# Otto Kruger

Otto Kruger (September 6, 1885 – September 6, 1974) was an American actor, originally a Broadway matinee idol, who established a niche as a charming villain in films, such as Hitchcock's Saboteur. He also appeared in CBS's Perry Mason and other TV series. He was the grandnephew of South African president Paul Kruger.

## Early life and education

Born in Toledo, Ohio, Kruger was of German descent. He was the son of Bernard Alben Kruger and Elizabeth Winers Kruger, and the grandnephew of South African pioneer and president Paul Kruger.
Otto was musically trained, but switched careers and became an actor after studying engineering at the University of Michigan.

## Career

Making his Broadway debut in 1915, Kruger quickly became a matinee idol. Though he started to get noticed in the early 1920s, it was the 1930s when his career was at its height. His sound film debut came in Turn Back the Clock (1933) and he made an appearance in the film Chained (1934).
Though he played the hero on occasion, for most of his career, he played the main villain or a charming or corrupt businessman. One of his best known roles was in the Douglas Sirk film Magnificent Obsession (1954). Kruger played the supporting role of Judge Percy Mettrick, who unsuccessfully urges Will Kane to leave town in High Noon (1952). Kruger is also remembered for playing the villain Tobin in Alfred Hitchcock's spy film Saboteur (1942) and mob boss Stevens in the film noir 711 Ocean Drive (1950).
His television roles included those of Dr. Mumford in the 1959 episode "Experiments in Terror" of the NBC science fiction/adventure series The Man and the Challenge, as Ben Tully in "Gun City" of the ABC western series, The Rebel, as Franklyn Malleson Ghentin in the 1961 episode "A Fool for a Client" of James Whitmore ABC's legal drama, The Law and Mr. Jones, and as Karl in the episode "Quite a Woman" of the short-lived 1961 CBS series The Investigators starring James Franciscus.
Kruger made four guest appearances on CBS's Perry Mason. In his first two appearances, "The Case of the Grumbling Grandfather" (1961) and "The Case of the Counterfeit Crank" (1962), he was cast as Mason's client, and in both episodes was the title character. In his final appearance, he played Judge Norris in "The Case of the Missing Button" (1964).
In 1955, he appeared in the live telecast of The Desert Song as General Birabeau.

## Personal life, later years and honors

On March 20, 1920, Kruger married Broadway actress Susan "Sue" MacManamy. Their daughter, Ottilie Kruger (1926–2005), was also an actress and was the first wife of pioneering cinematographer Gayne Rescher.
Kruger supported Thomas Dewey in the 1944 United States presidential election.
Kruger died at the Motion Picture and Television Country House in Woodland Hills, California, on his 89th birthday.
Kruger was honored with two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame; one for TV and one for film.

## Partial list of appearances on radio

Kruger appeared as Mr. Hardecker in "After Dinner Story" (airdate October 26, 1943; story by Cornell Woolrich) from the Suspense radio program series.

