Social Entertainment / People

Barton MacLane

Acting · Born December 25, 1902 · Columbia, South Carolina, USA

Barton MacLane graduated from Wesleyan University, where he displayed a notable aptitude for sports, in particular football and basketball. Not surprisingly, his physical prowess led to an early role in The Quarterback (1926) with Richard Dix. MacLane once commented that, as an actor, he needed to have the physical strength to tear the bad guys "from limb to limb", if necessary. Ironically, it was usually Barton himself who was destined to be at the end of a hiding (when not getting shot, instead), typically as snarling henchmen, outlaws and other assorted dubious or abrasive types throughout most of his 40-year acting career. In fact, Barton became so typecast that his name was for a time used proverbially, to generally describe a shouting, hard-nosed ruffian.

Movies with Barton MacLane

• The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948) — Pat McCormick
• The Maltese Falcon (1941) — Lt. of Detectives Dundy
• The Glenn Miller Story (1954) — General Arnold
• Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1941) — Sam Higgins
• You Only Live Once (1937) — Stephen Whitney
• Tarzan and the Amazons (1945) — Ballister
• Sea of Lost Ships (1953) — Capt. Jack Matthews
• All Through the Night (1942) — Marty Callahan
• Best of the Badmen (1951) — Joad
• High Sierra (1941) — Jake Kranmer
• Pocketful of Miracles (1961) — Police Commissioner
• Law of the Lawless (1964) — Big Tom Stone

TV shows with Barton MacLane

• I Dream of Jeannie (1965) — General Peterson
• Outlaws (1960) — Marshal Frank Caine