Clarence Wilson

Clarence Wilson

Acting

November 16, 1876 — October 5, 1941
Cincinnati, Ohio, USA
147 movies

Biography

Clarence Hummel Wilson (November 17, 1876 – October 5, 1941) was an American character actor. He appeared in nearly 200 movies between 1920 and 1941, mostly in supporting roles as an old miser or grouch. He had notable supporting roles in films like The Front Page (1931), Ruggles of Red Gap (1935), and You Can't Take It With You (1938). Wilson also played in several Our Gang comedies, most notably as Mr. Crutch in Shrimps for a Day and school board chairman Alonzo Pratt in Come Back, Miss Pipps,...

🎬 Clarence Wilson's Filmography

147 movies sorted by popularity

Some Like It Hot
7.6

Nicky Nelson is a fast-talking sideshow barker with a wax-and-alive concession on Atlantic City's boardwalk. Even with the band of his friend, struggling musician Gene Krupa, playing on the sidewalk to attract the customers, "The Living Corpse" and other low-rent acts aren't enough to lure the seen-it-all boardwalk strollers, and the landlord closes the show in lieu of never-paid rent. Nicky, always promoting, goes to Stephen Hanratty, head of the pier's Dance Pavilion, to plug Krupa's band as an attraction, but Hanratty won't even listen to them. But, while there, he meets singer Lily Racquel, who knows he is a phoney but might have the ability to to talk a radio-station manager into giving her an audition. She gives him a ring to help finance the project; he promptly loses it in a crap-game.

Some Like It Hot

1939
The Case of the Black Cat
7.0

Lawyer Perry Mason is summoned to the Laxter mansion in the dead of night to write granddaughter Wilma out of invalid Peter Laxter's will, to keep her from marrying suspected fortune hunter Doug. Peter dies in a mysterious fire and Laxter's two grandsons, Sam Laxter and Frank Oafley, inherit his estate on the condition old caretaker Schuster and his cat Clinker are kept on. When cat-hating Sam threatens Clinker, Perry steps in and learns Laxter's death was suspicious and the family fortune and diamonds are missing. Schuster's found dead in his basement apartment, Laxter's nurse Louise is murdered with Schuster's crutch, and circumstantial evidence brings Doug to trial for Louise's death. Mason's investigation produces a surprise witness who turns the trial around. Written by Sister Grimm

The Case of the Black Cat

1936
The Famous Ferguson Case
6.6

A foreword warns against the peril of yellow journalism, and the story illustrates it by following events in the upstate New York town of Cornwall after prominant financier George Ferguson is killed. Two types of New York City journalists descend on Cornwall, one interested in facts, the other in getting sensational "news". Mrs. Ferguson is known to have been friendly with a local banker. The Fergusons quarrel the evening he is killed (by "burglars", his wife tells the police later), and she is arrested, spurred on by the "bad" journalists, who also manage to badger the banker's wife into the hospital. Meanwhile, young Bruce Foster runs the Cornwall Courier, and shows the big city reporters how to dig out real news while they attempt to subvert justice for their own ends.

The Famous Ferguson Case

1932
Officer O'Brien
5.2

Bill O'Brien is promoted to lieutenant in the police department for his arrest of Mike Patello, gang leader and racketeer, for murder. Ruth Dale, who loves Bill, is concerned when her brother, Johnny, who witnessed the murder, proposes to testify against the racketeer. Meanwhile, Captain Antrim informs Bill that his father has just been released from prison and does not know his son is a policeman. On the way from prison, O'Brien (J. P.) meets Limo, a former cockney pal who recognizes Bill and keeps J. P. from seeing his son; later, J. P. arrives intoxicated and is enraged, forcing Bill to knock him unconscious. J. P. is arrested for robbery but returns the loot to save his son from disgrace; Johnny is killed before testifying against Patello, who is released but confronted by J. P., who proves his guilt and, when he struggles with the police, kills him. Bill plans to resign, but confident of Ruth's love, he decides to remain on the force.

Officer O'Brien

1930
Small Town Boy
7.0

Henry Armstrong was past being a spring chicken, still believes in Santa Claus and the maxim that "honesty is the best policy", but lack of money keeps him from marrying Molly and buying a little home, and his is threatened with the loss of the petty job he has had for four years with old Curtis French, Molly's uncle, because he can not sell enough insurance policies. And, then, he finds a thousand dollar bill. His honesty makes him advertise the find, but no one claims the money. When he is convinced that the owner will not turn up and that the money is his to keep, he becomes a changed, more aggressive and self-confident person. He begins to make sales as fast as he can make the pitch and he insists that he and Molly be married at once. While getting dressed for the ceremony, he places the $1000 bill in one of his father's old suits, and Pa Armstrong, trying to raise money to buy his son a wedding present, sells the suit to a passing junk man.

Small Town Boy

1937
Clarence Wilson | MovieMind AI