生于加拿大艾伯塔省卡尔加里市,当过建筑工人。最初为西部片明星巴克·琼斯主演的动作片和弗里德·克茂莱主演的影片当替身演员,1939年开始在派拉蒙电影公司的影片里扮演小角色。他体格健壮,渐渐在西部片和动作片中崭露头角。四十年代中期,他在环球拍片,由于同伊冯娜·德·卡洛合作的《莎乐美》(1945)而升为主角。之后又合演了《铁骑劫美》(1945)和《河上夫人》(1948)。五十年代又出演了电视连续剧《城市侦探》等。
生于纽约州多布斯弗里,早期从事戏剧演出。20年代初期进入好莱坞,至70年代末,共约在近300部影片中出演角色,以西部片和动作片居多。此外他还在不少电视剧里出演角色,1981年80岁高龄时还参与电视节目的演出。1983年10月去世。主要影片有《初吻》、《莽汉艳史》、《怒海英雄》、《福尔摩斯和秘密武器》、《怒潮》、《红河》、《情天未了缘》、《死亡点》、《灰鹰》等。
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).