The 'brains' and 'action' heavies who had meaty roles and lots of dialog ... and the players who were fathers, ranch owners, lawman, mayors, judges, lawyers, storekeepers, newspaper editors, wardens, etc. |
Harry Lauter Birth name: Herman Arthur Lauter 1914 - 1990 | (From Old Corral collection) |
(From Old Corral collection) Above - Lauter in a minor, uncredited role helping out lead Bill Henry in the serial CANADIAN MOUNTIES VS ATOMIC INVADERS (Republic, 1953). 1954 | Ye Old Corral webmeister was born in 1943 and grew up watching 1950s TV westerns in glorious B&W. And a face that turned up often on our small screen television was Harry Lauter.
He was born Herman Arthur Lauter on June 19, 1914 in New York and parents were Herman Florentine Lauter (1880? - 1956) and Elizabeth Babra Frank Lauter (1889 - 1922). Biographies have him born in White Plains, Westchester county, New York. But birth, census, and military records indicate he was born in the Bronx, New York in 1914, and the family resided in the Bronx at the time of the 1915 New York census. His father Herman hailed from Denver, became a noted illustrator, painter and artist, and the family moved several times - they were in Denver for the 1920 census and circa 1930, had relocated to San Diego, California where Harry attended school and was on the San Diego High School swimming team. Some biographies have Franceska Lauter as Harry's mother. But that is incorrect. Franceska was Harry's grandmother (mother of Harry's father Herman Lauter). User submitted family trees on Ancestry.com indicate her full name was Anna Franceska Claudina Tiedemann Lauter (1858 - 1932). Another biographical question relates to Harry's grandparents being circus performers and trapeze artists known as the "Flying Lauters". Found nothing on that big top connection - nor any confirmation that the "Flying Lauters" act even existed. In the early 1940s, Harry was employed as a "Credit man" at Franklins Department Store in Los Angeles. The came a hitch in the Coast Guard during World War II. After discharge, he settled on an acting career, and that included many stage plays. His early film work was primarily in series westerns and serials during the decline of the genres in the late 1940s and early 1950s. During that period, he turns up in oaters at Republic and Columbia as well as Republic cliffhangers. I remember him most for scores of TV show roles. In the 1950s - 1960s, Lauter was a television workaholic with appearances in WILD BILL HICKOK, MAVERICK, ROY ROGERS SHOW, LONE RANGER, RAWHIDE, DEATH VALLEY DAYS, OZZIE AND HARRIET, THE TIME TUNNEL, GUNSMOKE, ZANE GREY THEATER, lots more. A frequent employer was Gene Autry's Flying A production company, and you can spot Harry in many episodes of the GENE AUTRY SHOW, RANGE RIDER, BUFFALO BILL JR., ANNIE OAKLEY, others. Around 1966, he even did a stint in the DAYS OF OUR LIVES soap opera. He had recurring roles in several 1950s television series:
This guy was really busy and I wondered what shows he didn't appear in. Checking his Internet Movie Database (IMDb) list, he didn't do any CISCO KID, SUPERMAN, or I LOVE LUCY.
" ... a man came up to me and said: 'Gawd, I hate you! I've hated you for 20 years!' I took that greeting as the sincerest form of compliment. I play the bad guy and take pride in doing it well. Occasionally I've been on the side of the law, but I don't feel at home in a white hat part. People seem to remember the bad guys, because they get them so riled up."
Harry's movie and television career spanned about twenty five years. He worked in A and B grade films ... was a cliffhanger hero and TV hero ... and one of the more recognized faces on 1950s and 1960s television. Harry's TV and film work ended in the 1970s, and then his energies were devoted to a successful second career as a painter and artist. There are 1970s - 1980s newspaper mentions of Harry (and wife Doris) exhibiting their paintings at various locales and events ... and Harry was an occasional judge at local art fairs.
