James Ellison
Actor · 1910 – 1993 · Guthrie Center, Iowa, USA
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. James Ellison (May 4, 1910 - December 23, 1993) was an American actor, born James Ellison Smith in Guthrie Center, Iowa, son of Edward James Smith and Ona Mary Ellis. Ellison appeared in nearly seventy films between 1932 and 1962. Ellison worked for a time in a film laboratory and while there was offered a screen test. He developed it himself and when he saw it, decided it was not satisfactory so he would not show it to the director. But he saw it anyway and Ellison got a contract. Despite his rugged good looks and height of 6 feet 3 inches, Ellison's limited range and somewhat wooden screen presence kept him from the first (or even second) ranks of stardom. He spent much of his career in Westerns, including a stint in the mid-thirties as the sidekick of Hopalong Cassidy in Paramount's successful series. In 1938, he played a charming, romantic character opposite 26 year old Lucille Ball in the comedy, "Next Time I Marry", a film where Ball had her first top billing on screen credits. Before that, in 1936, he played his highest-profile role, as Buffalo Bill in Cecil B. DeMille's The Plainsman, which also starred Gary Cooper and Jean Arthur. Despite that film's success, Ellison spent most of the remainder of his career shuttling between cowboy pictures and more varied roles, primarily in B movies with titles like Mr. District Attorney in the Carter Case and The Undying Monster. He had a supporting role in 1941's Charley's Aunt (which starred Jack Benny) and played the romantic lead in 1943's The Gang's All Here, a Twentieth Century Fox musical in which he seemed somewhat lost among the vivid antics of Carmen Miranda, Charlotte Greenwood, and Edward Everett Horton (and was the only principal not to sing a note). He also co-starred with Tom Conway and Frances Dee in Val Lewton's production of I Walked with a Zombie, directed by Jacques Tourneur. Ellison landed another romantic lead role as 'Jerry Gibson' in the musical film Lady, Let's Dance (1944) which starred ice skating sensation 'Belita'. In the early 1950s, Ellison moved from acting to real estate. Joining fellow veteran Jackie Coogan, Ellison returned to the screen only once to play Axel 'Longhorn' Gates in a picture called When the Girls Take Over (1962). James Ellison died at age 83 in Monterey, California after suffering a broken neck as the result of a fall. Description above from the Wikipedia article James Ellison (actor), licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Movies24
Movie6.5WesternWarWild Bill Hickok, Calamity Jane, and Buffalo Bill go up against Indians and a gunrunner.
The Plainsman
1936 · 42 votes
Movie7.0ComedyRomanceCollege town life gets turned upside down after a button-down botany professor secretly weds a sizzling night-club singer.
Vivacious Lady
1938 · 71 votes
Movie6.4CrimeDramaAn embezzler who expects to serve his time in prison and then pick up his buried loot is in for a surprise.
Buried Loot
1935 · 7 votes
Movie6.8MysteryHorrorA nurse in the Caribbean turns to voodoo in hopes of curing her patient, a mindless woman whose husband she's fallen in love with.
I Walked with a Zombie
1943 · 343 votes
Movie10.0AdventureGale, a store owner, lives in an Alaskan village with his grown ward, Necia, whom he had rescued years before from her murderer father, Captain Bennett. Now Bennett, disguised as Ben Stark, has arrived in the village seeking vengeance and his daughter.
The Barrier
1937 · 1 votes
Movie5.9ComedyRomanceA soldier falls for a chorus girl and then experiences trouble when he is posted to the Pacific.
The Gang's All Here
1943 · 42 votes
Movie5.0ComedyA modest country doctor in the antebellum South has to contend with his daughter's upcoming marriage and an affectionate medicine show elephant.
Zenobia
1939 · 14 votes
Movie5.9ComedyMusicBob Clemens is a cameraman for newsreels. Assigned to shoot the Swiss ice skater Karen Vadja, he arrives too late, so decides to film a woman skating on a different New York rink and pass her off as Karen. The scheme backfires when promoter Larry Herman takes a look at Bob's film and decides to make the skater a star. Unfortunately, it's actually amateur (and illegal immigrant) Marie Bergin in the newsreel footage, not the great figure skater from Switzerland. Chaos ensues as Bob tries to straighten everybody out.
Ice-Capades
1941 · 7 votes
Movie5.3WesternProblems come in the form of one of Hopalong Cassidy's neighbors, but the matter is settled when Hoppy roots out the troublemaker.
