Roscoe Karns

The supporting actor who talked too much

Roscoe Karns rattled off lines with the speed of a carnival machine gun. In 1934 he played Oscar Shapeley in It Happened One Night and made millions of moviegoers want to kick him off the bus. That loud, wisecracking tough-guy role defined an acting style Hollywood would exploit for decades.

Karns didn't need to be the leading man to steal the scene.

Before getting into movies, he worked in vaudeville and on stage in California. In 1920 he made his big-screen debut in Life of the Party and soon realized his angular face worked best in fast-paced comedy. He wasn't a method actor, and he didn't need to be. His presence added a touch of everyday realism that balanced the storylines of top-billed stars.

In 1940 he appeared in His Girl Friday as McCue, one of the reporters who fill the press room. Howard Hawks asked him to speak faster than usual to fit the film's style. And Karns delivered in spades. He earned 750 dollars a week on set, in an era when studio contracts tied performers to fixed salaries.

The leap to live television

When movies began to change after World War II, many actors of his generation lost their place. But Karns read the shift in trends toward the small screen. In 1950 he starred in Rocky King, Detective and became one of the most recognizable faces on the DuMont network.

Television gave him a second life.

For four years he performed live episodes that demanded an iron memory and total improvisational skill. The show aired from New York, and Karns played a detective who solved crimes without losing his cool. He appeared in more than 200 episodes of that series before the network shut down over financial problems in 1955.

And the gamble paid off. The audience that had known him as the eternal funny supporting player in movies now accepted him as a serious, authoritative leading man. Karns had that rare quality of seeming like the neighbor across the street, even under the lights of a recording studio.

Retirement years and the final stretch

After his detective series ended, he returned to supporting roles, but with a different standing. In 1959 he joined the cast of Hennesey as Captain Shafer, alongside Jackie Cooper. He appeared in 92 episodes of this medical comedy until production ended in 1962.

His son, Roscoe Karns Jr., also tried to follow in his acting footsteps but never reached his father's level of fame.

In 1964 he appeared in an episode of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour titled Ten Minutes from Now. It was his last significant screen appearance before he retired for good from the studio lot.

He died at St. Vincent's Hospital in Los Angeles on February 6, 1970, at the age of 78.