Biography
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Horace McMahon (May 17, 1906 – August 17, 1971) was an American actor. McMahon was born in South Norwalk, Connecticut. He became interested in acting when he was a student at Fordham University School of Law. In his early career he mostly played thugs or jailbirds, but in 1949 he starred in his most acclaimed role, as Lieutenant Monaghan in the drama play Detective Story and in 1951 he reprised his character in Paramount Pictures' film version Detective S...
Known For
Complete Filmography

The Detective
1968
as Capt. Tom Farrell
Police detective Joe Leland investigates the murder of a gay man.

The Swinger
1966
as Detective Sergeant Hooker
An authoress writes a steaming sex-novel and proceeds to live out her heroine's adventures.

Run To Daylight
1964
as Narrator
A documentary based on the book by legendary Packer coach Vince Lombardi. Narrated by Horace McMahon and told by Vince Lombardi, the 55-minute B & W ...

What Makes Sammy Run?
1959
as Mike Crowley
An adaptation of Budd Schulberg's incendiary 1941 novel about the rise of an unscrupulous Hollywood producer. The production was divided into two part...

Never Steal Anything Small
1959
as O.K. Merritt
Director Charles Lederer's 1959 musical stars James Cagney as an unscrupulous longshoreman who'll resort to every dirty trick in the book to win his u...

Beau James
1957
as Prosecutor
The story of Jimmy Walker who became mayor of New York in the '20s.

The Delicate Delinquent
1957
as Capt. Riley
Sidney Pythias is a bumbling janitor picked up by cop Mike Damon as a teenage gang member worth saving from delinquency. With Damon's help, Sidney wor...

Texas Lady
1955
as Stringer Winfield
Claudette Colbert plays Prudence Webb, who arrives in the wide-open town of Fort Ralston, Texas, to assume control of her late father's newspaper. He...

My Sister Eileen
1955
as Police Officer Lonigan
Ruth and her beautiful sister Eileen come to New York's Greenwich Village looking for "fame, fortune and a 'For Rent' sign on Barrow Street". They fin...

Blackboard Jungle
1955
as Detective
Richard Dadier is a teacher at North Manual High School, an inner-city school where many of the pupils frequently engage in anti-social behavior. Dadi...

Susan Slept Here
1954
as Sergeant Monty Maizel
On Christmas Eve, suffering from a case of writer's block, screenwriter Mark Christopher and his gofer Virgil get an unexpected visit from Sergeant Ma...

Duffy of San Quentin
1954
as Pierson
San Quentin's new warden crusades for reform and for a framed inmate who loves a nurse.

Champ for a Day
1953
as Sam Benton
An up-and-coming heavyweight fighter, George Wilson, arrives in Vulcan City, a small mid-western town over-run by racketeers, to fight a heavily-favor...

Fast Company
1953
as 'Two Pair' Buford
The temperamental Carol Maldon leaves New York behind to take control of her father's stable, she inherited. Rick Grayton is a horse racing trainer wh...

Man in the Dark
1953
as Arnie
Many interested parties are after the loot from a factory payroll heist but the mobster who hid it has amnesia after undergoing experimental brain sur...

Abbott and Costello Go to Mars
1953
as Mugsy
Lester and Orville accidentally launch a rocket which is supposed to fly to Mars. Instead it goes to New Orleans for Mardi Gras. They are then forced ...

Detective Story
1951
as Lt. Monaghan
Tells the story of one day in the lives of the various people who populate a police detective squad. An embittered cop, Det. Jim McLeod, leads a preci...

Waterfront at Midnight
1948
as Hank Bremmer
Hoping to put the cuffs on criminal mastermind Socks Barstow, detective Mike Hanrohan is stymied by the fact that his younger brother Denny has joined...

Joe Palooka in Fighting Mad
1948
as Looie
Joe Palooka goes blind during a fight. An operation restores his vision, but he's told not to fight for a year. His trainer Knobby has picked up anoth...

Timber Queen
1944
as Rodney
Russ Evans, A WWII veteran army pilot, decides to check up on the widow of an old war buddy of his, Elaine Graham. The logging company she inherited i...

Dangerous Blondes
1943
as Hoodlum (uncredited)
Mystery writer Barry Craig (Allyn Joslyn) and his wife Jane (Evelyn Keyes), prefer solving crimes rather than writing about them. They get a chance wh...

Good Luck, Mr. Yates
1943
as Truck Driver
A 4F military school teacher's lie about being accepted for active duty causes problems on the home front.

Stage Door Canteen
1943
as Horace MacMahon
A young soldier on a pass in New York City visits the famed Stage Door Canteen, where famous stars of the theater and films appear and host a recreati...

Jail House Blues
1942
as Swifty
A prisoner about to be pardoned puts it off until he can put on one last variety show for his fellow inmates.

