John Qualen Trailers
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John Qualen (born Johan Mandt Kvalen, December 8, 1899 – September 12, 1987) was a Canadian-American character actor of Norwegian heritage who specialized in Scandinavian roles.
Qualen was born in Vancouver, British Columbia, the son of immigrants from Norway; his father was a Lutheran minister and changed the family's original surname, "Kvalen", to "Qualen" – though some sources give Oleson, later Oleson Kvalen as Qualen's earlier surnames. His father's ministering meant many moves and John was 20 when he graduated from Elgin High School in 1920. Though he was awarded a scholarship to Northwestern University after he won an oratory contest he never attended college. In a Milwaukee Journal interview he said he needed to start working and did so with the Chattaqua Circuit. Eventually reaching Broadway, he gained his big break as the Swedish janitor in Elmer Rice's Street Scene. His movie career began when he recreated the role in the film version. This was followed by his appearance in John Ford's Arrowsmith (1931) which began a more than thirty year membership in the director's "stock company", with important supporting roles in The Searchers (1956), Two Rode Together (1961), The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962) and Cheyenne Autumn (1964).
Appearing in well over one hundred films, and acting extensively on television into the 1970s, Qualen performed many of his roles with various accents, usually Scandinavian, often intended for comic effect. Three of his more memorable roles showcase his versatility. Qualen assumed a Midwestern dialect as Muley, who recounts the destruction of his farm by the bank in Ford's The Grapes of Wrath (1940), and as the confused killer Earl Williams in Howard Hawks' classic comedy His Girl Friday (also 1940). As Berger, the jewelry-selling Norwegian resistance member in Michael Curtiz' Casablanca (1942), he essayed a light Scandinavian accent, but put on a thicker Mediterranean accent as the homeward-bound fisherman Locota in William Wellman's The High and the Mighty (1954)
Qualen was treasurer of The Authors Club and historian of The Masquers, Hollywood's social group for actors.
John Qualen was blind in his later years. He died of heart failure in 1987 in Torrance, California, and was interred in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale. He was survived by his three daughters.
Most Popular John Qualen Trailers
Total trailers found: 135
15 January 1943
In Casablanca, Morocco in December 1941, a cynical American expatriate meets a former lover, with unforeseen complications.
16 May 1956
As a Civil War veteran spends years searching for a young niece captured by Indians, his motivation becomes increasingly questionable.
10 December 1965
A blind, uneducated white girl is befriended by a black man, who becomes determined to help her escape her impoverished and abusive home life.
25 September 1934
Heiress Hedda Nillson certain that her family is about to lose all its money, takes a job as a maid. After the usual trials and tribulations, Hedda falls in love with humble chauffeur Eric Landstrom.
15 March 1940
Tom Joad returns to his home after a jail sentence to find his family kicked out of their farm due to foreclosure.
01 July 1959
Semi-retired Michigan lawyer Paul Biegler takes the case of Army Lt. Manion, who murdered a local innkeeper after his wife claimed that he raped her.
13 April 1962
Questions arise when Senator Stoddard attends the funeral of a local man named Tom Doniphon in a small Western town.
02 February 1950
The title character, played by John Payne, is a ship's captain whose embittered behavior after losing his lady love seemingly leads to tragedy.
26 December 1933
A carnival girl pretends to be Swedish in order to win a movie role.
20 November 1936
Newspapers around the world proclaim the birth in Moosetown, Canada of the 3,000th baby brought into the world by the doctor, John Luke, known for delivering the famous Wyatt quintuplets.
15 December 1938
In this drama, a New York physician takes a much-needed vacation down South. Unfortunately, he encounters a nurse working in the backwoods and ends up helping her to combat an epidemic that rages through the mountain communities.
21 December 1958
A crime boss tries to cause a riot and prison break while behind bars.
31 January 1945
In the 1920s, enterprising Louise Randall is determined to succeed in a man's world. Despite numerous setbacks, she always picks herself back up and moves forward again.
10 July 1935
A husband makes fun of his wife's theatrical aspirations when she agrees to appear in a local production.
18 January 1940
Walter Burns is an irresistibly conniving newspaper publisher desperate to woo back his paper’s star reporter, who also happens to be his estranged wife.
01 October 1943
Street-smart Maisie from Brooklyn lands a job at an airplane assembly plant during WWII and falls in love with handsome pilot "Breezy" McLaughlin.
21 September 1945
An orphan girl lives with apparently kind uncle who turns out to be a murderer.
24 June 1965
The four sons of Katie Elder reunite in their hometown of Clearwater, Texas for her funeral and discover that the family ranch is now in the hands of Morgan Hastings, a corrupt businessman who wants to exploit the area around the town.
29 February 1940
Dagwood wants to join the trout club and Blondie wants a fur coat. Jealousy reigns when Dag's old girlfriend Joan shows up, but nothing else matters when a drawing at the movie theatre provides money for the coat.
03 May 1935
An elderly bachelor, feeling nostalgic for his youth, seeks out his late sweetheart's teenage daughter, now an orphan forced to attend a strict boarding school.
04 October 1969
Carl Dixon decides to quit school and enlist in the Army, even though he's already run afoul of the law as a Vietnam protestor.
08 June 1966
A naive traveler in Laredo gets involved in a poker game between the richest men in the area, jeopardizing all the money he has saved for the purpose of settling with his wife and child in San Antonio.