Although some of the data is incomplete or inaccurate, the Internet Movie Database (IMDb) has information on Harry Lauter: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0491591/ Daniel Neyer's "The Files of Jerry Blake" serial website has a webpage on Harry Lauter starring in the serial TRADER TOM OF THE CHINA SEAS (Republic, 1954): https://filesofjerryblake.com/2014/01/21/trader-tom-of-the-china-seas/ |
(Courtesy of Doris Lauter) (Courtesy of Doris Lauter) | Special thanks to Harry's wife Doris for all the wonderful photos. Doris writes: "Harry became an accomplished artist, painting mostly beautiful oil landscapes, with lakes, trees, and mountains. His father, also an artist, was a great influence on him as a child. The Favell Museum of Western Art has one of his landscapes on display in their permanent collection. Being an artist myself, we met in 1970 at various art functions. He had a gallery in Studio City, California, 'Lauters Gallery Row', and also ran an art show on La Cienega on Sundays. After we married, we had a small gallery in Ojai, California, where we did our paintings. We exhibited together in professional art shows and two-man shows all over the country. We felt very fortunate to be able to spend our life doing what we loved to do. He sold everything he painted, and was pleased that his art would be around long after he was gone." Doris Lauter, September, 1999 Music performer/conductor/composer John Beal and his parents were friends of Harry Lauter and family (and there's info about John at his website: http://www.composerjohnbeal.com/). John provided the following remembrances in a November, 2003 e-mail: "Harry Lauter and his wife Barbara were friends of my parents. I was closest in age to their daughter Brooke and liked them all very much. I hadn't seen them since the 1970's, although my parents had stayed in touch. I'm sorry I didn't have the pleasure of meeting Doris. Harry was in so many projects, I recall almost daily watching television and one of us would call out, 'There's Harry ... again!' Happily, I still have one of Harry's scenic paintings. It is with great fondness that I see his continuing legacy in film." |
On the trail of Harry Lauter ... and there's lots of Hermans to sort through. There's Harry's grandfather Herman ... Harry's father Herman ... and Harry was a Herman also.
There's also some confusion with the last name - in the records below, you'll find "Lauter" as well as "Von Lauter" mentions.
Info on Harry Lauter and family was found on Family Search (free), Ancestry.com (subscription), Fold3 Military records, California Death Index, Social Security Death Index (SSDI), trade publications, and newspapers.
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Harry Lauter, birth name of Herman Andrew Lauter (1914 - 1990).
Find A Grave website notes that Lauter was cremated and ashes scattered at sea: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/50162724/harry-lauter
Find A Grave website has info:
Circa 1935 painting of Fisherman's Wharf, San Francisco by Harry's father. Check the large "H. F. Lauter" signature in the lower right corner of the painting. Does that F middle initial look like an E to you: https://www.1stdibs.com/art/paintings/landscape-paintings/herman-e-lauter-fishermans-wharf-san-francisco/id-a_2762173/ |
(Courtesy of Doris Lauter) Above - to many fans, Harry's best remembered role was 'Ranger Clay Morgan' in the TV series TALES OF THE TEXAS RANGERS. Screen Gems, the television production arm of Columbia Pictures, produced 52 half-hour episodes from 1955 - 1958. The initial 39 ran on CBS and ABC televised the last 13 shows. TALES had Willard Parker (as 'Ranger Jace Pearson') and Lauter alternating between old west or modern west settings and was based on the 1950s NBC radio show of the same name which starred Joel McCrea. TALES comic books were also churned out and most had photo covers featuring Willard Parker or Joel McCrea. (From Old Corral collection) Above from left to right are Harry Lauter, Rex Allen and Harry Cheshire in Rex's THUNDER IN GOD'S COUNTRY (Republic, 1951). This is a good guy role for Harry who plays the local sheriff. Lauter did A and B grade westerns with Rex Allen, Rocky Lane, Bill Elliott, Gene Autry, Charles Starrett, Audie Murphy, Joel McCrea, more. Harry Cheshire was a familiar face in movies and television, and one of his later TV roles was portraying 'Judge Ben Wiley' in over three dozen of the BUFFALO BILL JR. TV shows in the mid 1950s. |