--- name: "Larry Gates" canonical: "https://film.one/person/larry-gates" roles: ["Actor"] born: "24 September 1915" died: "12 December 1996" reviewed_on_fi1m: 3 average_fi1m_score: 69 average_as: "actor" average_over: 3 updated: "2026-09-20T05:21:49.570713+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." --- # Larry Gates Actor. Born 24 September 1915 in Saint Paul, Minnesota, USA. Died 12 December 1996. ## Details - **Work:** Actor - **Born:** 24 September 1915, Saint Paul, Minnesota, USA - **Died:** 12 December 1996 - **Active:** 1958–1970 - **Also known as:** Lawrence Wheaton Gates - **Average Fi1m score:** 69, as actor, over 3 titles - **Fi1m score by decade:** 1960s 76 (2), 1970s 56 (1) - **Score spread:** 1 at 80+, 1 at 60–79, 1 under 60 - **Lead roles:** 0 of 2 acting credits billed first or second - **Genres:** Drama 3, Thriller 2, Action 1, Crime 1, Mystery 1, War 1 - **Screen time:** 7 hours of reviewed films - **Box office:** $148m across 3 films with figures - **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_Gates, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q749735, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0309588/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/3640 ## Streaming the US now - **The Roku Channel:** [*In the Heat of the Night*](https://film.one/film/in-the-heat-of-the-night.md) (85) For United States; add `?region=XX` for another country. ## Fi1m on Larry Gates > Larry Gates spent forty years playing the doctor, the judge and the man of standing, and did it so quietly that most people know him for a single slap. Watch what his face does after it; that is the actor. The moment everyone remembers is in a greenhouse in Mississippi. Eric Endicott, a cotton man who grows orchids, slaps Virgil Tibbs and is slapped back, and the clip has been shown so often that it has stopped being acting and become history. Watch the film instead of the clip. Norman Jewison holds on Larry Gates after the blow, and what Gates does is nothing: the mouth works, no sound comes out, and a man who has plainly never been contradicted in his own house finds he has no sentence ready. We knew the slap was coming and we still sat forward, and it was for that silence, not the blow. That was *In the Heat of the Night* (1967), and by then Gates had been doing this kind of work for a decade. He came from the stage, in New York from 1939, and Broadway in *Bell, Book and Candle* in 1956 sent him into a steady run of film and television parts in which he was, more often than not, the doctor, the lawyer or the judge. He is Dr Kauffman in *Invasion of the Body Snatchers* (1956) and Dr Baugh in *Cat on a Hot Tin Roof* (1958): two films with nothing in common except that each needed a doctor and each got him. Hollywood decided early that his face meant standing, and used it for that. The trouble with playing authority is that the script seldom gives you anything to do with it. In *The Sand Pebbles* (1966) he is Jameson, the missionary who wants the navy out, and he has the best argument in a 196-minute film and about three scenes in which to make it. He makes it and the film moves on. That is the pattern of the career: small allowances, well spent. Jewison is the one director who noticed what happened when the standing was taken away from him, and it is no accident that the result is the part people remember. The rest of the working life went where good character actors go: back to the stage, including Polonius opposite Sam Waterston, and to daytime television, thirteen years as H.B. Lewis on *Guiding Light* from 1983 until his death in 1996. Nobody will build a season around him. But if you are watching *In the Heat of the Night* tonight, and you should be, stay with the old man in the greenhouse for the moment after the slap, when the camera is still on him and he has nothing to say. It is the best thing he did on screen, and it is over before you have finished noticing it. ## Biography Larry Gates (also credited as Lawrence Wheaton Gates) was an American actor. Born in Saint Paul, Minnesota, he trained as a chemical engineer at the University of Minnesota before pursuing acting, with early experience at the Barter Theatre. He made his Broadway debut in Bell, Book and Candle (1950) and received a Tony Award nomination for A Case of Libel (1964). His film roles include Dr. Baugh in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958), Dr. Dan Kauffman in Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956), Jameson in The Sand Pebbles (1966) and Eric Endicott in In the Heat of the Night (1967). On television he appeared in series including The Twilight Zone and Alfred Hitchcock Presents. Gates played H.B. Lewis on the soap opera Guiding Light from 1983 until his death, winning the 1985 Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series. He died in Sharon, Connecticut, in 1996. *Sources: en.wikipedia.org, imdb.com.