## Filmography

| Year | Film | Role | Director | Notes |
| 1915 | A Mother's Confession | Harold Patterson | Ivan Abramson | |
| 1923 | Under the Red Robe | Henri de Cocheforet | Alan Crosland | |
| 1933 | Turn Back the Clock | Ted Wright | Edgar Selwyn | |
| 1933 | Beauty for Sale | Mr. Sherwood | Richard Boleslawski | |
| 1933 | Ever in My Heart | Hugo Wilbrandt | Archie Mayo | |
| 1933 | The Prizefighter and the Lady | Willie Ryan | Howard_Hawks (uncredited) | |
| 1933 | Gallant Lady | Phillip Lawrence | Gregory La Cava | |
| 1933 | The Women in His Life | Kent 'Barry' Barringer | George B. Seitz | |
| 1934 | The Crime Doctor | Dan Gifford | Charles Kerr | |
| 1934 | Men in White | Dr. Levine | Ryszard Bolesławski | |
| 1934 | Paris Interlude | Sam | Edwin L. Marin | |
| 1934 | Treasure Island | Dr. Livesey | Victor Fleming | |
| 1934 | Springtime for Henry | Henry Dewlip | Frank Tuttle | |
| 1934 | Chained | Richard I. Field | Clarence Brown | |
| 1935 | Vanessa: Her Love Story | Ellis Herries | William K. Howard | |
| 1935 | Two Sinners | Henry Vane | Arthur Lubin | |
| 1936 | Living Dangerously | Dr. Stanley Norton | Herbert Brenon | |
| 1936 | Dracula's Daughter | Jeffrey Garth | Lambert Hillyer | |
| 1937 | The Barrier | Stark | Lesley Selander | |
| 1937 | Glamorous Night | King Stefan | Brian Desmond Hurst | |
| 1937 | They Won't Forget | Gleason | Mervyn_LeRoy | |
| 1937 | Counsel for Crime | William Mellon | John Brahm | |
| 1938 | Housemaster | Charles Donkin | Herbert Brenon | |
| 1938 | Star of the Circus | Garvin | Albert de Courville | |
| 1938 | I Am the Law | Eugene Ferguson | Alexander Hall | |
| 1938 | Exposed | William Reardon | Harold D. Schuster | |
| 1938 | Thanks for the Memory | Gil Morrell | George Archainbaud | |
| 1939 | Disbarred | Tyler Craden | Robert Florey | |
| 1939 | The Gang's All Here | Mike Chadwick | Thornton Freeland | |
| 1939 | Black Eyes | Ivan Ivanovich Petroff | Herbert Brenon | |
| 1939 | The Zero Hour | Julian Forbes | Sidney Salkow | |
| 1939 | Scandal Sheet | Jim Stevenson | Nick Grinde | |
| 1939 | A Woman Is the Judge | Steven Graham | Nick Grinde | |
| 1939 | Another Thin Man | Van Slack | W. S. Van Dyke | |
| 1940 | Dr. Ehrlich's Magic Bullet | Dr. Emil von Behring | William Dieterle | |
| 1940 | Seventeen | Sylvanus Baxter | Louis King | |
| 1940 | The Man I Married | Heinrich Hoffman | Irving Pichel | |
| 1940 | A Dispatch from Reuter's | Dr. Magnus | William Dieterle | |
| 1941 | Mercy Island | Dr. Sanderson | William Morgan | |
| 1941 | The Men in Her Life | Victor | Gregory Ratoff | |
| 1942 | Saboteur | Charles Tobin | Alfred Hitchcock | |
| 1942 | Friendly Enemies | Anton Miller | Allan Dwan | |
| 1943 | Hitler's Children | Albert Pasavy | Edward Dmytryk | |
| 1943 | Power of the Press | Howard Rankin | Lew Landers | |
| 1943 | Corregidor | Dr. Jan Stockman | William Nigh | |
| 1943 | Night Plane from Chungking | Colonel Henkel | Ralph Murphy | |
| 1943 | Stage Door Canteen | Himself | Frank Borzage | |
| 1943 | Tarzan's Desert Mystery | Paul Hendrix | Wilhelm Thiele | |
| 1944 | Knickerbocker Holiday | Roosevelt | Harry Joe Brown | |
| 1944 | Cover Girl | John Coudair | Charles Vidor | |
| 1944 | Storm Over Lisbon | Alexis Vanderlyn | George Sherman | |
| 1944 | They Live in Fear | Matthew Van Camp | Josef Berne | |
| 1944 | Murder, My Sweet | Jules Amthor | Edward Dmytryk | |
| 1945 | Escape in the Fog | Paul Devon | Budd Boetticher (as Oscar Boetticher Jr.) | |
| 1945 | The Great John L. | Richard Martin | Frank Tuttle | |
| 1945 | Wonder Man | District Attorney | H. Bruce Humberstone | |
| 1945 | The Chicago Kid | John Mitchell | Frank McDonald | |
| 1945 | Jungle Captive | Mr. Stendahl | Harold Young | |
| 1945 | On Stage Everybody | James Carlton | Jean Yarbrough | |
| 1945 | Allotment Wives | Whitey Colton | William Nigh | |
| 1945 | The Woman Who Came Back | Rev. Jim Stevens | Walter Colmes | |
| 1946 | The Fabulous Suzanne | Hendrick Courtney Sr. | Steve Sekely | |
| 1946 | Duel in the Sun | Mr. Langford | King Vidor | |
| 1947 | Love and Learn | Andrew Wyngate | Frederick de Cordova | |
| 1948 | Smart Woman | D.A. Bradley Wayne | Edward A. Blatt | |
| 1948 | Lulu Belle | Harry Randolph | Leslie Fenton | |
| 1948 | Romance on the High Seas | Wedding Guest | Michael Curtiz | uncredited |
| 1950 | 711 Ocean Drive | Carl Stephans | Joseph M. Newman | |
| 1951 | Payment on Demand | Ted Prescott | Curtis Bernhardt | |
| 1951 | Valentino | Mark Towers | Lewis Allen | |
| 1952 | High Noon | Judge Percy Mettrick | Fred Zinnemann | |
| 1953 | Schlagerparade | Remer | Erik Ode | |
| 1954 | Magnificent Obsession | Edward Randolph | Douglas Sirk | |
| 1954 | Black Widow | Gordon Ling | Nunnally Johnson | |
| 1955 | The Last Command | Stephen F. Austin | Frank Lloyd | |
| 1958 | The Colossus of New York | Dr. William Spensser | Eugène Lourié | |
| 1959 | The Young Philadelphians | John Marshall Wharton | Vincent Sherman | |
| 1960 | Cash McCall | Will Atherson | Joseph Pevney | |
| 1962 | The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm | The King | George Pal (fairy tale sequences) | |
| 1964 | Sex and the Single Girl | Dr. Anderson | Richard Quine | |
| 1964 | Della | Walter Garrick | Robert Gist | |

### Television

* The Nash Airflyte Theater (November 23, 1950) in "Suppressed Desires"
* Lights Out (1951) as Carlton Dane
* The Desert Song (1955) as General Birabeau
* Lux Video Theatre (1955–1956) as Host
* The Rebel (1959) as Ben Tully
* Perry Mason (1961–1964) as Judge Norris/Timothy Balfour Sr./August Dalgran/J. J. Gideon
* The Law and Mr. Jones (1961) as Franklyn Malleson Ghent
* Frontier Circus (1961) as General Frederic Jellich
* The Investigators (1961) as Karl (episode "Quite a Woman")
* Thriller (1962) as Bert Farrington
* Checkmate (1962) as George Emory
* Dr. Kildare (1962) as Louis Conrad
* Bonanza (1963) as Judge Whitaker