Skip to main content
Roscoe Karns

Roscoe Karns

Actor · 1891 – 1970 · San Bernardino, California, USA

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Roscoe Karns (September 7, 1891 – February 6, 1970) was an American actor who appeared in nearly 150 films between 1915 and 1964. He specialized in cynical, wise-cracking (and often tipsy) characters, and his rapid-fire delivery enlivened many comedies and crime thrillers in the 1930s and 1940s. Though he appeared in numerous silent films, such as Wings and Beggars of Life, his career didn't really take off until sound arrived. Arguably his best-known film role was the annoying bus passenger Oscar Shapeley, who tries to pick up Claudette Colbert in the Oscar-winning comedy It Happened One Night (1934), quickly followed by one of his best performances as the boozy press agent Owen O'Malley in Howard Hawks' Twentieth Century. (Six years later, he co-starred as one of the reporters in another Hawks classic, His Girl Friday.) In 1937, Paramount teamed him with Lynne Overman as a pair of laconic private eyes in two B comedy-mysteries, Murder Goes to College and Partners in Crime. From 1950 to 1954, Karns played the title role in the popular DuMont Television Network series Rocky King, Inside Detective. His son, character actor Todd Karns, also appeared in that series. From 1959 to 1962, Karns was cast as Admiral Walter Shafer in seventy-three of the ninety-five episodes of the CBS military sitcom/drama series, Hennesey, starring Jackie Cooper in the title role of a United States Navy physician, and Abby Dalton as nurse Martha Hale. His final film was another Hawks comedy, Man's Favorite Sport?, in 1964. Karns was born in San Bernardino, California, and died in Los Angeles. Description above from the Wikipedia article Roscoe Karns, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia

Movies24

  • Movie7.0

    Dollar Down

    1925 · 1 votes

  • Movie7.8

    It Happened One Night

    1934 · 1.4K votes

  • Movie7.4

    His Girl Friday

    1940 · 971 votes

  • Movie7.2

    Wings

    1927 · 344 votes

  • Movie9.0

    The Vanishing Pioneer

    1928 · 1 votes

  • Movie6.1

    The Jazz Singer

    1927 · 259 votes

  • Movie9.0

    Warming Up

    1928 · 1 votes

  • Movie5.5

    Onionhead

    1958 · 8 votes

  • Movie6.1

    Alice in Wonderland

    1933 · 66 votes

  • Movie5.5

    Dirigible

    1931 · 11 votes

  • Movie7.0

    Object: Alimony

    1928 · 2 votes

  • Movie6.5

    If I Had a Million

    1932 · 51 votes

  • Movie7.0

    Man's Favorite Sport?

    1964 · 152 votes

  • Movie6.6

    You and Me

    1938 · 46 votes

  • Movie9.0

    Petticoat Politics

    1941 · 1 votes

  • Movie7.0

    Woman of the Year

    1942 · 169 votes

  • Movie6.5

    The Ten Commandments

    1923 · 94 votes

  • Movie6.9

    They Drive by Night

    1940 · 139 votes

  • Movie8.0

    Woman Trap

    1936 · 1 votes

  • Movie6.5

    Stowaway

    1932 · 2 votes

  • Movie5.8

    Yokel Boy

    1942 · 4 votes

  • Movie5.5

    Minstrel Man

    1944 · 6 votes

  • Movie6.3

    Stage Door Canteen

    1943 · 20 votes

  • Movie9.0

    Clarence

    1937 · 1 votes

Series5

  • TV7.1

    The Lucy Show

    1962 · 53 votes

  • TV6.8
  • TV6.3

    December Bride

    1954 · 4 votes

  • TV6.5

    Rocky King, Detective

    1950 · 2 votes

  • TV7.7

    Hennesey

    1959 · 3 votes