Gerald Mohr

Biography

Gerald Mohr (New York, 1914 – Stockholm, 1968) was an American actor in radio, film and television who moved between leading and character roles. His baritone voice first brought him to radio, the medium in which he became best known for dramatic and mystery series in the 1930s and 1940s.

He studied at the Dwight Preparatory School and at Columbia University. After an appendicitis put him in hospital, a fellow patient who worked as a broadcaster suggested radio to him, and he soon began work as a reporter. In the mid-1930s Orson Welles brought him into his Mercury Theatre company, and on the radio he voiced Raymond Chandler's detective Philip Marlowe in 119 half-hour episodes. His film career began in the late 1930s with supporting and villain parts, such as the serial Jungle Girl (1941). After serving in the US Army Air Forces during the Second World War, he starred in three films of The Lone Wolf series in 1946 and 1947.

From the 1950s he was a guest star in more than a hundred television series, mostly Westerns such as Maverick, where he twice played the gambler Doc Holliday, and Bonanza. He also appeared in comedies such as I Love Lucy and in crime series such as Perry Mason. In 1954 and 1955 he starred in Foreign Intrigue, filmed in Stockholm, and in the 1960s he planned a production company in Sweden with his second wife. His last film role was in William Wyler's Funny Girl (1968). He died of a heart attack shortly after filming the pilot of Private Entrance. He is remembered today as a versatile performer of the radio and television of his era rather than as a film star.

Key films

• Jungle Girl (1941), a serial in which he played an early major villain.
• Gilda (1946), in a brief cameo in Charles Vidor's classic.
• Detective Story (1951), William Wyler, in a supporting role in the police drama.
• Funny Girl (1968), William Wyler, his last film appearance, as Tom Branca.