* ## On Fi1m (3) - *Airport* (1970), Fi1m 56, as Ackerman — [page](https://film.one/film/airport.md) - *In the Heat of the Night* (1967), Fi1m 85, as Eric Endicott — [page](https://film.one/film/in-the-heat-of-the-night.md) - *The Sand Pebbles* (1966), Fi1m 66, as Jameson — [page](https://film.one/film/the-sand-pebbles.md) ## Complete filmography (73) Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page. - *Leonard Part 6* (1987), as Medusa Guard - *Creepy Classics* (1987), as Dr. Dan 'Danny' Kauffman - (archive footage) - *The Henderson Monster* (1980), as President Alan Doby - *F.D.R.: The Last Year* (1980), as Adm. Leahy - *Backstairs at the White House* (1979), series, as Pres. Herbert Hoover - *Kate McShane* (1975), as Judge Graham Platte - *The School for Scandal* (1975), as Sir Oliver Surface - *Funny Lady* (1975), as Bernard Baruch - *Aloha Means Goodbye* (1974), as Torger Nilsson - *Lucky Luciano* (1973), as Judge Herlands - *Pueblo* (1973), as American Negotiator - *Banyon* (1972), series, Actor - *Sarge: The Badge or the Cross* (1971), as Arnie Bigelow - *Great Performances* (1971), series, as Sir Oliver Surface - *The Ceremony of Innocence* (1970), as Earl of Kent - *Airport* (1970), as Ackerman — Fi1m 56, [page](https://film.one/film/airport.md) - *Then Came Bronson* (1969), series, as Ed Hemmings - *Death of a Gunfighter* (1969), as Mayor Chester Sayre - *The Outcasts* (1968), series, Actor - *Hour of the Gun* (1967), as John P. Clum - *Mannix* (1967), series, Actor - *Judd, for the Defense* (1967), series, Actor - *Cimarron Strip* (1967), series, Actor - *In the Heat of the Night* (1967), as Eric Endicott — Fi1m 85, [page](https://film.one/film/in-the-heat-of-the-night.md) - *The Invaders* (1967), series, as Weller - *The Sand Pebbles* (1966), as Jameson — Fi1m 66, [page](https://film.one/film/the-sand-pebbles.md) - *Evening Primrose* (1966), as Roscoe Potts - *ABC Stage 67* (1966), series, as Roscoe Potts - *The F.B.I.* (1965), series, as Dr. Lovane, Tom Barrett, Paul Nichols, James Reed, Austin Carr, Edward Ticerman - *Espionage* (1963), series, as Owen Rutledge - *Toys in the Attic* (1963), as Cyrus Warkins - *Cattle King* (1963), as President Chester A. Arthur - *Stoney Burke* (1962), series, Actor - *The Spiral Road* (1962), as Dr. Kramer - *Cain's Hundred* (1961), series, as Zales Yoder - *The Defenders* (1961), series, as Prof. Robert Hopkins - *Ada* (1961), as Joe Adams - *Kraft Mystery Theatre* (1961), series, as Senator George Dryden - *The Young Savages* (1961), as Randolph - *The Hoodlum Priest* (1961), as Louis Rosen - *Underworld U.S.A.* (1961), as John Driscoll - *The Americans* (1961), series, Actor - *The Great Impostor* (1960), as Cardinal - *Route 66* (1960), series, Actor - *Outlaws* (1960), series, Actor - *Checkmate* (1960), series, as Harry Winters - *One Foot in Hell* (1960), as Doc Seltzer - *The Shape of the River* (1960), as Henry Rogers - *The Citadel* (1960), Actor - *Play of the Week* (1959), series, as Bishop - *The Twilight Zone* (1959), series, as Bill Stockton — Fi1m 84, [page](https://film.one/tv/the-twilight-zone.md) - *Bonanza* (1959), series, as Jacob Darien - *The Remarkable Mr. Pennypacker* (1959), as Rev. Dr. Fielding - *One Step Beyond* (1959), series, as Gavin Carroll - *Rawhide* (1959), series, as Mason Woodruff - *Some Came Running* (1958), as Professor Robert Haven French - *Cat on a Hot Tin Roof* (1958), as Dr. Baugh - *Bomber's Moon* (1958), as General Toomey - *On Borrowed Time* (1957), as Mr. Pilbeam - *The Brothers Rico* (1957), as Sid Kubik - *Jeanne Eagels* (1957), as Al Brooks - *The Strange One* (1957), as Major Avery - *Invasion of the Body Snatchers* (1956), as Dr. Dan 'Danny' Kauffman - *Alfred Hitchcock Presents* (1955), series, as Mr. Hollister - *Take Me to Town* (1953), as Ed Daggett - *Francis Covers the Big Town* (1953), as Dan Austin - *Above and Beyond* (1953), as Capt. William Parsons - *Has Anybody Seen My Gal?* (1952), as Charles Blaisdell - *Glory Alley* (1952), as Robert Ardley - *Hallmark Hall of Fame* (1951), series, as Mr. Pilbeam - *Studio One* (1948), series, as Henry Winthrop, Clayman, Hy, George Savage - *The Philco Television Playhouse* (1948), series, as Darcy - *Kraft Television Theatre* (1947), series, Actor ## Gallery - ![Larry Gates](https://film.one/media/person/1239457/gallery-4bb448ebc665.jpg) Larry Gates — Trailer for "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" (1956), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b5/Larry-gates-trailer.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled) - ![Larry Gates](https://film.one/media/person/1239457/gallery-4e797aa24689.jpg) Larry Gates — Image via TMDB - ![Larry Gates](https://film.one/media/person/1239457/gallery-0113416b535c.jpg) Larry Gates — Image via TMDB ## Awards ### Other awards — 1 won, 1 nominated - Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series 1985: Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series (won), for *Guiding Light* - Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play 1964: Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play (nominated) *From Wikidata, which records wins more completely than nominations.* --- © 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/larry-gates