25 December 1942
Two half brothers battle each other for the power of the throne and the love of sensual, gorgeous dancing girl Scheherazade.
14 October 1938
Rival reporters compete to sign the Wyatt Quintuplets to be guests on their radio shows.
18 December 1935
Hot jewels from London make their way to New York, where they are stolen by racketeer Ed Dexter, who hides them with the help of his vivacious girlfriend, Vivian Palmer.
28 July 1969
An aging doctor in a small town decides to pack up his little black bag, but when a young doctor assumes his practice, the older practitioner can't resist butting in with comic results.
25 December 1963
A group of Nobel laureates descends on Stockholm to accept their awards. Among them is American novelist Andrew Craig, a former literary luminary now writing pulp detective stories to earn a living.
08 August 1936
When a busybody teacher in a girls' finishing school finds a love letter from a student to an unknown man, a minor scandal erupts.
05 October 1940
The story of legendary Notre Dame football player and coach Knute Rockne.
10 September 1941
The romantic story of Franz Schubert 's fight for recognition of his music. The 1941 Reinhold Schunzel biographical musical composer melodrama.
17 October 1941
Farmer Jabez Stone, about to lose his land, agrees to sell his soul to the devil, known as Mr. Scratch, who gives Jabez seven years to enjoy the fruits of his sale before he collects.
07 November 1960
After striking gold in Alaska, the romantic George sends his womanizing partner Sam to bring his fiancée up from Seattle.
03 April 1942
Mowgli, lost in the jungle when a toddler, raised by wolves, years later happens upon his human village and reconnects with its inhabitants, including his widowed mother.
18 March 1964
An old Chinese man rides into the town of Abalone, Arizona and changes it forever, as the citizens see themselves reflected in the mirror of Lao's mysterious circus of mythical beasts.
11 November 1947
Anti-Catholic and anti-cleric policies in the Mexican state of Tabasco lead the revolutionary government to persecute the state's last remaining priest.
06 October 1954
In old Spanish California, dashing cattleman Juan Obregon returns to the rancho of his friend Gaspar Melo, to find he's fathered a son on Rosa, one of Gaspar's identical twin daughters.
03 July 1954
Dan Roman is a veteran pilot haunted by a tragic past. Now relegated to second-in-command cockpit assignments he finds himself on a routine Honolulu-to-San Francisco flight that takes a terrifying turn when disaster strikes high above the Pacific Ocean after the point of no return.
04 June 1955
As the Second World War breaks out, German freighter captain Karl Ehrlich is about to leave Sydney, Australia with his vessel, the Ergenstrasse.
21 May 1942
Danny, a poor northern Californian Mexican-American, inherits two houses from his grandfather and is quickly taken advantage of by his vagabond friends.
16 November 1940
The crew of the merchant ship Glencairn hope to survive a transatlantic crossing during World War II.
04 May 1940
An inventor and his bride get testy in the city as they try to make ends meet.
07 July 1960
A charismatic charlatan begins a business — and eventually romantic — relationship with a roadside evangelist to sell religion to 1920s America.
12 June 1963
After her great aunt's death, a high-society woman arrives on a Hawaiian island in search of the heir - the father she has never met.
24 January 1968
A peace-loving, part-time sheriff in the small town of Firecreek must take a stand when a gang of vicious outlaws takes over his town.
24 May 1961
Two tough westerners bring home a group of settlers who have spent years as Comanche hostages.
19 May 1951
Agatha has fond memories of her romance with college president Dr. James Merrill, when she was a student and he was her professor, and wants to see if there is still a spark between them.
15 February 1935
Three people live together in the maintenance shed at Central Park as an alternative to living on the streets.
19 December 1952
A small-town shoemaker with a knack for spinning yarns, Hans encounters happiness and heartbreak on his road to becoming a full-fledged writer.
31 December 1993
George Abitbol, the classiest man in the world, dies tragically during a cruise. The director of an American newspaper, wondering about the meaning of these intriguing final words, asks his three best investigators, Dave, Peter and Steven, to solve the mystery.
31 May 1941
A sudden windfall has unexpected consequences on a working class girl during the Great Depression.
01 September 1937
Newspaper reporter "Scoops" is sent out on assignment, to investigate the failed assassination attempts on Archduke Julio.
16 June 1934
A safecracker goes straight after doing a stretch for a bum rap. He agrees to do one last job for his "pals".
18 August 1948
Pursued by the big-time gambler he robbed, John Muller assumes a new identity—with unfortunate results.
14 August 1953
After his best friend and war buddy is mysteriously gunned down, Mike Hammer will stop at nothing to settle the score for the man who sacrificed a limb to save his own life during combat.
04 September 1936
The story of trench life during World War I through the lives of a French regiment. As men are killed and replaced jaunty Lt.
15 October 1964
A reluctant cavalry Captain must track a defiant tribe of migrating Cheyenne.
18 July 1941
Young Matt Matthews, an Ozark Mountains moonshiner, hates the father he has never seen, who apparently deserted Matt's mother and left her to die.
21 December 1935
A construction company foreman's life changes--not necessarily for the better--when he is promoted to an executive position.
01 March 1957
Back home in Texas following the Civil War, former Confederate officer Chad Morgan (Alan Ladd) leads a cattle drive to Missouri, assuring fellow ranchers that their stock will bring $10 a head at auction.
01 February 1960
When Clay Santell stops in the town of Sutterville after having his horse stolen, he is mistaken by townspeople for a murderer named Travers.
