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TürkçeJoe Sawyer (Joseph Sauers)
Photos with Joe Sawyer
Biography
Guelph, Ontario, Canada
Joe Sawyer's familiar mug appeared everywhere during the 1930s and 1940s, particularly as a stock player for Warner Bros. in its more standard college musicals, comedies and crime yarns. He could play both sides of the fence, street cops and mob gunmen, with equal ease. He was born Joseph Sauers in Guelph, Canada, on August 29, 1906, and eventually moved to California to pursue a film career. Trained at the Pasadena Playhouse, he had a perfect "tough guy" look: sturdy build, jutting chin and beady eyes, made more distinctive by his shock of light hair and a slightly high-pitched voice. Read more... his film debut in 1931 under his real name, which, contrary to popular opinion, was German and not Irish, though he made a career out of playing Irishmen, and appeared mostly in strongarm bit parts in his early career until hitting his stride playing a variety of coaches, cops and sidekicks with imposing names like "Spud," "Slug" and "Whitey." He appeared in hundreds of films, in just about every genre, over a four-decade-long career, among them College Humor (1933), College Rhythm (1934), The Westerner (1934), The Informer (1935), in which his portrayal of an IRA gunman got him noticed by the public and critics alike, Pride of the Marines (1936), Black Legion (1937), The Petrified Forest (1936) (another "tough-guy" role that got him good reviews), The Grapes of Wrath (1940), They Died with Their Boots On (1941), Sergeant York (1941), Tarzan's Desert Mystery (1943), Gilda (1946), It Came from Outer Space (1953), North to Alaska (1960) and How the West Was Won (1962). He also guest-starred on many TV series and was a regular on The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin (1954) as Sgt. Aloysius "Biff" O'Hara. His first wife was actress Jeane Wood, the daughter of Gone with the Wind (1939) uncredited director Sam Wood. His second wife, June, died in 1960. Sawyer died in Ashland, Oregon, on April 21, 1982 of liver cancer at the age of 75.
Actor
Character:
Willis the Newspaper Reporter
New Adventures of Get Rich Quick Wallingford 1931
2
Character:
Leroux
Arsène Lupin 1932
7
Character:
Construction Camp Doctor
Shopworn 1932
1
Character:
Library Patron Seeking Aphrodite
Young Bride 1932
5
Character:
Slater
Huddle 1932
4
Character:
Policeman at Reformatory
Hold Your Man 1933
6
Character:
Sergeant Hunt
Eskimo 1933
1
Character:
Red
Blood Money 1933
3
Character:
Swimming pool Instructor
Three Cornered Moon 1933
2
Character:
Tex Roust
College Humor 1933
3
Character:
Capt. Daly
Ace of Aces 1933
4
Character:
Mike
Jimmy the Gent 1934
4
Character:
Soldier Escorting Doktor
Stamboul Quest 1934
2
Character:
Spud Miller
College Rhythm 1934
5
Character:
Spencer
Death on the Diamond 1934
2
Character:
Carl Trask
The Case of the Howling Dog 1934
2
Character:
Sailor on 'The Coyote'
Wharf Angel 1934
7
Character:
Gunner - Hood
Sing and Like It 1934
4
Character:
Bob Lockhart
The Westerner 1934
1
Character:
Mr. Thomas
The Band Plays On 1934
1
Character:
Bartly Mulholland
The Informer 1935
3
Character:
Ambulance Driver
Man on the Flying Trapeze 1935
1
Character:
Henchman Keeler
The Arizonian 1935
3
Character:
Jackie
The Petrified Forest 1936
1
Character:
Henchman
Crash Donovan 1936
5
Character:
Cliff Moore
Black Legion 1937
4
Character:
'Sailor Boy' Hansen
San Quentin 1937
4
Character:
Doyle - Gangster
They Gave Him a Gun 1937
4
Character:
Olaf Punch
Tarzan's Revenge 1938
2
Character:
The Sergeant - Pete Jones
The Roaring Twenties 1939
17
Character:
Shamus
Union Pacific 1939
14
Character:
Werner Renz
Confessions of a Nazi Spy 1939
4
Character:
Curley Bill
Frontier Marshal 1939
8
Character:
Prison Guard
Rio 1939
18
Character:
Bookkeeper
The Grapes of Wrath 1940
4
Character:
Kitzmiller
Santa Fe Trail 1940
6
Character:
Davis
The Long Voyage Home 1940
5
Character:
Bushropp
Dark Command 1940
6
Character:
Charley
The House Across the Bay 1940
3
Character:
Jasper Wildhack
Melody Ranch 1940
13
Character:
Jim Gulden
The Border Legion 1940
2
Character:
Jigger, a Lumberjack
King of the Lumberjacks 1940
4
Character:
Burke
Wildcat Bus 1940
1
Character:
Sergeant Doolittle
They Died with Their Boots On 1941
33
Character:
Sergeant Early
Sergeant York 1941
20
Character:
Sergeant Madden
You're in the Army Now 1941
9
Character:
Sgt. William Ames
Tanks a Million 1941
1
Character:
Sheriff 'Noisy' Burkett, Henchman
The Lady from Cheyenne 1941
2
Character:
Allen
Down Mexico Way 1941
10
Character:
Charley Woodruff
The Outlaw 1943
4
Character:
Buster
Hit the Ice 1943
5
Character:
Sergeant Wiggins
Let's Face It 1943
7
Character:
Charlie Boswell
Tornado 1943
3
Character:
Roughhouse
Alaska Highway 1943
1
Character:
Lumpy
Sleepy Lagoon 1943
5
Character:
Louie
Cowboy in Manhattan 1943
5
Character:
Ernest Hatcher
South of Dixie 1944
11
Character:
Sergeant
Hey, Rookie 1944
8
Character:
Joe
Moon Over Las Vegas 1944
9
Character:
Squint
The Singing Sheriff 1944
6
Character:
Hacky Smith
Brewster's Millions 1945
8
Character:
Bailey
The Naughty Nineties 1945
10
Character:
Casey
Gilda 1946
2
Character:
Ray Bonner
A Double Life 1947
1
Character:
Private Detective Gimlet
Christmas Eve 1947
6
Character:
Eli Cressett / Colt Redwood
Deputy Marshal 1949
2
Character:
Tony
The Lucky Stiff 1949
1
Character:
Tod Bryant
Tucson 1949
2
Character:
Whitey Franks
Deadline - U.S.A. 1952
1
Character:
Land Commissioner
North to Alaska 1960
7
Character:
Riverboat Officer
How the West Was Won 1962
24
Character:
Joey Uptown
The Ford Television Theatre 1952
0
Character:
Sam Granger
Peter Gunn 1958
38
Character:
Frank Daylon
It Came from Outer Space 1953
0
Character:
Actor in 'Frontier Marshal'
Legends of the West 1992
2
Character:
Actor in 'It Came From Outer Space' Clip
Theremin: An Electronic Odyssey 1994
17
Character:
Sgt. Biff O'Hara
The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin 1954
0