
Douglas Spencer
Actor · 1910 – 1960 · Princeton, Illinois, USA
Douglas Spencer (born July 4, 1910 – March 5, 1960) was an American actor, best known for his roles in classic science fiction films and film noirs during the 1940s and 1950s. Spencer was born in Baltimore, Maryland. He was drawn to the entertainment industry early on and began his career in theater before transitioning to films. He often played characters with a tough, no-nonsense edge, making him a popular choice for a variety of roles in films of the time. Spencer's big break came when he landed a role in the influential science fiction film *The Thing from Another World* (1951), directed by Christian Nyby and produced by Howard Hawks. In the film, Spencer played the role of a reporter named Ned Scott, who is among the group of scientists and military personnel investigating a mysterious alien threat in the Arctic. *The Thing from Another World* became a classic of the genre and remains one of Spencer’s most memorable roles. In addition to his work in science fiction, Spencer appeared in several other films across a range of genres. He was frequently cast in supporting roles in film noirs, thrillers, and dramas, and his distinctive, gravelly voice and sharp screen presence made him a recognizable face in Hollywood. Other notable films he appeared in include *The Big Clock* (1948), a crime thriller directed by John Farrow, and *The Green Glove* (1952), a suspenseful drama. Douglas Spencer was married to actress *Ann Wedgeworth*, and their marriage lasted for several years. After the height of his film career, Spencer continued working in television and on stage, although he never achieved the same level of fame as some of his contemporaries. Spencer’s career was cut short when he died from cancer at the age of 49, on March 5, 1960. Despite his relatively brief career, he remains fondly remembered by fans of classic sci-fi and noir films. Douglas Spencer's legacy is primarily tied to his memorable performance in *The Thing from Another World*, but his work across various genres helped solidify him as a dependable and versatile character actor in Hollywood during the 1940s and 1950s. His contributions to the sci-fi and noir genres continue to be appreciated by film enthusiasts today.
Movies24
Movie7.3DramaWesternA weary gunfighter attempts to settle down with a homestead family, but a smouldering settler and rancher conflict forces him to act.
Shane
1953 · 708 votes
Movie8.1CrimeThrillerAn insurance representative is seduced by a dissatisfied housewife into a scheme of insurance fraud and murder that arouses the suspicion of his colleague, a claims investigator.
Double Indemnity
1944 · 2.1K votes
Movie7.3DramaRomanceA young social climber wins the heart of a beautiful heiress but his former girlfriend's pregnancy stands in the way of his ambition.
A Place in the Sun
1951 · 429 votes
Movie6.7AdventureWesternAn itinerant farmer and his young son help a heart-of-gold saloon singer search for her estranged husband.
River of No Return
1954 · 494 votes
Movie6.7ComedyScience FictionResearch chemist Barnaby Fulton works on a fountain of youth pill for a chemical company. One of the labs chimps gets loose in the laboratory and mixes chemicals, but then pours the mix into the water cooler. When trying one of his own samples, washed down with water from the cooler, Fulton begins to act just like a twenty-year-old and believes his potion is working. Soon his wife and boss are also behaving like children.
Monkey Business
1952 · 305 votes
Movie7.6DramaLongtime alcoholic Don Birnam has been sober for ten days and appears to be over the worst... but his craving has just become more insidious. Evading a country weekend planned by his brother and girlfriend, he begins a four-day bender that just might be his last – one way or another.
The Lost Weekend
1945 · 685 votes
Movie6.7DramaHorrorScientists and US Air Force officials fend off a blood-thirsty alien organism while investigating at a remote arctic outpost.
The Thing from Another World
1951 · 712 votes
Movie7.0ComedyRomanceProud father Stanley Banks remembers the day his daughter, Kay, got married. Starting when she announces her engagement through to the wedding itself, we learn of all the surprises and disasters along the way.