Birth of the Blues
1941
as Wolf
Jeff grows up near Basin Street in New Orleans, playing his clarinet with the dock workers. He puts together a band, the Basin Street Hot-Shots, which...

The Stork Pays Off
1941
as Ears-to-the-Ground Hinkle
Gangster Deak Foster and his three henchmen, Brains Moran, Ears-to-the-Ground Hinkle and Photofinish Farris, take over what they think is a night club...

Buy Me That Town
1941
as Fingers Flint
A gangster and his mob buy a small-town in this warm comedy. They, tired of trying to make it as big city hoods, buy the town to use as a hideout. The...

Lady Scarface
1941
as Mullen
A Chicago gang led by Slade carries out an audacious brokerage robbery. Lieutenant Bill Mason takes the case, continuing his friendly-enemy relationsh...

Rookies on Parade
1941
as Tiger Brannigan
The story details the misadventures of two itinerant songwriters named Duke (Crosby) and Cliff (Foy) as they try to survive Army boot camp. Intending ...

Come Live with Me
1941
as Taxi Driver
Seeking US citizenship, a Viennese refugee arranges a marriage of convenience with a struggling writer.

Dr. Kildare's Crisis
1940
as Foghorn Murphy
Jimmy Kildare's impending nuptials are jeopardized by a diagnosis of possible epilepsy in his fiancee's brother.

Melody Ranch
1940
as Bud Wildhack
His Arizona hometown of Torpedo invites Gene back to be the honorary sheriff of the Frontier Days Celebration.

The Leather Pushers
1940
as Slugger Mears
A shifty boxing promoter places an amateur in fixed fights, then hands his contract over to an suspicious female investigative reporter as a raffle pr...

Dr. Kildare Goes Home
1940
as Foghorn Murphy (uncredited)
A young doctor gives up big-city success to help his father set up a small-town clinic.

The Golden Fleecing
1940
as Undetermined Secondary Role (uncredited)
A mild-mannered insurance salesman gets mixed up with gangsters.

We Who Are Young
1940
as Foreman
A man violates company policy by getting married.

Millionaires in Prison
1940
as Sylvester Odgen 'SOS' Schofield (as Horace MacMahon)
A crop of millionaire inmates struggle to get accustomed to prison life, while inmate Nick Burton watches out for everyone's interests on the inside.

Gangs of Chicago
1940
as Cry-Baby
A criminal uses his knowledge of the law for his not-very-legal purposes, betraying friends along the way.

My Favorite Wife
1940
as Truck Driver Giving Lift to Ellen (uncredited)
Years after she was presumed dead in a shipwreck, Ellen Arden returns home to the surprise of her husband recently remarrying. But he too gets a shock...

I Can't Give You Anything But Love, Baby
1940
as Bugs
In I Can't Give You Anything But Love, Baby, Broderick Crawford plays a sentimental gangster who abducts songwriter Johnny Downs and forces him to wri...

Dr. Kildare's Strange Case
1940
as J. Harold 'Fog Horn' Murphy
Kildare tries brain surgery, advised by Dr. Gillespie, and faces a rival for nurse Lamont.

The Ghost Comes Home
1940
as Dave - the Nightclub Manager (uncredited)
Comic mayhem results when a small town pet store owner, mistakenly believed killed during a sea voyage, turns up very much alive.

The Marines Fly High
1940
as Sgt. Monk O'Hara
Marine lieutenants Dan and Jim fight bandits in the South American jungle, while competing for the attention of beautiful Joan Grant.
Oh, Johnny, How You Can Love!
1940
as 'Lefty' Hodges - Bank Robber
In this musical comedy, a traveling salesman gets mixed up with a bratty heiress after she gets in a car wreck as she heads for her elopement. The two...
Laugh It Off
1939
as Phil Ferrranti
Four former actresses decide to restart their careers by opening up a nightclub.

That's Right – You're Wrong
1939
as Hood (Uncredited)
J. D. Forbes, head of the almost-bankrupt Four Star Studios in Hollywood contacts band leader Kay Kyser, who puts on a radio and-live theatre program ...

Another Thin Man
1939
as MacFay's Chauffeur (uncredited)
Not even the joys of parenthood can stop married sleuths Nick and Nora Charles from investigating a murder on a Long Island estate.

Sabotage
1939
as Art Kruger
The night before his grandson, Tommy Grayson, a mechanic at the Midland Aircraft Corporation, is to marry Gail, a former showgirl, Major Matt Grayson,...

She Married a Cop
1939
as Joe Nash
This comedy is set in New York and centers upon a singing Irish cop who causes quite a sensation among two producers when he sings at the annual Polic...

Bachelor Mother
1939
as Dance Floor Official (uncredited)
Polly Parrish, a clerk at Merlin's Department Store, is mistakenly presumed to be the mother of a foundling. Outraged at Polly's unmotherly conduct, D...

