John Qualen
John Qualen appeared in some of the greatest movies ever made, but his versatility allowed him to seem like a different man from picture to picture. He specialized in Scandinavians, but actually played various nationalities over the course of his career, which caught its first break in 1929 when he portrayed Carl Olsen, a Swedish janitor in the Broadway play "Street Scene." He recreated the part for a film version two years later, the first of a long line of different movies and accents. The same year as "Street Scene," he was in John Ford's "Arrowsmith," which started a lengthy collaboration with the director. For over 30 years, he belonged to Ford's stock company and appeared in some of his best-known films, often playing working-class men with ethnic names--Lars Jorgensen in "The Searchers," Axel Swanson in "The Long Voyage Home," Ericson in "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance"--and enunciations to go with them. His characters' accents were sometimes intended for humorous effect; exceptions included Ford's 1940 adaptation of "The Grapes of Wrath," in which Qualen played the irrevocably broken Muley Graves. With a Midwestern twang, Graves told the story of farms being foreclosed and homes being destroyed. That unexpectedly haunting accent found its way into a comedy, too--Howard Hawks's 1940 "His Girl Friday," in which Qualen portrayed a convicted murderer. Another role he is widely remembered for is Victor Laszlo's Resistance contact, Berger, in "Casablanca," whose Scandinavian accent fit the cosmopolitan setting perfectly.
Photos
John Qualen
Filmography
Movies
Credit | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Getting Away From It All | Charlie Erickson (Character) | - | 1972 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Hail, Hero! | Billy Hurd (Character) | - | 1969 |
No Score Yet |
|
Firecreek | Hall (Character) | - | 1968 |
No Score Yet |
|
A Big Hand for the Little Lady | Jesse Buford (Character) | - | 1966 |
89% |
|
A Patch of Blue | Mr. Faber (Character) | - | 1965 |
No Score Yet |
|
I'll Take Sweden | Olaf (Character) | - | 1965 |
86% |
|
7 Faces of Dr. Lao | Luther Lindquist (Character) | - | 1964 |
60% |
|
Cheyenne Autumn | Svenson (uncredited) (Character) | - | 1964 |
No Score Yet |
|
Those Calloways | Ernie Evans (Character) | - | 1964 |
95% |
|
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance | Peter Ericson (Character) | - | 1962 |
86% |
|
Two Rode Together | Ole Knudsen (Character) | - | 1961 |
No Score Yet |
|
Hell Bent for Leather | Old Ben (Character) | - | 1960 |
50% |
|
North to Alaska | Logger (Character) | - | 1960 |
100% |
|
Anatomy of a Murder | Deputy Sheriff Sulo (Character) | - | 1959 |
No Score Yet |
|
The Gun Runners | Pop (Character) | - | 1958 |
No Score Yet |
|
Terror in the Haunted House | Jonah Snell (Character) | - | 1958 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Revolt in the Big House | Doc (Character) | - | 1958 |
No Score Yet |
|
The Big Land | Sven Johnson (Character) | - | 1957 |
87% |
|
The Searchers | Lars Jorgensen (Character) | - | 1956 |
No Score Yet |
|
The Sea Chase | Chief Engineer Schmitt (Character) | - | 1955 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Unchained | Leonard Haskins (Character) | - | 1955 |
No Score Yet |
|
At Gunpoint | Livingstone (Character) | - | 1955 |
No Score Yet |
|
Passion | Gaspar Melo (Character) | - | 1954 |
No Score Yet |
|
I, the Jury | Dr. R.H. Vickers, Veterinarian (Character) | - | 1953 |
No Score Yet |
|
Ambush at Tomahawk Gap | Jonas P. Travis (Character) | - | 1953 |
83% |
|
Hans Christian Andersen | Burgomaster (Character) | - | 1952 |
No Score Yet |
|
Goodbye, My Fancy | Professor Dingley (Character) | - | 1951 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Belle Le Grand | Corky McGee (Character) | - | 1951 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | The Flying Missile | Lars Hansen (Character) | - | 1951 |
88% |
|
Woman on the Run | Maibus (Character) | - | 1950 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Buccaneer's Girl | Vegetable Man (Character) | - | 1950 |
No Score Yet |
|
Hollow Triumph | Swangron (Character) | - | 1948 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Alias a Gentleman | No End (Character) | - | 1948 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | My Girl Tisa | Svenson (Character) | - | 1948 |
71% |
|
The Fugitive | A Refugee Doctor (Character) | - | 1947 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Song of Scheherazade | Lorenzo (Character) | - | 1947 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | High Conquest | Peter Oberwalder Sr. (Character) | - | 1947 |
No Score Yet |
|
Roughly Speaking | Svend Olsen (Character) | - | 1945 |
100% |
|
Captain Kidd | Bart Blivens (Character) | - | 1945 |
No Score Yet |
|
Adventure | Model T (Character) | - | 1945 |
86% |
|
An American Romance | Anton Dubechek (Character) | - | 1944 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Swing Shift Maisie | Horatio Curley (Character) | - | 1943 |
No Score Yet |
|
Tortilla Flat | Jose Maria Corcoran (Character) | - | 1942 |
75% |
|
Arabian Nights | Aladdin (Character) | - | 1942 |
