of a building with the intention of committing suicide. A policeman makes every effort to argue him out of it.
A documentary short film depicting the work of the motion picture director. An anonymous director is shown preparing the various aspects of a film for production, meeting with the writer and producer, approving wardrobe and set design, rehearsing scenes with the actors and camera crew, shooting the scenes, watching dailies, working with the editor and composer, and attending the first preview. Then a number of real directors are shown in archive footage (as well as a predominance of staged 'archive' footage) working with actors and crew.
Capt. Tom Warren
One night in the New Orleans slums, vicious hoodlum Blackie and his friends kill an illegal immigrant who won too much in a card game. The next morning, Dr. Clint Reed of the Public Health Service confirms the dead man had pneumonic plague. To prevent a catastrophic epidemic, Clint must find and inoculate the killers and their associates, with the reluctant aid of police captain Tom Warren, despite official skepticism, and in total secrecy, lest panic empties the city. Can a doctor turn detective? He has 48 hours to try.
E.L. 'Big Ed' Hanley
The story of a crude gangster hopelessly falling for a sweet young city government employee.
MSgt. Henry "Hank" Kowalski
The Berlin Air Lift from the point of view of two NCOs.
Self
Comedian Jack Benny has his butler, Rochester, call several of his celebrity friends over to the house. Benny introduces them to a Catholic priest, who speaks to them about doing a film for a group called the Christophers. The Christophers are an organization that wants to use different mediums such radio, TV, and film to inspire young people to change the world for the better by pursuing careers in public service like teaching and government work. The priest gives the celebrities a history lesson about the founding of the U.S. and God's role in it, and he asks for their help.
Leonard Borland aka Logan Bennett
Leonard Borland loves his monied wife, but with his wrecking business looking shaky he treasures her all the more. So when she decides to try again to become an opera singer he indulges her. While organising a concert for her he meets glamorous Cecil Carver. She in turn discovers Leonard has a splendid voice, and encourages him to use it for reasons very much her own.
Monk Lanigan
A scientist discovers a formula that makes a baseball which is repelled by wood. He promptly sets out to exploit his discovery.
Porter Hollingsway
Lora May Hollingsway, who grew up next to the wrong side of the tracks, married her boss who thinks she is just a gold digger. Rita Phipps makes as much money writing radio scripts at night as her school teacher husband does. Deborah Bishop looked great in a Navy uniform in WWII but fears she'll never be dressed just right for the Country Club set. These three wives are boarding a boat filled with children going on a picnic when a messenger on a bicycle hands them a letter addressed to all three from Addie who has just left town with one of their husbands. They won't know which one until that night.
Policeman at Front Desk (uncredited)
When police officer Moe Finkelstein and his colleague Officer Salomon are ordered to serve as bodyguards to German consul Karl Baumer by the mayor of New York City, Finkelstein turns in his badge, convinced he has to quit the service because the man is a Nazi.
Master of Ceremonies
Leith Stevens leads his orchestra in a nice assortment of standards in a variety of musical styles, including Dixieland and swing. Mr. Stevens was a popular orchestra leader of the era who later became a musical director for an assortment of television shows and his facility with more than one style of music, so important for his later career, is much in evidence here.
