John Davidson

John Davidson

Birth : 1886-12-25, New York City, New York, USA

Death : 1968-01-16

History

John Davidson (25 December 1886 – 16 January 1968) was an American film actor. He appeared in 148 films between 1915 and 1963. He was born in New York, New York and died in Los Angeles, California. Description above from the Wikipedia article John Davidson,  licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Profile

John Davidson

Movies

The Fantasticks
Matt
Neighboring widowers plot to romantically unite their son and daughter by pretending to feud and forbidding the two children to associate with each other. Their scheme works and the two youngsters fall head-over-heels in love. To end their "feud" the fathers hire a bandit and his henchmen to fake an abduction and allow the son to rout the assailants. The plan works, but the two love birds discover that requited love is much less exciting than forbidden romance and they break off their relationship. Matt, the son, resolves to see the world and receives a severe buffeting, while Luisa, the daughter, has an unhappy romance with the bandit, who steals her most precious possession, her mother's necklace. Matt returns, sadder but wiser, and the two former lovers reunite.
A Gathering of Eagles
Rock Hudson plays an Air Force Colonel who has just been re-assigned as a cold war B-52 commander who must shape up his men to pass a grueling inspection that the previous commander had failed, and had been fired for. He is also recently married, and as a tough commanding officer doing whatever he has to do to shape his men up, his wife sees a side to him that she hadn't seen before.
A Stranger in My Arms
Man (uncredited)
An Air Force pilot finds romance with his war buddy's widow.
Around the World in Eighty Days
Extra (uncredited)
Based on the famous book by Jules Verne the movie follows Phileas Fogg on his journey around the world. Which has to be completed within 80 days, a very short period for those days.
Savage Fury
Prince Samu (archive footage)
Separately released feature version of the 1935 Serial, Call of the Savage.
All That Heaven Allows
Man (uncredited)
Two different social classes collide when Cary Scott, a wealthy upper-class widow, falls in love with her much younger and down-to-earth gardener, prompting disapproval and criticism from her children and country club friends.
People Will Talk
Faculty Board Member (uncredited)
Successful and well-liked, Dr. Noah Praetorius becomes the victim of a witchhunt at the hands of Professor Elwell, who disdains Praetorius's unorthodox medical views and also questions his relationship with the mysterious, ever-present Mr. Shunderson.
The Sword of Monte Cristo
Artist
In 1858 France, Emperor Louis Napoleon sends Captain Renault of the Royal Dragoons, Minister La Roche and Major Nicolet to Normandy in search of the members of a group of rebels. A Masked Cavalier, the niece, Lady Christianne, of the Marquis De Montableau, announces at a secret meeting of the Normandy underground leaders that the fabled treasure of Monte Cristo was willed to her and she will use it to finance their cause. Her uncle, the only one who can decipher the symbols on the sword of Monte Cristo, the key to the treasure, derides her stand against the Emperor. La Roche takes possession of the sword and has the Marquis put into the dungeon. Christianne, as the Masked Cavalier, regains the sword from La Roche, but Captain Renault apprehends her and returns to sword to La Roche.
Dancing in the Dark
Board Member
Emery Slade was one of the brightest stars in Hollywood in 1932, but by 1949 his career has hit the skids. Fortunately, he is able to convince studio head Melville Crossman to cast him in the adaptation of a hit Broadway show. Crossman has one condition: Slade must travel to New York and convince the female star of the stage production to join the film. Slade goes, but, when he eyes the winsome Julie Clarke, he hatches a different scheme.
You're My Everything
Headwaiter (uncredited)
In 1924, stage-struck Boston blueblood Hannah Adams picks up musical star Tim O'Connor and takes him home for dinner. One thing leads to another, and when Tim's show rolls on to Chicago a new Mrs. O'Connor comes along as incompetent chorus girl. Hollywood beckons, and we follow the star careers of the O'Connor family in silents and talkies.
