Actor Harry Lauter

By March 11, 2010 Media




My parents were good friends with actor Harry Lauter and when I was growing up it was fun seeing him on western TV shows. Born in White Plains, New York, he was raised in Denver, Colorado. His real movie career began in 1946 and he eventually appeared on 498 shows not including the Texas Ranger Series and two serials he started in. I see him frequently when watching old TV westerns.

From Wikipedia:
“Herman Arthur “Harry” Lauter (June 19, 1914 – October 30, 1990) was an American character actor originally from White Plains, New York.

“He came to be a familiar presence in low-budget films, serials (where he was often cast because of his facial resemblance to stuntman Tom Steele, who would double him), and television programs in the 1950s, though he only once really came close to a stardom, as Clay Morgan, one of the leads in the series Tales of the Texas Rangers, which aired from 1955-1958. He starred in fifty-two episodes.

“Lauter also made appearances on many television programs, particularly westerns: The Gene Autry Show (sixteen episodes), Annie Oakley (12 episodes), The Lone Ranger and The Range Rider (eleven episodes each), Gunsmoke and Rawhide (ten episodes each), Death Valley Days and The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet (seven episodes each), Laramie and Dick Powell’s Zane Grey Theater (six episodes each), The Virginian and State Trooper (five times each), and Cheyenne, Bonanza, and Maverick (three episodes each). His last appearance was in 1979 as Marshal Charlie Benton in James Arness’s How the West Was Won.

“Most of his career was spent as a serviceable second lead or heavy, though he continued to play bit parts in larger pictures, including an uncredited part as a plain-clothes policeman in the 1949 crime drama, White Heat which starred James Cagney and Edmond O’Brien.

“The son of an artist, he devoted much of his energy late in his life to his own painting and running an art gallery. He died in 1990 in Ojai in Ventura County, California leaving a wife (Doris Lauter). He had been married two times previously and fathered two children.

If you have problems seeing the video below click HERE.

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