Kenneth Thomson
Birthday: 1899-01-07
Place of Birth: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA
Synopsis
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Charles Kenneth Thomson (January 7, 1899 – January 26, 1967) was an American character actor active during the silent and early sound film eras. Born in Pittsburgh, Thomson along with his wife Alden Gay were founding members of the Screen Actors Guild. The group was founded after meetings held at the Thomsons' home during 1933. During his brief twelve-year career in front of the camera, he appeared in over 60 films. After appearing in several Broadway plays during the early and mid-1920s, Thomson would make his film debut with a starring role in 1926's Risky Business. Over the next four years, he would appear in over a dozen films, in either starring or featured roles. In 1930 alone he would appear in ten films, half of which were in starring roles, such as Lawful Larceny, which also starred Bebe Daniels and Lowell Sherman (who also directed), and Reno, whose other stars were Ruth Roland and Montagu Love; the other half would see him in featured roles as in A Notorious Affair, starring Billie Dove, Basil Rathbone, and Kay Francis. During the rest of the 1930s, he would appear in numerous films, mostly in either supporting or featured roles, such as The Little Giant (1933), starring Edward G. Robinson and Mary Astor, and Hop-Along Cassidy (1935), starring William Boyd; although he occasionally would have a starring role, as in opposite Harold Lloyd in 1932's Movie Crazy.
Acting
Jim Hanvey, Detective
as W. B. Elwood
Jim Hanvey is a genial but top-notch detective who has retired to his country home. An insurance company hires him to find a missing emerald so they won't have to pay out the $100,000 for which the jewel is insured. It doesn't take him long to find the emerald, but he discovers that finding it was the easy part; the difficult part is getting it back to its rightful owner, and he winds up involved in a murder in which an innocent man is framed.
Behind the Green Lights
as Charles T. 'Ritzy' Conrad
A police detective's (Norman Foster) lawyer girlfriend (Judith Allen) works for a crooked criminal lawyer (Sidney Blackmer).
Hop-a-long Cassidy
as Jack Anthony
An evil ranch foreman tries to provoke a range war by playing two cattlemen against each other while helping a gang to rustle the cattle. Each cattleman blames the other for missing cattle. With the help of Bill Cassidy (Hop-along, because of an earlier bullet wound) and Johnny Nelson, the warring cattlemen join forces to do in the outlaws.
Change of Heart
as Howard Jackson
Catherine and Mack and their close friends Chris and Madge graduate from a West Coast college and fly to New York City to find work.
In Old Santa Fe
as Matt Korber - alias Mr. Chandler
Gangster Chandler and his accomplice Tracy arrive at a dude ranch. Cowboy Kentucky arrives at the same time. When Tracy double-crosses his boss and has the stage robbed, Kentucky finds the outlaws and brings them in. Tracy frames him for the murder of the driver but his pal Cactus gets him out of jail. He returns just as Chandler shoots Tracy and Kentucky finds himself arrested for another murder.
![]()
Jungle Bride
as John Franklin
Four survivors of a ship wreck are stranded on a deserted island, including a woman and the man she believes is responsible for the murder which her brother is in prison for.
![]()
The Little Giant
as John Stanley
Prohibition is ending so bootlegger Bugs Ahearn decides to crack California society. He leases a house from down-on-her-luck Ruth and hires her as social secretary. He rescues Polly Cass from a horsefall and goes home to meet her dad who sells him some phony stock certificates. When he learns about this he sends to Chicago for mob help.
![]()
Son of a Sailor
as Williams
A lovesick fool bumbles into espionage and finds a stolen plane.
![]()
The Famous Ferguson Case
as Bob Parks
A 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.
![]()
By Whose Hand?
as Chambers
A man tries to hide aboard a moving train after murdering a jewelry magnate.
![]()
Man Wanted
as Fred Ames
A female editor of a magazine falls in love with her male secretary.
![]()
Movie Crazy
as Vance
After a mix-up with his application photograph, an aspiring actor is invited to a screen test and goes off to Hollywood.
![]()
The Doorway to Hell
as Captain of Academy
A vicious crime lord decides that he has had enough and much to the shock of his colleagues decides to give the business to his second in command and retire to Florida after marrying his moll. Unfortunately, he has no idea that she and the man are lovers.
![]()
Sweethearts on Parade
as Hendricks
Helen and Nita work in a department store to make ends meet while they search for millionaire husbands. They meet Bill and Hank, who make them reconsider whether they really need millionaires to be happy.
![]()
Children of Pleasure
as Rod Peck
A successful songwriter, dazzled by high society, falls for a society girl who is just playing around.
![]()
Say It with Songs
as Arthur Phillips
Joe Lane, radio entertainer and songwriter, learns that the manager of the studio, Arthur Phillips, has made improper advances to his wife, Katherine. Infuriated, Lane engages him in a fight, and the encounter results in Phillips' accidental death. Joe goes to prison for a few years, and when he is released he visits his son, Little Pal, at school and is begged by him to run away together.
![]()
The Girl from Havana
as William Dane
Joan Anders, a girl detective for a jewelers' protective association, poses as a chorus girl in a musical comedy troupe to capture a gang of jewel thieves.
![]()
The Secret Hour
as Joe
An Elderly fruit grower sends a photo of his foreman, not himself, to a waitress he wishes to marry. She falls in love with the foreman.
![]()
White Gold
as Alec Carson
A sheep farmer brings his new wife to his father's ranch and the old man takes an instant dislike to her.
![]()
Almost Human
as John Livingston
John Livingston is a rich mama's-boy, who owns a blooded dog named Paul. Paul meets Maggie Mutt, and Paul, being a pedigree canine and somewhat of a cad, lures trusting Maggie to the barn to have his way. He then departs for his palatial doghouse at the Livingston estate. Meanwhile Maggie is broken-hearted and also finds that she is in a "family way", and gives birth to a pup she names Hank. Maggie tells Hank to find his "human ", and departs the scene. Hank goes to the park, meets a "human" named Mary Kelly, who is a homeless waif and sweetheart of poverty, and the two adopt each other. Later on in the park Paul comes strolling along with his 'human', John. A child falls into the lake and Paul and Hank team up to save her.