A Letter to Three Wives
John, First Waiter (uncredited)
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.
Shock
Mr. Edwards
In this thriller, psychiatrist Dr. Cross kills his wife and expects to get away with murder, until he discovers that the slaying was observed by a next-door neighbor, Janet Stewart. As Janet attempts to convince her husband of the doctor's dastardly deed, Cross shows up to advise him that Janet is in dire need of some in-depth counseling.
The Purple Monster Strikes
Emperor of Mars
A Martian invader crashes his spaceship conveniently close to the workshop of a scientist who is developing an interplanetary craft. If the extraterrestrial Purple Monster can complete the rocket ship and return to Mars, he will be able to start a full-scale invasion of Earth. Good thing Craig Foster sets out to thwart the Monster's mission!
Circumstantial Evidence
Lawyer
A man waits on death row while his son and friend try to prove that he did not kill a grocer with an ax.
Wilson
Princeton Team Doctor (uncredited)
The political career of Woodrow Wilson is chronicled, beginning with his decision to leave his post at Princeton to run for Governor of New Jersey, and his subsequent ascent to the Presidency of the United States. During his terms in office, Wilson must deal with the death of his first wife, the onslaught of German hostilities leading to American involvement in the Great War, and his own country's reticence to join the League of Nations.
Call of the Jungle
Harley
A beautiful white girl resident of Ta'Pu, Tana, is determined to clear Harley, who is suspected of stealing sacred jewels.
Charlie Chan in The Chinese Cat
Carl Karzoff / Kurt Karzoff
To solve the murder of a man shot in a locked room, Chan must wade through a Fun House, the writings of an unscrupulous author, and chess pieces.
Captain America
Gruber
Superhero Captain America battles the evil forces of the archvillain called The Scarab, who poisons his enemies and steals a secret device capable of destroying buildings by sound vibrations.
Dick Tracy vs. Crime Inc.
Lucifer
Dick Tracy goes up against a villain known as The Ghost, who can turn himself invisible.
Singapore Woman
(uncredited)
A fallen woman seeks redemption at a Singapore rubber plantation. Melodrama.
The Devil Bat
Prof. Percival Garland Raines
Dr. Paul Carruthers feels bitter at being betrayed by his employers, Heath and Morton, when they became rich as a result of a product he devised. He gains revenge by electrically enlarging bats and sending them out to kill his employers' family members by instilling in the bats a hatred for a particular perfume he has discovered, which he gets his victims to apply before going outdoors. Johnny Layton, a reporter, finally figures out Carruthers is the killer and, after putting the perfume on himself, douses it on Carruthers in the hopes it will get him to give himself away. One of the two is attacked as the giant bat makes one of its screaming, swooping power dives.
The Great Dictator
Hospital Superintendent (uncredited)
Dictator Adenoid Hynkel tries to expand his empire while a poor Jewish barber tries to avoid persecution from Hynkel's regime.
King of the Royal Mounted
Shelton
The Canadians have discovered a valuable substance called Compound X, which can cure infantile paralysis. When a country at war with Canada learns that Compound X also contains magnetic properties that could aid them in their warfare against the British, they send agents to infiltrate Canada and steal a large quantity of the substance. It's up to Sgt. King (Allan Lane) and his Mounties to track down the agents and put an end to their scheme.
Turnabout
Minor Role (uncredited)
Bickering husband and wife Tim and Sally Willows mutter a few angry words to a statue of Buddha and wind up living each other's life.
Saps at Sea
Stan and Ollie work in a horn factory. Ollie starts having violent fits every time he hears a horn. His doctor prescribes a restful sea voyage. Mayhem ensues.
Miracles for Sale
Weird Voice (voice)
A maker of illusions for magicians protects an ingenue likely to be murdered.
Mr. Moto Takes a Vacation
Prince Suleid
Mr. Moto is in Egypt to thwart a criminal mastermind determined to steal the priceless crown of the Queen of Sheba. When the precious treasure is transported to America, Mr. Moto must race against time to unmask the cunning thief who will stop at nothing—not even murder—to get what he wants.
