Lafe McKee

(Image courtesy of Les Adams)

Above from L-to-R are Hooper Atchley, Alice Day and Lafe McKee in a lobby card from GOLD (Majestic, 1932) which starred Jack Hoxie. Hoxie and his white horse 'Scout' are shown on the left. Alice Day is also pictured in the top right circular inset.

Here's another western and serial player with little biographical info available.

Lafe McKee was a regular in serials and westerns during the 1930s, but he began work in Hollywood around 1915. He generally was the father of the heroine ... or the distressed businessman ... or an older lawman ... or the ranch owner who was on the verge of losing his homestead or cattle to the villains. And quite often, McKee's screen life was cut short by the villain or his gang - for example, he was Corwin, the owner of the Corwin Transportation Company, and was killed off in Chapter 1 of MYSTERY MOUNTAIN (Mascot, 1934) which starred Ken Maynard.

McKee seemed to be a favorite of producer Nat Levine as he appeared in many of the Mascot serials. He occasionally stepped out of character and portrayed the baddie, and a good example of McKee's villainous side is his role as master villain "the Voice" in THE VANISHING LEGION (Mascot, 1931), one of the early sound cliffhangers which starred Harry Carey.

His sound era credits number about 250 films - that number includes 185 westerns and 27 serials. Approaching 70 years of age in the early 1940s, McKee retired from the screen.

One thing I always noticed about McKee was his delivery of dialog - he was very careful (and slow) with his pronunciation of words.

You may want to go to the In Search Of ... page on the Old Corral and check the California Death Records database. There you will find a record for Lafayette Stocking McKee. born 1/23/1872 in Illinois, Mother's maiden name of Johnson, and he passed away on 8/10/1959. Note the middle name of "Stocking" in the California Death Records (vs. the generally accepted middle name of "Stockard" for McKee). You'll also find McKee listed in the Social Security Death Index (SSDI). As to Lafe's middle name being "Stocking" or "Stockard", the Find A Grave website isn't of much help - his grave marker shows Lafayette S. McKee.

Rick Albright checked the 1930 online census database and found the following info on Lafe and his family:

Although some of the data is incomplete or inaccurate, the Internet Movie Database (IMDB) has information on Lafe McKee film appearances: http://us.imdb.com/name/nm0571186/

(From Old Corral image collection)

Cavalry officer Tim McCoy is being busted from the service in this scene from END OF THE TRAIL (Columbia, 1932). Likable Lafe McKee is on the left, and doing the "busting" is Wheeler Oakman, the real baddie in the story. The man between Oakman and McCoy is Henry Hall. The other player is unidentified.

(Image courtesy of Les Adams)

Above from L-to-R are Franklyn Farnum, Lafe McKee, Bill Cody, Ada Ince and Bill Cody, Jr. in FRONTIER DAYS (Spectrum, 1934).

(Image courtesy of Les Adams)

Above, from L-to-R are Helen Dahl, Tom Tyler, Lafe McKee, Dick Alexander and Slim Whitaker in COYOTE TRAILS (Reliable, 1935).

(From Old Corral image collection)

Above, from L-to-R are Jack Rockwell, Karl Hackett, John Merton, Tim McCoy, Joe Girard and Lafe McKee in LIGHTNIN' BILL CARSON (Puritan, 1936)

(From Old Corral image collection)

From L-to-R are Eleanor Stewart, kindly ol' Lafe McKee and star Bob Allen putting the grips on Wally Wales/Hal Taliaferro in this 1937 release. Les Adams was able to identify Herman Hack as the the player between Allen and Taliaferro/Wales.