Heart of the West
1936 · 4 votes
Movie5.8WesternHoppy returns to find Johnny in trouble. Buck Peters has been shot by Porter who made it look like Johnny did it. When Johnny flees he runs into Linda. He takes a liking to her only to learn her father Shanghai is one of Porter's gang. Going after Shanghai, he gets captured by the gang and Porter now plans to kill him. But Hoppy is near by and Johnny will get unexpected help from Shanghai.
Call of the Prairie
1936 · 4 votes
Movie5.8WesternWhen the outlaw El Toro saves Hoppy's life, Hoppy agrees to find his missing grandson.
The Eagle's Brood
1935 · 5 votes
Movie6.6CrimeDramaA foreword warns against the peril of yellow journalism, and the story illustrates it by following events in the upstate New York town of Cornwall after prominant financier George Ferguson is killed. Two types of New York City journalists descend on Cornwall, one interested in facts, the other in getting sensational "news". Mrs. Ferguson is known to have been friendly with a local banker. The Fergusons quarrel the evening he is killed (by "burglars", his wife tells the police later), and she is arrested, spurred on by the "bad" journalists, who also manage to badger the banker's wife into the hospital. Meanwhile, young Bruce Foster runs the Cornwall Courier, and shows the big city reporters how to dig out real news while they attempt to subvert justice for their own ends.
The Famous Ferguson Case
1932 · 7 votes
Movie9.0WesternJohnny Mack Brown goes up against a lady bank robber in this average Mack Brown series late-entry from Monogram. The lady, played by Barbara Allen, is of course called "Ma." In order to get the goods on "Ma" and her "brood," Mack Brown must masquerade as a lone bandit.
Oklahoma Justice
1951 · 1 votes
Movie7.0ComedyRomanceA wealthy man hires a poor girl to play his mistress in order to get more attention from his neglectful family.
Fifth Avenue Girl
1939 · 26 votes
Movie6.0DramaSentimental drama about an ambitious young teacher who arrives in a small town to take the job of vice-principal. Based on one of L M Montgomery's 'Anne of Green Gables' sequels.
Anne of Windy Poplars
1940 · 7 votes
Movie6.7DramaRomanceThe adventures of three disparate cadets at the US Naval Academy--one the son of a Navy enlisted man, the other the scion of a wealthy family, the third decent but somewhat slow-witted--and their struggles with the rigors of the academy, women, and each other.
Annapolis Salute
1937 · 3 votes
Movie4.2ComedyA barber tries to find the winning lottery ticket he hid from his moralistic wife.
The Winning Ticket
1935 · 4 votes
Movie3.3WesternA cowboy must clear himself of a murder he did not commit.
Last of the Wild Horses
1948 · 12 votes
Movie7.2ComedyRomanceHeiress Nancy Crocker Fleming will only receive her inheritance if she marries a "plain American." Her late father was afraid a foreign gigolo would steal her heart and money. So Nancy pays Tony Anthony, working on a WPA road project, to marry, then divorce her. When Nancy inadvertently drives off with Tony's dog, Tony seemingly kidnaps her to retrieve the pooch, which leads to a cross-country race between the two to reach Reno and the divorce court since neither one wants to be the second to file papers.
Next Time I Marry
1938 · 9 votes
Movie10.0CrimeWesternAs a boy, Shamrock's parents were killed. He took possession of a pistol belonging to his father, a famous marshal. Now that he is grown, he takes the job of marshal and uses the same gun, but he still has to solve the mystery of what happened to his parents.
Fast on the Draw
1950 · 1 votes
Movie6.0ActionWesternAn evil gang is involved in both cattle rustling and the robbing of stagecoaches. Hoppy must stop them without help from the sheriff who turns out be a major outlaw himself.
Three on the Trail
1936 · 3 votes
Movie5.2RomanceComedyA Texas oil millionaire, after failing to secure oil lands in Argentina, seeks out a famous racehorse in Buenos Aires and orders his representative to buy the nag at any price. The representative, Tim Kelly, has a love affair with Lolita O'Shea, the beautiful daughter of the prize horse's owner.
They Met in Argentina
1941 · 4 votes
Movie7.5MysteryCrimeLike the first entry, this one is played mostly for laughs, with Radio's Mister District Attorney. James Ellison replacing Dennis O'Keefe as feckless assistant DA P. Cadwallader Jones. The publisher of a tony fashion magazine is murdered, requiring Jones to sift through a colorful array of suspects. He is helped along by snoopy girl reporter Terry Parker.
Mr. District Attorney in the Carter Case
1941 · 2 votes
Movie6.7MusicWesternCattle rustler Nevada dreams of living like an emperor in the West. Hoppy and the Bar 20 boys aim to put an end to his dream.
Bar 20 Rides Again
1935 · 3 votes