Duel Personalities
Prof. William Delmore, the Hypnotist (uncredited)
While under a hypnotic spell, Alfalfa thinks he's one of the Three Musketeers and challenges Butch to a duel.
Mr. Moto's Last Warning
Hakim
A Japanese man claiming to be Mr. Moto, of the International Police, is abducted and murdered soon after disembarking from a ship at Port Said in Egypt. The real Mr. Moto is already in Port Said, investigating a conspiracy against the British and French governments.
Arrest Bulldog Drummond
Gumba, Bird Seller
The invention of a machine that can cause remote explosions brings the attention of Scotland Yard and Bulldog Drummond.
Storm Over Bengal
Aide to Ramin Khan
This being a Republic picture, it should come as no surprise that Storm Over Bengal was filmed in its entirety in the San Fernando Valley. Within its concise 65 minutes, the film manages to accommodate a Bengal Lancers main plot, a romantic subplot, the obligatory coward who makes good, intrigue aplenty from a villainous Indian potentate, and an outsized climactic battle between the rebels and the British forces. Patric Knowles, previously one of the leads in the British-India epic Charge of the Light Brigade, heads the cast. Worth noting is the presence in the cast of Richard Cromwell as secondary romantic lead Neil Allison and Douglass Dumbrille as the despicable Khan. Three years earlier, Cromwell had been tortured by Dumbrille's minions in Lives of a Bengal Lancer, and he undergoes much the same treatment here-"just to make him feel at home" observed film historian Roger Dooley.
The Fighting Devil Dogs
Lin Wing
Two marine lieutenants battle a masked would-be world conqueror who uses electricity as a weapon.
Live, Love and Learn
Mr. Wingate (uncredited)
A starving, uncompromising artist and an heiress fall in love on first sight and immediately get married. She loves his outrageous behaviour, his strange room-mate and the best apartment poverty can buy.
Jungle Menace
Doctor Coleman
Mystery and adventure, surrounding a stolen rubber harvest.
Mummy's Boys
Cafe Manager in Cairo
Wheeler & Woolsey comedy about two moronic ditch diggers, recruited for an archaeology expedition, getting mixed up with jewel thieves and an ancient Egyptian "curse."
The Last Days of Pompeii
Phoebus
In this action-filled spectacle set in ancient Pompeii, a blacksmith becomes a Roman gladiator, though his rise to wealth and power is jeopardized by his son's Christianity and the eruption of Vesuvius.
Charlie Chan in Egypt
Chemist Daoud Atrash
While investigating the theft of antiquities from an ancient tomb excavation , Charlie discovers that the body of the expedition's leader concealed inside the mummy's wrappings.
The Call of the Savage
Prince Samu
Two competing teams of scientists search the African jungles for a secret formula.
A Shot in the Dark
Professor Brand
An amateur sleuth solves three murders at his son's New England college.
The Moonstone
Yandoo
A valuable gem from India is stolen in an old dark mansion and it is up to Scotland Yard inspector Charles Irwin to find out who did it among all the suspects who were in the house.
Hollywood Mystery
Siegfried Sonoff
A PR man for a low-budget movie studio comes up with what he believes is the perfect gimmick--to make a gangster picture with a real mobster in the lead role.
Murder in Trinidad
Gookol Moah
Author/explorer John W. Vandercook conceived the character of Bertram Lynch as an investigator for the League of Nations. He is Trinidad's Port o' Spain trying to track down the leader of a gang of diamond smugglers. A trail, littered with murders, leads him to a crocodile-infested swamp.
Hold That Girl
Ackroyd
"That girl" is newspaper sob-sister Tony Bellamy (Claire Trevor), whose nose for news gets her into one jam after another, especially when she poses as an exotic dancer to get the goods on a gangster.
