Posted on 11/30/2005 9:42:56 PM PST by NormsRevenge
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Marc Lawrence, whose pockmarked face and brooding mannerisms made him a natural for roles as the tough guy, gangster and undertaker in dozens of movies beginning in the 1930s, has died. He was 95.
Lawrence died early Monday at his Palm Springs home from heart failure, said Alicia Lawrence, the actor's second wife.
"He was the gangster in his movies, that was definitely his style," said Alicia, a Mexico native who married Lawrence two years ago. "But in real life he was a really good person."
After spending eight days in the hospital a few weeks ago, doctors told the family Lawrence was very sick and likely wouldn't live much longer, Alicia said.
At that point, Lawrence decided he wanted to come home, she said.
Born in New York City in 1910, Lawrence acted in plays through high school before attending City College of New York.
After years of stage performances in Eva Le Gallienne's company, Lawrence signed a contract with Columbia Pictures in 1932.
Over the next 60 years, Lawrence would play the mob boss, thug and general bad guy in dozens of films.
"Lawrence was perhaps the only character actor of the 1930s and 1940s still being cast in similar gangsterish roles in the 1980s and 1990s, in such films as The Big Easy (1987) and Ruby (1992)," wrote Leonard Maltin in "Leonard Maltin's Movie Encyclopedia."
Lawrence, however, also stepped outside the rogue genre, taking on roles like a mountaineer in "Shepherd of the Hills" in 1941 and an old hotel owner in "From Dusk Till Dawn" in 1996.
During the communist scare in the United States in the 1950s, Lawrence was called before the House Un-American Activities Committee, where he admitted he had once been a Communist Party member.
He also reluctantly implicated several co-workers as alleged communist sympathizers, testimony that blacklisted him and brought his U.S. movie career to a halt.
Lawrence then departed for Europe, where he took on diverse roles in dozens of Italian movies in the 1960s, also directing crime films and spaghetti westerns.
Lawrence returned to the United States in the 1980s, resuming his vetted role as underworld thug. He also wrote and directed low-budget movies, keeping busy into his 90s.
His last movie appearance was "Looney Tunes: Back in America" in 2003, a minor role as one of many Acme vice presidents.
Lawrence is survived by a daughter, Toni Lawrence, and son, Michael Lawrence, his wife said.
Lawrence would be cremated and no funeral services were planned.
Screen actor Marc Lawrence speaks before the House Un-American Activities Committee in Washington in this April 24, 1951 file photo. Lawrence, whose pockmarked face and brooding mannerisms made him a natural for roles as the tough guy, gangster and undertaker in dozens of movies beginning in the 1930s, died Monday, Nov. 28, 2005, at his home in Palm Springs, Calif., from heart failure, said Alicia Lawrence, the actor's second wife. He was 95. (AP Photo/file)
We need another HUAC, soon.
Is it safe?
Wait... but I always thought that it was the McCarthy/HUAC crowd that it was responsible for the blacklistings! Does this mean that it was actually the Hollywood commie-leftists who were punishing anyone who broke rank?
He's heroic for throwing away his career to testify against Communists in an era when Communism was popular. Lots of people denigrate those who testified in front of HUAAC (which had nothing to do with Joseph McCarthy, by the way, as he was a Senator and thus not involved with any House committee). But, as it turns out, McCarthy was absolutely correct - the government officials he called out were, in fact, Communists, and in many cases supplied information crucial to national security to their Soviet handlers. In a just world, McCarthy would be hailed as a national hero, the Communists he identified in the government would have been hanged like dogs, and it would be the popular Communists the HUAAC identified who would have been blackballed, rather than those who courageously identified those who despised their own country.
May he rest in peace.
Hey, that guy on the right looks familiar....
I did. But many men have also been drafted into wars, e.g. WWII and Vietnam, in furtherance of the security of the United States, and they are no less heroes for having been ordered to do what they did. Lawrence could have taken the coward's way out and dealt with a few days in jail for contempt, and thus avoided fingering his buddies who desperately wanted to overthrow our republic. He didn't, and so I'd consider him heroic, reluctant though he may have been.
That guy on the right.. Oh yeah.
Edward G
Little Caesar
Rico
YES! Diamonds are forever? Just saw all those this past weekend.
He was also in "Superfuzz" heehehehehe....
"I trust you took note of the fact that the AP characterized Lawrence's testimony before the HUAAC as having been done reluctantly as opposed to an act that was "courageous"."
You have to realize that the AP did that in the belief that they were softening their criticism of the dead.
It would have been far more pejorative, in their view, to say, "Lawrence, a reformed communist, realized the error of his ways and willingly ratted out other commies to the HUAAC.
By saying, "reluctantly," they imply that he was a weak man bullied into testifying, which is less bad than being an anti-communist.
"Wait... but I always thought that it was the McCarthy/HUAC crowd that it was responsible for the blacklistings!"
Actually, it was the studios. Nobody told them to blacklist anyone; they were just afraid that using known commies would hurt their bottom line.
"Does this mean that it was actually the Hollywood commie-leftists who were punishing anyone who broke rank?"
Oh, they did. See the book, "Hollywood Party."
Edward G
Key Largo
Rocco
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