Edward S. Brophy was born on February 27, 1895 in New York City and educated at the University of Virginia. He became a bit and small-part in the movies starting in 1919, but switched to behind-the-scenes work for job security, though he continued appearing in small parts. While serving as a property master for Buster Keaton's production unit at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Brophy appeared in a memorable sequence in Keaton's classic The Cameraman (1928), in which Buster and Brophy both try to undress simultaneously in a tiny wardrobe room. Keaton cast Brophy in larger parts in two of his talkies, and by 1934, Brophy abandoned the production end of the movies altogether and was acting full-time.
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).