--- name: "Douglass Dumbrille" canonical: "https://film.one/person/douglass-dumbrille" roles: ["Actor"] born: "12 October 1889" died: "2 April 1974" reviewed_on_fi1m: 5 average_fi1m_score: 74 average_as: "actor" average_over: 4 updated: "2026-09-20T02:25:37.874637+00:00" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Douglass Dumbrille Actor. Born 12 October 1889 in Hamilton, Canada. Died 2 April 1974. ## Details - **Work:** Actor - **Born:** 12 October 1889, Hamilton, Canada - **Died:** 2 April 1974 - **Active:** 1935–1953 - **Also known as:** Douglass Rupert Dumbrille, Douglas Dumbrille, Douglas Dunbrile - **Titles on Fi1m:** 5: 4 acting, 1 other - **Frequently works with:** [Gary Cooper](https://film.one/person/gary-cooper.md) - **Average Fi1m score:** 74, as actor, over 4 titles - **Fi1m score by decade:** 1930s 76 (4), 1950s 76 (1) - **Score spread:** 1 at 80+, 3 at 60–79, 0 under 60 - **Lead roles:** 0 of 3 acting credits billed first or second - **Genres:** Drama 3, Romance 2, Adventure 1, Comedy 1, History 1, Music 1 - **Screen time:** 7 hours of reviewed films - **Box office:** $9m across 3 films with figures - **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglass_Dumbrille, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q3038059, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0241523/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/34748 ## Streaming the US now - **The Roku Channel:** [*Mr. Deeds Goes to Town*](https://film.one/film/mr-deeds-goes-to-town.md) (82) For United States; add `?region=XX` for another country. ## Fi1m on Douglass Dumbrille > Douglass Dumbrille spent his career playing the well-dressed man you should not trust: crooked lawyers, politicians and sheriffs, with a fine voice and arrogant profile. In *The Lives of a Bengal Lancer* the manners make the cruelty tidier; that is the one to see. In *The Lives of a Bengal Lancer* (1935), Mohammed Khan tells his prisoners he has ways of making men talk, and Douglass Dumbrille says it without raising his voice. Khan has an English education and perfect manners, and the film uses both to make his cruelty tidier. Dumbrille understood that. The threat is not in the words; it is in how comfortable he is saying them. That was the job for most of his career. He had been a bank clerk before the stage, then stock companies and Broadway in 1924, and when he settled in Hollywood in the early 1930s the studios looked at the profile and the voice and cast him as the man in the good suit who was up to something: politicians, businessmen, lawyers, sheriffs, nearly all of them crooked. He made more than 200 films that way. For Frank Capra he was John Cedar, the corrupt lawyer in *Mr. Deeds Goes to Town* (1936); for the Marx Brothers he was Morgan in *A Day at the Races* (1937), the pompous man whose dignity is there to be knocked over. Later came Lepidus in *Julius Caesar* (1953) and Jannes, the priest and magician, in Cecil B. DeMille's *The Ten Commandments* (1956), one of three films he made with DeMille, and television work that ran into 1966. What he brought to these parts was a coldness that did not need underlining. In *Naughty Marietta* (1935), a creaky costume romance, he plays Marietta's uncle, the Prince de Namours de la Bonfain, and makes him properly cold while Frank Morgan flutters and Elsa Lanchester is a terror at dinner; between them the character players supply the wit the leads cannot. It is a small part and he does not inflate it. The limitation is that the studios seldom asked for more than the profile and the diction, and he seldom insisted. In comedy that becomes a virtue. A villain who is also faintly ridiculous, menace and pomposity in one man, is exactly what a Marx Brothers picture needs to push against. Khan is the performance to see, and it is also the one that troubled us. We were more bothered by *Bengal Lancer* than we expected to be, and not by the brown make-up, which he shares with every tribesman in the film. It is that Dumbrille gives Khan wit and schooling and the script cannot imagine him wanting anything except the rifles. He plays a man; the film only needed an obstacle. That is the film's fault, not his, but it clings to the