Quick Facts
Biography
Murray Alper (January 11, 1904 – November 16, 1984) was an American actor.
Alper worked on Broadway from 1927 to 1940 in a number of shows including: The Wild Man of Borneo, This is New York, Broadway Boy, Sailor Beware!, and Every Man for Himself.
Alper appeared in more than 200 films and TV series from the 1930s to the end of the 1960s. Quite often his work was uncredited and he never received a top billing in one of his movies. His first known screen credit was in The Royal Family of Broadway (1930) a part he had already played on Broadway in 1927/28.
In The Maltese Falcon (1941), he plays a friendly cabbie who drives the character Sam Spade, played by Humphrey Bogart, during a mid-film wild goose chase. His biggest role should have been the part of Gus Smith in the Alfred Hitchcock film Lifeboat in 1943. Due to his becoming ill right before the start of shooting in August, he was replaced by actor William Bendix. However, he worked for Hitchcock on three other movies: Mr. & Mrs. Smith (1941), Saboteur (1942), and Strangers on a Train (1951).
Frequently seen in comedies, Alper was featured in the Three Stooges films Tricky Dicks (1953) and The Outlaws Is Coming (1965). One of Alper's least characteristic roles was the judo instructor in Jerry Lewis' The Nutty Professor (1963).
Selected filmography
- Panic on the Air (1936)
- The Roaring Twenties (1939) as First Mechanic (uncredited)
- King of the Underworld (1939) as Eddie
- Black Friday (1940)
- The Maltese Falcon (1941) as Frank Richman
- Saboteur (1942) as Truck Driver
- Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942) as Wise Guy (uncredited)
- They Were Expendable (1945)
- The Phantom Thief (1946)
- Strangers on a Train (1951)
- Murder Without Tears (1953)