The Gracie Allen Murder Case
1939
as Gus
The zany plot follows nitwit Gracie Allen trying to help master sleuth Philo Vance solve a murder.

Rose of Washington Square
1939
as Irving
Rose Sargent, a Roaring '20s singer, becomes a Ziegfeld Follies star as her criminal husband gets deeper in trouble.

Big Town Czar
1939
as Punchy
When gangster Phil Daley gets rid of his chief Paul Burgess he has everything that money can buy, except the respect of his parents and his sweetheart...

Calling Dr. Kildare
1939
as Fog Horn - Taxi Driver (uncredited)
Following an argument with his young protege, the curmudgeonly Dr. Gillespie dumps Jimmy Kildare in a street clinic, hoping to teach him a lesson. Wh...

Sergeant Madden
1939
as Philadelphia
A dedicated police officer is torn between family and duty when his son turns to a life of crime.
I Was a Convict
1939
as Missouri Smith
In this crime drama a wealthy business tycoon serves a sentence for tax fraud. While there he becomes good friends with his cellmates and after they a...
Pride of the Navy
1939
as Gloomey Kelly
A disruptive Annapolis naval cadet refuses to tow the line and so gets booted out of the prestigious academy. Later, he takes to designing speedboats....

Pirates of the Skies
1939
Cafe waitress Barbara Whitney refuses to acknowledge her marriage to Air Policeman Nick Conlon until he upgrades his career. He does so by infiltratin...

Federal Man-Hunt
1938
as Snuffy Deegan
By a daring ruse and inside help, Pete Rennick, a noted criminal behind bars on federal charges, escapes from the prison, and all of the law-agencies ...

Newsboys' Home
1938
as Bartsch
A beautiful girl inherits a newspaper that sponsors a charity home for boys.

Secrets of a Nurse
1938
as Larry Carson
This Universal programmer was based on a Collier's Magazine story by journalist Quentin Reynolds. This story in turn was ostensibly based on a true in...

Broadway Musketeers
1938
as Gurk
Three women who grew up in an orphanage cross paths later in life: one unhappily married with a young daughter, one an office secretary, and one a nig...

Wanted by the Police
1938
as Russo's Chief Henchman
A young man, Danny, decides to get a job in order to support his mother. He's hired to work in a garage, but soon finds himself being implicated in a ...

Marie Antoinette
1938
as Rabblerouser (uncredited)
The young Austrian princess Marie Antoinette is arranged to marry Louis XVI, future king of France, in a politically advantageous marriage for the riv...

Tenth Avenue Kid
1938
as Max Hooker
In this drama, a 12-year-old boy becomes an orphan after seeing a detective shoot his father. Later the detective feels bad and offers to become his f...

The Crowd Roars
1938
as Rocky Simpson (uncredited)
A young boxer gets caught between a no-good father and a crime boss when he starts dating the boss's daughter, although she doesn't know what daddy do...

Fast Company
1938
as Danny Scolado (as Horace MacMahon)
Married book-dealers Joel & Garda Sloane try to clear a friend in the murder of a rival book-seller.

Ladies in Distress
1938
as 2nd Thug
Alison Skipworth plays female mayor Josephine Bonney, at present having trouble dealing with her town's criminal element. Josephine enlists the aid of...

King of the Newsboys
1938
as Lockjaw
A poor young man's girlfriend leaves him for a gangster, who has the money and power she wants and the young man doesn't have. Determined to show her ...

When G-Men Step In
1938
as Jennings
Having paid for the education and legal training of his younger brother, Bruce, with the idea that he would become a lawyer and join his business, Fre...

A Girl with Ideas
1937
as Al
A rich banker's zany daughter gains control of a large newspaper.

The Wrong Road
1937
as Blackie Clayton
A young married couple whose plans for their life together haven't turned out as expected decide to rob the bank where the husband works of $100,000, ...

Exclusive
1937
as Beak McArdle
When Mountain City racketeer Charles Gillette is acquitted, he arrives at the Mountain City World newsroom and vows revenge on the Better Government C...

Public Wedding
1937
as Reporter
The operators of a bankrupt carnival sideshow hope to restore their fallen fortunes by staging a fake 'public wedding' in the mouth of their unprofita...

Kid Galahad
1937
as Reporter at Press Conference (uncredited)
Fight promoter Nick Donati grooms a bellhop as a future champ, but has second thoughts when the 'kid' falls for his sister.

They Gave Him a Gun
1937
as Prison Inmate (uncredited)
With no other prospects, a World War I veteran puts the skills they taught him in the War to use.

Navy Blues
1937
as Gateleg
A sailor bets his friends he can get a date with any woman they choose. They pick out a librarian with glasses and a bookish appearance. When he pursu...

The Officer's Mess
1935
as Soldier (uncredited)
Gus Doakes joins the National Guard; hilarity ensues.