Father of the Bride
1950 · 244 votes
Movie6.5WesternMexican gunfighter Dave Robles outdraws the town's outlaw-turned-sheriff and is invited to fill the dead man's shoes. But a tin star doesn't bring automatic respectability and Robles is shunned by the town's leading citizens. His popularity with its less-savory element, particularly saloonkeeper Bannister, wanes dramatically, too, as he starts to take his job seriously. It is his love for a decent, caring woman that keeps Dave in town, but can she convince him to lay down his gun and start a new life?
Man from Del Rio
1956 · 26 votes
Movie6.0Science FictionAdventureAliens have landed and are hiding on Earth, but need Earth’s scientists to help them fight an inter-planetary war.
This Island Earth
1955 · 240 votes
Movie7.2DramaHistoryThe true, harrowing story of a young Jewish girl who, with her family and their friends, is forced into hiding in an attic in Nazi-occupied Amsterdam.
The Diary of Anne Frank
1959 · 381 votes
Movie7.3CrimeThrillerGeorge Stroud, a crime magazine's crusading editor, has to postpone a vacation with his wife - again - when a glamorous blonde is murdered and he is assigned by his publishing boss to find the killer. As the investigation proceeds to its conclusion, Stroud must try to disrupt his ordinarily brilliant investigative team as they increasingly build evidence that he is the killer.
The Big Clock
1948 · 189 votes
Movie5.8WesternA frontiersman and his son fight to build a new home in Texas.
The Kentuckian
1955 · 60 votes
Movie7.8DramaRomanceIn 1840s New York, the uneventful and boring days of the daughter of a wealthy doctor come to an end when she meets a dashing poorer man — who may or may not be after her inheritance.
The Heiress
1949 · 287 votes
Movie7.2DramaA doctor treats a woman suffering from multiple personality disorder.
The Three Faces of Eve
1957 · 155 votes
Movie6.7ComedyWesternRich momma's boy Wade Kingsley Jr. an Eastern dude, tries to follow in his murdered father's footsteps by returning to the West to partner up with Slim Moseley Jr.,the son of his father's former partner. Wade overcomes Slim's initial reluctance to accept him by using his fortune to buy a prize cow and new car to help Slim in his job as foreman on the Kingsley family ranch, currently under siege by a gang of outlaws called "masked raiders." Wade generously tries to pay off the ranch's mortgage with $15,000 of his own money, but unfortunately neither "pardner" realizes that respected banker Dan Hollis, the son of their fathers' murderer, is the leader of the gang.
Pardners
1956 · 65 votes
Movie6.1ComedyDramaStruggling to retain custody of his daughter following his divorce, football coach Steve Williams finds himself embroiled in a recruiting scandal at the tiny Catholic college he is trying to bring back to football respectability.
Trouble Along the Way
1953 · 29 votes
Movie6.6DramaRomanceBy the early 1900s, the extraordinary Houdini earned an international reputation for his theatrical tricks and daring feats of extrication from shackles, ropes, handcuffs and... Scotland Yard's jails.
Houdini
1953 · 80 votes
Movie6.8ComedyRomancePrototype dumb blonde Irma and her slacker, wheeler-dealer boyfriend Al interfere in the love life of Irma's level-headed room mate Jane.
My Friend Irma
1949 · 24 votes
Movie6.8DramaCrimeAfter straight-arrow district attorney Joseph Foster says in frustration that he would sell his soul to bring down a local mob boss, a smooth-talking stranger named Nick Beal shows up with enough evidence to seal a conviction. When that success leads Foster to run for governor, Beal's unearthly hold on him turns the previously honest man corrupt, much to the displeasure of his wife and his steadfast minister.
Alias Nick Beal
1949 · 34 votes
Movie6.9ThrillerMysteryWhen heiress Jean Courtland attempts suicide, her fiancée Elliott Carson probes her relationship with John Triton. In flashback, we see how stage mentalist Triton starts having terrifying flashes of true precognition. Now years later, he desperately tries to prevent tragedies in the Courtland family.
