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
25 December 1955
A general-store keeper scares off bank robbers with a lucky shot, but they come back.
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.
07 November 1960
After striking gold in Alaska, the romantic George sends his womanizing partner Sam to bring his fiancée up from Seattle.
18 June 1965
Bob Holcomb will do anything to stop his daughter JoJo from tying the knot with her lazy boyfriend, even move her all the way to Sweden! But once they're "safely" out of the country, JoJo falls for a sly Swedish playboy.
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.
15 January 1943
In Casablanca, Morocco in December 1941, a cynical American expatriate meets a former lover, with unforeseen complications.
06 January 1939
A southern aristocrat clashes with a driver transporting stolen slaves to freedom.
07 December 1931
A medical researcher is sent to a plague outbreak, where he has to decide priorities for the use of a vaccine.
01 March 1950
A New Orleans performer loves a pirate who robs only from the shipowner who ruined his father.
05 October 1940
The story of legendary Notre Dame football player and coach Knute Rockne.
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 - one that takes a terrifying suspense-building turn when disaster strikes high above the Pacific Ocean at the point of no return.
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.
24 December 1950
A Navy commander experiments with launching missiles from submarines.
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.
10 July 1935
A husband makes fun of his wife's theatrical aspirations when she agrees to appear in a local production.
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.
01 July 1949
Army Lieutenant Halliday, accused of stealing the Army payroll, pursues the real thief on a frantic chase through Mexico aided by the thief's ex-girlfriend and is in turn being chased by his accuser, Capt.
17 April 1941
Complications in a dressmaking firm when a model has to hide her marriage.
28 January 1965
Story of Cam Calloway and his family, who live in a densely wooded area in New England. Cam dreams of building a sanctuary for the geese that fly over the area each year, and he tries several schemes to buy a nearby lake for this santuary.
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.
26 December 1933
A carnival girl pretends to be Swedish in order to win a movie role.
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.
01 July 1956
In Johnny Concho, Frank Sinatra plays a man who goes from the town bully to town coward!
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.
10 February 1944
The story concerns a condemned murderer named Clement (Jean Gabin), who is "liberated" when the Nazis bomb the French jail that holds him.
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.
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.
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.
26 February 1947
A beautiful cabaret dancer inspires composer Rimsky-Korsakov.
14 October 1938
Rival reporters compete to sign the Wyatt Quintuplets to be guests on their radio shows.
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.
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.
24 April 1942
Three ex-cons buy a luggage shop to tunnel into the bank vault next door. But despite all they can do, the shop prospers.
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.
01 May 1953
Hodiak, Brian, Derek and Teal have just been released from prison. They return to Tomahawk Gap, now a ghost town, to retrieve the money that they stole and was buried by a partner somewhere in the town.
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.
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.
25 July 1948
A bitterly jealous sponge fisherman tries to sabotage a fellow diver.
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.
15 September 1939
A tugboat captain serves under his rival as a U-boat chaser in World War I.
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.
15 October 1964
A reluctant cavalry Captain must track a defiant tribe of migrating Cheyenne.
21 January 1935
Charlie's visit to Paris, ostensibly a vacation, is really a mission to investigate a bond-forgery racket.
10 September 1941
The romantic story of Franz Schubert 's fight for recognition of his music. The 1941 Reinhold Schunzel biographical musical composer melodrama.
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.
02 October 1934
John and Mary Sims are city-dwellers hit hard by the financial fist of The Depression. Driven by bravery (and sheer desperation) they flee to the country and, with the help of other workers, set up a farming community - a socialist mini-society.
16 April 1944
A European immigrant becomes a master of industry but almost loses his family.
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.
25 August 1955
This fact-based prison drama tells the tale of a band of prisoners living in the innovative 2,600-acre prison at Chino, California.
25 December 1933
A successful lawyer struggles to deal with his wife's unfaithfulness and his own hidden past.
01 August 1958
Remake of "To Have and Have Not" based on Hemingway short story. Plot reset to early days of Cuban revolution.
04 May 1940
An inventor and his bride get testy in the city as they try to make ends meet.
01 February 1948
Just as church services are letting out, a shabbily-dressed stranger is run over by an automobile in front of the church.
13 April 1962
Questions arise when Senator Stoddard attends the funeral of a local man named Tom Doniphon in a small Western town.
06 May 1938
Falling in love with the voice of Broadway chanteuse Margaret Garret, cocksure young tycoon Daniel Brewster decides to rescue the star from her hectic lifestyle of frenzied fans and mooching relatives.
16 May 1956
As a Civil War veteran spends years searching for a young niece captured by Indians, his motivation becomes increasingly questionable.
22 December 1939
In this sequel to Four Daughters, Ann struggles to move on after the death of her husband as she falls in love with Felix, but on the day of her engagement discovers that she carries Mickey's child.
07 February 1948
1905 was a period of heavy immigration from Europe to America before laws were passed restricting the flow of immigrants.
18 May 1935
A simple Pennsylvania coal miner is drawn into the violent conflict between union workers and management.
31 May 1941
A sudden windfall has unexpected consequences on a working class girl during the Great Depression.