54% |
|
Jungle Book | The Barber (Character) | - | 1942 |
No Score Yet |
|
Larceny, Inc. | Sam Bachrach (Character) | - | 1942 |
100% |
|
The Devil and Daniel Webster | Miser Stevens (Character) | - | 1941 |
No Score Yet |
|
The Shepherd of the Hills | Coot Royal (Character) | - | 1941 |
No Score Yet |
|
Out of the Fog | Olaf Johnson (Character) | - | 1941 |
No Score Yet |
|
Million Dollar Baby | Dr. Patterson (Character) | - | 1941 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Model Wife | The Janitor (Character) | - | 1941 |
No Score Yet |
|
Blondie on a Budget | Mr. Ed Fuddle (Character) | - | 1940 |
67% |
|
Angels Over Broadway | Charles Engle (Character) | - | 1940 |
100% |
|
The Long Voyage Home | Axel (Character) | - | 1940 |
100% |
|
The Grapes of Wrath | Muley (Character) | - | 1940 |
99% |
|
His Girl Friday | Earl Williams (Character) | - | 1940 |
88% |
|
Knute Rockne, All American | Lars Knutson Rockne (Character) | - | 1940 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Youth Will Be Served | Clem Howie (Character) | - | 1940 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Stand Up and Fight | Davy (Character) | - | 1939 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Thunder Afloat | Milo (Character) | - | 1939 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Five of a Kind | Asa Wyatt (Character) | - | 1938 |
No Score Yet |
|
Joy of Living | Oswego (Character) | - | 1938 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | The Chaser | Lars (Character) | - | 1938 |
No Score Yet |
|
Seventh Heaven | Sewer Rat (Character) | - | 1937 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Fit for a King | Otto (Character) | - | 1937 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | She Had to Eat | Sleepy (Character) | - | 1937 |
No Score Yet |
|
Girls' Dormitory | Toni (Character) | - | 1936 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Meet Nero Wolfe | Olaf (Character) | - | 1936 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | The Farmer Takes a Wife | Sol Tinker (Character) | - | 1935 |
83% |
|
Black Fury | Mike Shemanski (Character) | - | 1935 |
No Score Yet |
|
Doubting Thomas | Von Blitzen (Character) | - | 1935 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | The Three Musketeers | Planchet (Character) | - | 1935 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Thunder in the Night | Porter (Character) | - | 1935 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Man of Iron | Collins (Character) | - | 1935 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Chasing Yesterday | Aristide Coccoz (Character) | - | 1935 |
No Score Yet |
|
Charlie Chan in Paris | Concierge (Character) | - | 1935 |
No Score Yet |
|
365 Nights in Hollywood | Prof. Herman Ellenbogen (Character) | - | 1934 |
79% |
|
Our Daily Bread | Chris Larsen (Character) | - | 1934 |
No Score Yet |
|
He Was Her Man | Dutch (Character) | - | 1934 |
89% |
|
Street Scene | Karl Olsen (Character) | - | 1931 |
TV
Credit | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | The Streets of San Francisco | Frank Casey (Guest Star) | 1973 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | The Odd Couple | Mr. Larson (Guest Star) | 1973 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | The Partridge Family | The Old Man (Guest Star) | 1972 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Green Acres | Willie Dunhill (Guest Star) | 1968 1970 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | I Spy | Unknown (Guest Star) | 1967 |
10% | No Score Yet | The Girl From U.N.C.L.E. | Unknown (Guest Star) | 1966 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Shane | Old Man (Guest Star) | 1966 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Jericho | Unknown (Character) | 1966 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Hazel | Unknown (Guest Star) | 1966 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Ben Casey | Mr. Wren (Guest Star) | 1963 1965 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Dr. Kildare | Unknown (Guest Star) | 1964 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | My Favorite Martian | Unknown (Guest Star) | 1964 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Laramie | Mr. Elbee (Guest Star) | 1962 |
No Score Yet | 88% | The Andy Griffith Show | Henry Bennett (Guest Star) | 1962 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Bonanza | Unknown (Guest Star) | 1961 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Thriller | Unknown (Character) | 1961 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Sugarfoot | Unknown (Guest Star) | 1960 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Bronco | Unknown (Guest Star) | 1959 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Cheyenne | Unknown (Guest Star) | 1957 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Climax! | Unknown (Character) | 1956 |
No Score Yet | 87% | Alfred Hitchcock Presents | Mr. Stepp (Character) | 1956 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Father Knows Best | Unknown (Guest Star) | 1956 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Cavalcade of America | Waddell (Character) | 1953 |