performance all the same. Start with *Bengal Lancer*, for Cooper and Tone, and watch what Dumbrille does in the scenes he is allowed. Then try *A Day at the Races*, where the same manner is pointed at the Marx Brothers and comes back as pomposity. He was hired for thirty years to be distrusted on sight, and he made it look like good manners. ## Biography Douglass Rupert Dumbrille (1889–1974) was a Canadian actor. Born in Hamilton, Ontario, he worked as a bank clerk before entering the theatre. He appeared in a 1913 film and made his Broadway debut in 1924, supplementing his income with various sales jobs while working intermittently in stock companies and on tour. During the Great Depression he moved to Hollywood, where he specialised in supporting character roles. He appeared in more than 200 films, including *The Lives of a Bengal Lancer* (1935) as Mohammed Khan and *Naughty Marietta* (1935) as the uncle of the title character. He later made numerous television appearances in the 1950s and 1960s. *Sources: en.wikipedia.org, encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com, imdb.com.* ## On Fi1m (5) ### Performed in (4) — the average rests on these - *Julius Caesar* (1953), Fi1m 76, as Lepidus — [page](https://film.one/film/julius-caesar.md) - *Mr. Deeds Goes to Town* (1936), Fi1m 82, as John Cedar — [page](https://film.one/film/mr-deeds-goes-to-town.md) - *Naughty Marietta* (1935), Fi1m 64, as Prince de Namours de la Bonfain, Marietta's Uncle — [page](https://film.one/film/naughty-marietta.md) - *The Lives of a Bengal Lancer* (1935), Fi1m 74, as Mohammed Khan — [page](https://film.one/film/the-lives-of-a-bengal-lancer.md) ### Also credited (1) — thanks, archive footage, uncredited - *I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang* (1932), Fi1m 85, as District Attorney (uncredited) — [page](https://film.one/film/i-am-a-fugitive-from-a-chain-gang.md) ## Complete filmography (181) Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page. - *Batman* (1966), series, as The Doctor - *Johnny Cool* (1963), as Corrupt City Council Member - *Petticoat Junction* (1963), series, as Dave La Salle - *The Beverly Hillbillies* (1962), series, Actor - *Air Patrol* (1962), as Millard Nolan - *Bringing Up Buddy* (1960), series, Actor - *High Time* (1960), as Judge Carter (uncredited) - *The Untouchables* (1959), series, as Judge Ben Harlow - *The Twilight Zone* (1959), series, as Mr. Halpert — Fi1m 84, [page](https://film.one/tv/the-twilight-zone.md) - *The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis* (1959), series, as Prof. Brinkerhoff, Esq. - *The DuPont Show with June Allyson* (1959), series, as Warden - *The Buccaneer* (1958), as Collector of the Port - *77 Sunset Strip* (1958), series, Actor - *Bat Masterson* (1958), series, as Gen. Taylor Millard - *Perry Mason* (1957), series, as Judge Robert Adler, Judge - *Shake, Rattle and Rock!* (1956), as Eustace Fentwick III - *Tales of the 77th Bengal Lancers* (1956), series, Actor - *The Ten Commandments* (1956), as Jannes - *Hey, Jeannie!* (1956), series, as Gen. Hardwicke - *Mobs, Inc.* (1956), as Leland Cameron James - *Jungle Safari* (1956), as Lang - *Life of Vernon Hathaway* (1955), as Red Beecham - *Matinee Theater* (1955), series, Actor - *Crossroads* (1955), series, Actor - *Screen Director's Playhouse* (1955), series, as Red Beecham - *A Life at Stake* (1955), as Gus Hillman - *Jupiter's Darling* (1955), as Scipio - *The Millionaire* (1955), series, as B.G. Greenwise - *Studio 57* (1954), series, as Goldy - *The Lawless Rider* (1954), as Marshal Brady (as Douglas Dumbrille) - *Public Defender* (1954), series, as Frank Hackman - *World for Ransom* (1954), as Insp. McCollum - *Captain John Smith and Pocahontas* (1953), as Powhatan (as Douglas Dumbrille) - *Letter to Loretta* (1953), series, as George Haviland - *Plunder of the Sun* (1953), as Consul - *Julius Caesar* (1953), as Lepidus — Fi1m 76, [page](https://film.one/film/julius-caesar.md) - *The Life Of Riley* (1953), series, as Cunningham - *Rapture* (1952), as W.C. Hutton - *Sky Full of Moon* (1952), as Rodeo Official - *The Ford Television Theatre* (1952), series, as J.B. Creston - *Cavalcade of America* (1952), series, as Lord