Bombay Mail
R. Xavier
In India, a police inspector investigates a murder that took place on a train between Calcutta and Bombay.
Dinner at Eight
Mr. Hatfield
An ambitious New York socialite plans an extravagant dinner party as her businessman husband, Oliver, contends with financial woes, causing a lot of tension between the couple. Meanwhile, their high-society friends and associates, including the gruff Dan Packard and his sultry spouse, Kitty, contend with their own entanglements, leading to revelations at the much-anticipated dinner.
Perils of Pauline
Dr. Bashan
A famous scientist and his beautiful daughter travel to Indochina to find an ivory disc that has the formula for a deadly gas engraved on it. An evil doctor and his gang are also looking for it.
The Devil's in Love
Kasim-Native
The French Foreign Legion is the setting for this episodic adventure yarn. Victor Jory plays a Legion doctor falsely accused of murdering his commander over the love of Loretta Young. Jory escapes prosecution by heading for parts unknown, but when a deadly illness strikes his old fort, he returns to aid his comrades. He is arrested, but clears himself of the murder charge and ends up with Young. Devil's in Love is distinguished by the surprise appearance of Bela Lugosi, who shows up unbilled as a relentless prosecuting attorney in the courtroom scenes.
6 Hours to Live
Kellner
A murder victim is brought back to life by a scientific experiment. However, the effects only last for six hours, and he must find his killer in that time.
Grand Hotel
Hotel Manager (uncredited)
Guests at a posh Berlin hotel struggle through worry, scandal, and heartache.
Arsène Lupin
Gourney-Martin's Butler
A charming and very daring thief known as Arsene Lupin is terrorizing the wealthy of Paris, he even goes so far as to threaten the Mona Lisa. But the police, led by the great Guerchard, think they know Arsene Lupin's identity, and they have a secret weapon to catch him.
Docks of San Francisco
Vance
Barbary Coast, San Francisco. The gangster moll Belle gets deeply entangled with gangsters led by her boyfriend Vance. The professional writer John Banning understands why Belle got involved with these criminals. Banning tries to help her get out of that seedy life. However, It is not easy. A lot of action and violence ensues before Belle eventually succeeds.
The Life of the Party
Mr. Smith
Two gold diggers try a French dressmaker, two Mr. Smiths and Havana.
The Thirteenth Chair
Edward 'Ned' Wales
Although his murdered friend was by all accounts a scoundrel, Edward Wales is determined to trap his killer by staging a seance using a famous medium. Many of the 13 seance participants had a reason and a means to kill, and one of them uses the cover of darkness to kill again. When someone close to the medium is suspected she turns detective, in the hope of uncovering the true murderer.
The Time, the Place and the Girl
Pete Ward
A musical comedy that follows the progress of a college All America football player whose swollen head is deflated when, after graduating , he takes a job as a Wall Street stock salesman. While poor at selling, he knows how to charm women and his boss has him concentrate his efforts on disposing of bad stock to gullible females, one of whom turns out to be the wife of his boss. The film is considered lost, with only its soundtrack remaining.
Queen of the Night Clubs
Don Holland
Irked by the success of a brassy nightclub owner. her rivals set out to drive her out of business, and frame her for a murder in the bargain.
Kid Gloves
Stone
When a taxi carrying socialite Ruth Darrow drives into the middle of a gun battle between hijacker Kid Gloves and a trio of bootleggers, Ruth is injured. She is taken to a nearby apartment, and The Kid helps to care for her. John Stone, Ruth's fiance and a bootlegger with a respectable front, finds them together and blackmails The Kid into marrying the girl.
The Rescue
Hassim
The English adventurer Tom Lingard gets involved with islanders on a South Seas island, and he also gets involved with Lady Edith and Mr. Travers, a sailing English couple. Tom has an unexpected love affair with Edith and while they are having this affair, Lady Edith husband's boat is destroyed and he is killed.