Night Has a Thousand Eyes
1948 · 48 votes
Movie6.6CrimeDramaEx-con turned private investigator Bradford Galt suspects someone is following him and maybe even trying to kill him. With the assistance of his spunky secretary, Kathleen Stewart, he dives deep into a mystery in search of answers.
The Dark Corner
1946 · 72 votes
Movie6.5ThrillerCrimePolice catch a break when suspected kidnappers are spotted on a train heading towards Union Station. Police, train station security and a witness try to piece together the crime and get back the blind daughter of a rich business man.
Union Station
1950 · 52 votes
Movie5.8WesternRomanceA gunfighter, stranded in the desert, comes across the aftermath of a stage robbery, in which all the passengers were killed. He takes one of the horses to ride to town to report the massacre, but finds himself accused of it. He also finds himself accused of the murder of the local banker, and winds up hiding in the basement of a house where the local sheriff, who is very sick, lives with his daughter.
A Man Alone
1955 · 36 votes
Series9
TV7.5WesternAction & AdventureThe High-Sierra adventures of Ben Cartwright and his sons as they run and defend their ranch while helping the surrounding community.
Bonanza
1959 · 500 votes
TV7.1Action & AdventureWesternThe Rifleman is an American Western television program starring Chuck Connors as rancher Lucas McCain and Johnny Crawford as his son, Mark McCain. It was set in the 1880s in the town of North Fork, New Mexico Territory. The show was filmed in black-and-white, half-hour episodes. "The Rifleman" aired on ABC from September 30, 1958 to April 8, 1963 as a production of Four Star Television. It was one of the first prime time series to have a widowed parent raise a child.
The Rifleman
1958 · 54 votes
TV8.5Sci-Fi & FantasyMysteryAn anthology series containing drama, psychological thriller, fantasy, science fiction, suspense, and/or horror, often concluding with a macabre or unexpected twist.
The Twilight Zone
1959 · 1.1K votes
TV6.2WesternDramaCheyenne Bodie was a big man, a former army scout who went west after the American Civil War and drifted from job to job, here a cowboy, there a lawman, and always a larger-than-life hero. CHEYENNE is an American western television series of 108 black-and-white episodes broadcast on ABC from 1955 to 1963. The show was the first hour-long western, and in fact the first hour-long dramatic series of any kind, with continuing characters, to last more than one season. It was also the first series to be made by a major Hollywood film studio which did not derive from its established film properties, and the first of a long chain of Warner Brothers original series produced by William T. Orr.
Cheyenne
1955 · 26 votes
TV5.8DramaAn anthology series that explored the ways sudden and unexpected wealth changed life for better or for worse. It told the stories of people who were given one million dollars from a benefactor who insisted they never know him, with one exception.
The Millionaire
1955 · 4 votes
TV5.1WesternAfter the end of the Civil War, a former Confederate Army private roams the Wild West, and, as a rogue drifter, gets involved in helping out various settlers threatened by various bad guys... THE REBEL is a 76-episode American western television series starring Nick Adams that debuted on the ABC network from 1959 to 1961. The Rebel was one of the few Goodson-Todman Productions outside of their game show ventures. Beginning in December 2011, The Rebel reruns began to air Saturday mornings on Me-TV.
The Rebel
1959 · 11 votes
TV7.5DramaFamilyStudio 57 is an American anthology series that was broadcast on the now-defunct DuMont Television Network from September 1954 to September 1955, and in syndication from 1955 to 1956.
Studio 57
1954 · 2 votes
- TV6.7DramaComedy
Lux Video Theatre is an American anthology series that was produced from 1950 until 1959. The series presented both comedy and drama in original teleplays, as well as abridged adaptations of films and plays.
Lux Video Theatre
1950 · 7 votes
TV9.0DramaWire Service is an American drama series that aired on ABC as part of its 1956-57 season lineup.
Wire Service
1956 · 1 votes