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IMDbPro

Charles King(1895-1957)

  • Actor
  • Stunts
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Charles King in Fighting Thru; or, California in 1878 (1930)
Trailer for this classic suspense thriller
Play trailer1:45
The Iron Claw (1941)
1 Video
99+ Photos
In films since childhood (as a teenager he appeared in The Birth of a Nation (1915)), Charles King played a variety of roles in silent films, and even made a series of comedy shorts for Universal in the 1920s. However, it was as a villain in sound westerns that King achieved his greatest fame. In the 1930s and 1940s his jowly face, beady eyes, Texas accent, droopy walrus mustache and overhanging beer belly became familiar to legions of fans of B westerns, especially those of rock-bottom PRC Pictures (it seemed like he showed up in every western PRC ever made), and you knew as soon as you saw him that he would meet his doom before the end of the last reel. Sometimes he was actually the head of the gang, but usually he was just a hired gun or, on even rarer occasions, "middle management". There's a line in Blazing Saddles (1974) where Gene Wilder says, "I've killed more men than Cecil B. DeMille"; it's doubtful that anyone has been killed more times in films than Charlie King. He's been shot, beaten up, run over, thrown off cliffs and blown up by the likes of John Wayne, Buster Crabbe, Buck Jones, Tim McCoy, and pretty much anyone who ever appeared in a movie with him--if he had been in a Shirley Temple picture, she would have found a way to bump him off.

After a memorable career as a punching bag, piñata and moving target for most of the actors in Hollywood, Charlie King finally hung up his spurs in 1957, and died of cirrhosis of the liver in May of that year.
BornFebruary 21, 1895
DiedMay 7, 1957(62)
BornFebruary 21, 1895
DiedMay 7, 1957(62)
IMDbProStarmeter
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Photos372

Lou Costello and Charles King in The Wistful Widow of Wagon Gap (1947)
Ellen Hall, Reed Howes, Charles King, James Newill, Dave O'Brien, and Guy Wilkerson in Brand of the Devil (1944)
Ray Corrigan and Charles King in The White Gorilla (1945)
Ray Corrigan, Francis Ford, Charles King, George J. Lewis, and Lorraine Miller in The White Gorilla (1945)
Ray Corrigan, Francis Ford, Charles King, George J. Lewis, and Lorraine Miller in The White Gorilla (1945)
Ray Corrigan, Francis Ford, Charles King, George J. Lewis, and Lorraine Miller in The White Gorilla (1945)
Tim McCoy and Charles King in Outlaws of the Rio Grande (1941)
Bud Geary, Jack Ingram, Ian Keith, and Charles King in The Man from Thunder River (1943)
Charles King and James Newill in Bad Men of Thunder Gap (1943)
Reed Howes, Tom Keene, Charles King, and Frank Yaconelli in Lone Star Law Men (1941)
Reed Howes, Charles King, Stanley Price, and Frank Yaconelli in Lone Star Law Men (1941)
Walter James, Charles King, and Al St. John in The Lone Rider Fights Back (1941)

Known for

George Reeves, William Fawcett, and Lois Hall in The Adventures of Sir Galahad (1949)
The Adventures of Sir Galahad
6.6
  • Sir Bors
  • 1949
Buster Crabbe, Bud Osborne, and Al St. John in Outlaws of the Plains (1946)
Outlaws of the Plains
6.4
  • Nord Finner(as Charles King Jr.)
  • 1946
Buster Crabbe, Patricia Knox, and Al St. John in Prairie Badmen (1946)
Prairie Badmen
6.2
  • Cal
  • 1946
Bela Lugosi, Joan Barclay, and Bruce Bennett in Shadow of Chinatown (1936)
Shadow of Chinatown
4.5
  • Grogan - Henchman [Chs. 1-13]
  • 1936

Credits

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IMDbPro

Actor

  • Gunsmoke (1955)
    Gunsmoke
    • (uncredited) ...
  • Richard Crane, John Crawford, and Willetta Smith in The Great Adventures of Captain Kidd (1953)
    The Great Adventures of Captain Kidd
    • (uncredited)
  • Robert Lowery and Claude Stroud in Gunfire (1950)
    Gunfire
    • (uncredited)
  • Kirk Alyn in Atom Man vs. Superman (1950)
    Atom Man vs. Superman
    • (uncredited)
  • Did'ja Know?
  • Morris Carnovsky, Sheila Ryan, and Kent Taylor in Western Pacific Agent (1950)
    Western Pacific Agent
    • (uncredited)
  • George Reeves, William Fawcett, and Lois Hall in The Adventures of Sir Galahad (1949)
    The Adventures of Sir Galahad
  • Johnny Mack Brown, Rod Cameron, and Gale Storm in Stampede (1949)
    Stampede
    • (uncredited)
  • Judy Clark, Ralph Hodges, and Tom Neal in Bruce Gentry (1949)
    Bruce Gentry
  • Don McGuire and Cleo Moore in Congo Bill (1948)
    Congo Bill
  • Ruth Brady, Marjorie Lord, and Robert Shayne in The Strange Mrs. Crane (1948)
    The Strange Mrs. Crane
    • (uncredited)
  • Kirk Alyn in Superman (1948)
    Superman
  • Robert 'Buzz' Henry, Robert Kellard, and Peggy Stewart in Tex Granger: Midnight Rider of the Plains (1948)
    Tex Granger: Midnight Rider of the Plains
    • (uncredited)
  • Virginia Belmont, I. Stanford Jolley, Dub Taylor, and Jimmy Wakely in Oklahoma Blues (1948)
    Oklahoma Blues
    • (as Charles L. King Jr.)
  • Linda Leighton and Kane Richmond in Brick Bradford (1947)
    Brick Bradford

Stunts

  • Hoot Gibson, Ken Maynard, and Bob Steele in Westward Bound (1944)
    Westward Bound
    • (uncredited)

Videos1

The Iron Claw
Trailer 1:45
The Iron Claw

Personal details

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    • February 21, 1895
    • Hillsboro, Texas, USA
    • May 7, 1957
    • Hollywood, California, USA(cirrhosis of liver)
    • April 5, 1927 - ? (1 child)
  • Publicity listings
    • 1 Print Biography
    • 4 Articles

Did you know

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  • Trivia
    Father of Charlie King.

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