Rawdon - *Apache War Smoke* (1952), as Maj. Dekker - *Son of Paleface* (1952), as Sheriff McIntyre - *Scaramouche* (1952), as Assembly President - *Dangerous Assignment* (1952), series, Actor - *China Smith* (1952), series, Actor - *Hallmark Hall of Fame* (1951), series, as Governor Spriggs, Governor William Claiborne - *A Millionaire for Christy* (1951), as J.C. Thompson - *Racket Squad* (1951), series, Actor - *The Kangaroo Kid* (1950), as Vincent Moller - *The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show* (1950), series, as Mr. Arthur J. Cahill, Judge Strickland - *Lux Video Theatre* (1950), series, as Whitfield - *Bud Abbott and Lou Costello in the Foreign Legion* (1950), as Sheik Hamud El Khalid - *The Savage Horde* (1950), as Col. Price - *Riding High* (1950), as Eddie Howard - *Buccaneer's Girl* (1950), as Capt. Martos - *Tell It to the Judge* (1949), as George Ellerby - *Rapture* (1949), as W.C. Hutton - *Joe Palooka in the Counterpunch* (1949), as Captain Lance - *The Lone Wolf and His Lady* (1949), as John J. Murdock - *Alimony* (1949), as Burton Crail - *Riders of the Whistling Pines* (1949), as Henry Mitchell - *Dynamite* (1949), as Hank Gibbons - *Last of the Wild Horses* (1948), as Charlie Cooper - *Blonde Savage* (1947), as Mark Harper - *Beyond Our Own* (1947), as E.W. Osborne - *The Fabulous Texan* (1947), as Luke Roland - *Christmas Eve* (1947), as Dr. Bunyan - *Dragnet* (1947), as Frank Farrington - *Dishonored Lady* (1947), as District Attorney O'Brien - *It's a Joke, Son!* (1947), as Big Dan Healey - *Monsieur Beaucaire* (1946), as George Washington - *Under Nevada Skies* (1946), as Courtney - *Spook Busters* (1946), as Dr. Coslow - *The Cat Creeps* (1946), as Tom McGalvey - *Night in Paradise* (1946), as High Priest - *The Catman of Paris* (1946), as Henry Borchard - *Road to Utopia* (1946), as Ace Larson - *Pardon My Past* (1945), as Uncle Wills - *The Daltons Ride Again* (1945), as Sheriff Hoskins - *Flame of the West* (1945), as Marshal Tom Nightlander - *The Frozen Ghost* (1945), as Inspector Brant - *A Medal for Benny* (1945), as General - *Jungle Queen* (1945), as Lang - *Lost in a Harem* (1944), as Nimativ - *Gypsy Wildcat* (1944), as Baron Tovar - *Forty Thieves* (1944), as Tad Hammond - *Jungle Woman* (1944), as District Attorney - *Lumberjack* (1944), as Daniel J. Keefer - *Uncertain Glory* (1944), as Police Commissioner LaFarge - *False Colors* (1943), as Mark Foster - *Du Barry Was a Lady* (1943), as Willie / Duc de Rigor - *Stand by for Action* (1942), as Capt. Ludlow - *King of the Mounties* (1942), as Harper - *I Married an Angel* (1942), as Baron Szigethy - *Ten Gentlemen from West Point* (1942), as Gen. William Henry Harrison - *A Gentleman After Dark* (1942), as Enzo Calibra - *Castle in the Desert* (1942), as Paul Manderley - *Ride 'Em Cowboy* (1941), as Jake Rainwater - *Ellery Queen and the Perfect Crime* (1941), as John Matthews - *The Big Store* (1941), as Mr. Grover - *Washington Melodrama* (1941), as District Attorney Donnelly - *Road to Zanzibar* (1941), as Slave Trader - *The Roundup* (1941), as Capt. Bob Lane - *Murder Among Friends* (1941), as Carter Stevenson - *Michael Shayne: Private Detective* (1940), as Benny Gordon (as Douglas Dumbrille) - *South of Pago Pago* (1940), as Williams - *Virginia City* (1940), as Maj. Drewery - *Slightly Honorable* (1939), as George Taylor - *Rovin' Tumbleweeds* (1939), as Stephen Holloway - *City in Darkness* (1939), as B. Petroff (as Douglas Dumbrille) - *Thunder Afloat* (1939), as District Commander - *Charlie Chan at Treasure Island* (1939), as Stewart Salsbury, alias Thomas Gregory - *Tell No Tales* (1939), as Matt Cooper - *Captain Fury* (1939), as Preston - *Mr. Moto in Danger Island* (1939), as Comdr. La Costa - *The Three Musketeers* (1939), as Athos (as Douglas Dumbrille) - *Kentucky* (1938), as John Dillon - 1861 - *Sharpshooters* (1938), as Count Maxim - *Storm Over Bengal* (1938), as Ramin Khan - *Crime Takes a Holiday* (1938), as J.J. Grant - *The Mysterious Rider* (1938), as Pecos Bill aka Ben Wade - *Fast Company* (1938), as Arnold Stamper (as Douglas Dumbrille) - *Stolen Heaven* (1938), as Klingman - *The Buccaneer* (1938), as Governor