Charles King

Charles King

actor

Charles King was born on Feb 21, 1895 in USA. Charles King's big-screen debut came with The Birth of a Nation directed by D.W. Griffith in 1915, strarring Undetermined Role (unconfirmed, uncredited). Charles King is known for The Caravan Trail directed by Robert Emmett Tansey, Eddie Dean stars as Eddie Dean and Lash La Rue as Cherokee. The upcoming new movie Charles King plays is The Great Adventures of Captain Kidd which will be released on Sep 17, 1953.

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.

  • Birthday

    Feb 21, 1895

  • Place of Birth

    Hillsboro, Texas, USA

Known For

The Caravan Trail
Movie
The Caravan Trail

19467.6

Zorro's Fighting Legion
Movie
Zorro's Fighting Legion

19397.2

Panamint's Bad Man
Movie
Panamint's Bad Man

19387.7

Wild Horse Canyon
Movie
Wild Horse Canyon

19387.3

In Early Arizona
Movie
In Early Arizona

19387.1

The Whole Town's Talking
Movie
The Whole Town's Talking

19357.3

Punch Drunks
Movie
Punch Drunks

19347.6

Men in Black
Movie
Men in Black

19347.6

Whom the Gods Destroy
Movie
Whom the Gods Destroy

19347.2

Fargo Express
Movie
Fargo Express

19337.1

Movies & TV Shows

All
Movies