Ramshackle House
Ernest Riever
Don Counsel, a New Yorker who is traveling through southern Florida, is being framed by Ernest Riever for a murder he did not commit. Riever is holding the real killer captive on his yacht while detectives are searching for Counsel. Pen Broome, who lives with her father (Henry James) on their rundown estate, tries to help Counsel out. Riever's men find Counsel and trap him in a ballast bulkhead, but Pen rescues him.
Monsieur Beaucaire
Richelieu
The Duke of Chartres is in love with Princess Henriette, but she seemingly wants nothing to do with him. Eventually he grows tired of her insults and flees to England when Louis XV insists that the two marry. He goes undercover as Monsieur Beaucaire, the barber of the French Ambassador, and finds that he enjoys the freedom of a commoner’s life. After catching the Duke of Winterset cheating at cards, he forces him to introduce him as a nobleman to Lady Mary, with whom he has become infatuated. When Lady Mary is led to believe that the Duke of Chartres is merely a barber she loses interest in him. She eventually learns that he is a nobleman after all and tries to win him back, but the Duke of Chartres opts to return to France and Princess Henriette who now returns his affection.
His Children's Children
Florian
Follows three generations of the Mayne family through the year 1921-22. The 81-year-old patriarch reminisces about his rough beginnings in post-Civil War railroading, son Rufus rides rough waters as a wealthy financier, and his wife and three daughters muddle through their New York high society life.
Under Two Flags
Sheik Ben Ali Hammed
On the run from punishment for a crime committed by his brother, Bertie Cecil (alias Lewis Victor) joins the French Foreign Legion. In Algeria, he becomes the hated rival of his commander, Chateauroy, who despises Victor's breeding and also competes for the same woman. Victor is beloved of Cigarette, an Algerian camp follower, who saves his life, though he loves another.
Saturday Night
The Count Demitry Scardoff
Though betrothed to fellow socialite Richard, Iris weds her chauffeur Tom leaving Richard to marry the family laundress' daughter Shamrock. Class differences lead to divorces and remarriages.
Fool's Paradise
Prince Talaat-Ni
In a Mexican border town Arthur befriends cantina girl Poll. She falls for him but he still loves the dancer Rosa. When the cigar Poll gives him explodes and blinds him, Arthur is duped into thinking Poll is Rosa and marries her. When his vision is surgically restored, he leaves for Siam to find Rosa.
No Woman Knows
Theodore Brandeis
In Winnebago, Wisconsin, a Jewish family comprising Molly and Ferdinand Brandeis and their two children, Fanny and Theodore, run a modest dry goods store.
The Bronze Bell
Salig Singh
In the 1850s, a young prince in India promises his dying father he will lead a revolt against the English colonial masters of India. However, since he is half-European himself, he can't bring himself to do it and flees to America, to live in obscurity. He finds, however, that he can't outrun his obligations
Cheated Love
Mischa Grossman
Sonya Schnoema, a Jewish girl, comes to the United States as an immigrant and works in her father's ghetto grocery store, where she gains the affections of a young settlement worker, David Dahlman. But she loves Mischa, a young doctor who soon arrives from Odessa, and to aid him financially, she distinguishes herself in the local Yiddish theater.
The Great Lover
Sonino
Ethel Warren returns from studying in Europe to make her debut in New York with the opera company in which Jean Paurel, world-famous baritone, is the star. Carlo Sonino, also a member of the company, falls in love with Ethel and warns her against becoming infatuated with the amorous singer.
Through the Toils
Walter Tressler
Author Noel Graham goes to the little village of Mondon, where his ancestors lived, for solitude to write. While searching for a lost puppy, Noel meets Rhona Allerton, who is visiting her guardian, Lewis Moffat, a writer in his declining years. Realizing that he needs inspiration to write a passionate romance, Moffat, with the help of old Benson, a former derelict now in his service, encourages the blossoming love affair between Rhona and Noel, while planning to destroy it later and analyze their suffering.