William C.C. Claiborne - *The Firefly* (1937), as Marquis de Melito - *Ali Baba Goes to Town* (1937), as Prince Musah - *The Emperor's Candlesticks* (1937), as Mr. Korum, a Conspirator - *A Day at the Races* (1937), as Morgan - *Woman in Distress* (1937), as Jerome Culver - *Counterfeit Lady* (1936), as August Marino - *End of the Trail* (1936), as Bill Mason - *M'Liss* (1936), as Lou Ellis - *The Princess Comes Across* (1936), as Lorel - *The Witness Chair* (1936), as Stanley Whittaker - *Mr. Deeds Goes to Town* (1936), as John Cedar — Fi1m 82, [page](https://film.one/film/mr-deeds-goes-to-town.md) - *The Music Goes 'Round* (1936), as Bishop - *You May Be Next!* (1936), as Beau Gardner - *The Lone Wolf Returns* (1935), as Morphew - *The Calling of Dan Matthews* (1935), as Jeff Hardy - *Crime and Punishment* (1935), as Grilov - *Peter Ibbetson* (1935), as Colonel Forsythe - *The Public Menace* (1935), as Mario Tonelli - *Love Me Forever* (1935), as Miller - *Unknown Woman* (1935), as Phil Gardner - *Air Hawks* (1935), as Victor Arnold - *Naughty Marietta* (1935), as Prince de Namours de la Bonfain, Marietta's Uncle — Fi1m 64, [page](https://film.one/film/naughty-marietta.md) - *The Lives of a Bengal Lancer* (1935), as Mohammed Khan — Fi1m 74, [page](https://film.one/film/the-lives-of-a-bengal-lancer.md) - *The Secret Bride* (1934), as Breeden - *Broadway Bill* (1934), as Eddie Morgan - *Treasure Island* (1934), as Pirate of the Spanish Main - *Operator 13* (1934), as General Stuart - *Fog Over Frisco* (1934), as Joshua Mayard - *Harold Teen* (1934), as H.H. Snatcher (as Douglas Dumbrille) - *Journal of a Crime* (1934), as Cartier (as Douglas Dumbrille) - *Hi, Nellie!* (1934), as Harvey Dawes - *Lady Killer* (1933), as Spade - *The World Changes* (1933), as Buffalo Bill Cody - *Female* (1933), as George Mumford - *The Way to Love* (1933), as Agent Chapusard - *I Loved a Woman* (1933), as U.S. Attorney Brandt (uncredited) - *The Big Brain* (1933), as Dan Thomas - *Baby Face* (1933), as Brody - *The Man Who Dared* (1933), as Judge Collier - *Heroes for Sale* (1933), as Chief Engineer Jim (uncredited) - *Elmer, the Great* (1933), as Stillman (uncredited) - *The Working Man* (1933), as Lawyer Hammersmith (uncredited) - *The Rustler's Roundup* (1933), as Bill Brett (as Douglas Dunbrile) - *King of the Jungle* (1933), as Ed Peters - *Hard to Handle* (1933), as District Attorney (uncredited) - *Laughter in Hell* (1933), as Ed Perkins - *Smoke Lightning* (1933), as Sam Edson - *That's My Boy* (1932), as Coach "Daisy" Adams - *I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang* (1932), as District Attorney (uncredited) — Fi1m 85, [page](https://film.one/film/i-am-a-fugitive-from-a-chain-gang.md) - *The Pride of the Legion* (1932), as McMahon - *Blondie of the Follies* (1932), as Murchenson - *The Wiser Sex* (1932), as Chauffeur - aka The Wop - *The Symphony Murder Mystery* (1932), as Giuseppe Benito - *His Woman* (1931), as Alisandroe - *The Door Knocker* (1931), as Gangster - *What 80 Million Women Want* (1913), as District Attorney(uncredited) ## Gallery - ![Douglass Dumbrille](https://film.one/media/person/1226317/gallery-4340d9c5102c.jpg) Douglass Dumbrille — unknown (Producers Releasing Corporation), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4a/Douglass_Dumbrille_in_Blonde_Savage.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled) - ![Tala Birell and Douglass Dumbrille in Crime and Punishment (1935) - publicity still](https://film.one/media/person/1226317/gallery-1bbdb4165ef5.jpg) Tala Birell and Douglass Dumbrille in Crime and Punishment (1935) - publicity still — unknown (Columbia Pictures), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e4/Tala_Birell-Douglass_Dumbrille_in_Crime_and_Punishment.jpg/1280px-Tala_Birell-Douglass_Dumbrille_in_Crime_and_Punishment.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail) - ![Douglass Dumbrille](https://film.one/media/person/1226317/gallery-dda9c1af6125.jpg) Douglass Dumbrille — Image via TMDB - ![Douglass Dumbrille](https://film.one/media/person/1226317/gallery-fdcfcb356853.jpg) Douglass Dumbrille — Image via TMDB --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/douglass-dumbrille