Jack La Rue(1902-1984)
- Actor
Discovered on Broadway by director
Howard Hawks, La Rue was originally brought
to Hollywood to play a gangster in
Scarface (1932). He lost that role to
George Raft, and similarly was replaced by
Humphrey Bogart in the film version of
The Petrified Forest (1936).
Eventually, he became well-known to movie-goers as a mean, sexy
gangster type in sadistic roles like
Miriam Hopkins' abductor in
The Story of Temple Drake (1933).
Film audiences, who loved to loathe him on-screen, were occasionally
surprised by his being cast against type in such movies as
A Farewell to Arms (1932). His
final film was in the low-budget film
Paesano: A Voice in the Night (1975).