Discovered on Broadway by director Howard Hawks, La Rue was originally brought to Hollywood to play a gangster in Scarface (1932). He lost that role to George Raft, and similarly was replaced by Humphrey Bogart in the film version of The Petrified Forest (1936). Eventually, he became well-known to movie-goers as a mean, sexy gangster type in sadistic roles like Miriam Hopkins' abductor in The Story of Temple Drake (1933). Film audiences, who loved to loathe him on-screen, were occasionally surprised by his being cast against type in such movies as A Farewell to Arms (1932). His final film was in the low-budget film Paesano: A Voice in the Night (1977).
Though veteran character actor Arthur O'Connell was born in New York City in 1908, he looked as countrified as apple pie, looking ever more comfy in overalls than he ever did in a suit. He made his stage debut in the mid 1930s and came into contact with Orson Welles' Mercury Theatre.
