Otto Kruger (September 6, 1885 – September 6, 1974) was a German American actor who began his career in 1915. His career was most prolific during the 1930s and 1940s.

Career

The grandnephew of South African pioneer and president Paul Kruger, Otto Kruger was musically trained, but switched careers and became an actor. Making his Broadway debut at the age of fifteen, Kruger quickly became a matinee idol. Though he started to get noticed in the early 1920s, it was the 1930s when his career was at its height, including an appearance in the film Chained (1934) with Joan Crawford and Clark Gable. Though he played the hero on occasion, for most of his career, he played the main villain or a charming or corrupt businessman. One of his best known roles was in the Douglas Sirk film Magnificent Obsession (1954).

His television roles included those of Dr. Mumford in the 1959 episode "Experiments n Terror" of the NBC science fiction/adventure series The Man and the Challenge, as Ben Tully in "Gun City" of the ABC western series, The Rebel, and as Franklyn Malleson Ghentin in the 1961 episode "A Fool for a Client" of James Whitmore ABC's legal drama, The Law and Mr. Jones. Kruger also made four guest appearances on CBS's Perry Mason. In his first two appearances, "The Case of the Grumbling Grandfather" in 1961, and "The Case of the Counterfeit Crank" in 1962, he was cast as Mason's client. In his final appearance in 1964, he played Judge Norris in "The Case of the Missing Button."

Death

Kruger died on his 89th birthday. He has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Source: Wikipedia