The Stronger Vow
José de Co0rdova
During the Easter Carnival, Dolores de Cordova flirts with Juan Estudillo, not knowing that he is a member of the family with whom her ancestors have long feuded. Dolores' cousin, Pedro Toral, jealous of her attentions to Juan, kills her brother that night and after leaving Juan's handkerchief by the body, makes Dolores swear to avenge the death with her own hands....
The Spurs of Sybil
The Awakening
Horace Chapron
The Wild Girl
Undetermined Role
A dying stranger abandons a baby girl in a gypsy camp, with a note explaining that on her eighteenth birthday, she is to inherit a Virginia estate. The gypsy chief, aware of the girl's value, instructs Sabia, the tribe's matron, to dress and rear her as a boy. Years later, while the tribe is traveling in Virginia, Vosho, the chief's son, discovers the true sex of the girl, now called Firefly, and demands to marry her.
The Power of Decision
The Brand of Cowardice
Navarete
Cyril Hamilton is a chicken-hearted easterner who heads west. He makes up for his past misdeeds by rescuing a Cavalry colonel's daughter Marcia West from Mexican bandidos.
Romeo and Juliet
Paris
Shakespeare's tragedy of two young people who fall desperately in love despite the ancient feud between their two families, and how the sins of the fathers bring disaster to their children.
The Wall Between
Capt. Burkett
John Kendall was brought up in a wealthy family, but when his father loses the family fortune and then dies, John is left penniless. He joins the army and rises to the rank of sergeant. He soon meets and falls in love with Edith Ferris, the daughter of Col. Dickinson. When he talks to her at a party, Lt. Burkett upbraids him for fraternizing with an officer's family. Edith's mother, not wanting her daughter getting involved with a lowly enlisted man, conspires with Lt. Burkett to discredit John.
The Sentimental Lady
Norman Van Aulsten
When he wasn't churning out "Curses, foiled again!" melodramas, playwright Owen Davis Sr. specialized in such social dramas as The Sentimental Lady. Irene Fenwick stars as Amy Cary, who has invested her life savings in a utility stock. Amy's fiance Norman Van Aulsten (John Davidson) is saddled with a crooked father (Thomas McGrath), whose Wall Street shenanigans threaten to wipe out Amy and the rest of the stockholders. Fortunately, crusading attorney Bob Nelson (Jack Devereaux) manages to prevent this financial catastrophe.
The Green Cloak
Paul Duncan
Future Pulitzer Prize winner Owen Davis was one of the scenarists for this Kleine-Edison production. ene Fenwick stars as Ruth McAllister, one of two sisters currently being victimized by a phony hypnotist named Wilkins (Richie Ling). A murder is committed, and all evidence points to Ruth as the guilty party.
Hearts and Swords
Lieutenant Salza
Donna Gonzales has a daughter, Rosa, and a son, Maxim. Maxim is fighting in the Rebel cause, his mother being the widow of a Rebel general. He is pursued while taking important dispatches to the Rebel general, takes refuge in his home, hides himself in a chimney and eludes the Federals. Maxim is badly wounded, and his sister, Rosa, volunteers to carry the dispatches. She departs dressed in her brother's clothes and is captured.
The Secret of Lost River
Pierre Vignol - Artist
Pierre Vignol, an artist wintering in Arizona, is bitten by a snake. He is taken by his friend, Tom Hornby, to Padre Francisco, who prescribes for the bite. Pierre, at the request of Tom, returns to his cabin and Tom takes care of him. Later Tom discovers a tube in Lost River. This proves to be a painting and Pierre takes it to Padre Francisco. The Padre reads him an interesting history of Fr. Bartolomeo. founder of the Mission, and of how the painting came to be discovered in Lost River, for it had been thrown there by a monk when the Mission was attacked by the Indians, owing to the abduction of the Chief's daughter by a villainous Spaniard. Tom takes the painting to New York where he sells it and gives the money to the wife of Tom, who has been too poor to bring her and the baby to Arizona.