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Jack Kruschen

Jack Kruschen
Jack Kruschen
Born: Mar 20, 1922 in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
Died: Apr 02, 2002
Occupation: Actor
Active: '50s-'80s
Major Genres: Comedy, Drama
Career Highlights: The Unsinkable Molly Brown, A Blueprint for Murder, Caprice
First Major Screen Credit: Confidence Girl (1952)
9 Videos for Jack Kruschen
Dear Brigitte (1965) Cape Fear (1962) The Angry Red Planet (1959)
The Unsinkable Molly Brown (1964) Follow That Dream (1961) The Benny Goodman Story (1955)
McLintock! (1963) The Apartment (1960) The War of the Worlds (1953)
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Biography:

Husky, bushy-mustached, frequently unkempt Canadian actor Jack Kruschen appeared steadily on radio from 1938 onward. He began playing small film roles in 1949, often cast as minor villains and braying bullies. He became a cult favorite after playing one of the three earliest victims (the Hispanic one) of the Martian death ray in George Pal's War of the Worlds (1953).

His larger film roles included MGM mogul Louis B. Mayer in the Carol Lynley version of Harlow (1965), and the remonstrative physician neighbor of Jack Lemmon in Billy Wilder's The Apartment (1960); the latter assignment copped a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination for Kruschen.

A tireless TV performer, Kruschen has guested in a variety of roles on most of the top video offerings, and was a regular in the 1977 sitcom Busting Loose, playing the father of Adam Arkin. Relatively inactive after 1980, Jack Kruschen made a welcome return in PBS' 1993 adaptation of Arthur Miller's The American Clock.

~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide.