Fred Kohler Jr.

The son of famed movie villain Fred Kohler and actress Maxine Marshall, American actor Fred Kohler Jr.'s own film career began in 1930. Big and brawny, the younger Kohler was a natural for outdoor films, westerns in particular. In 1935, producer William Berke starred Kohler in a brace of "B" horse operas, Toll of the Desert and The Pecos Kid. But like his father before him, Fred seemed more at home on the wrong side of the law. He played minor heavies and utility roles at several studios, mainly Paramount and RKO. He frequently showed up in the films of directors Cecil B. DeMille and John Ford; in Ford's Young Mr. Lincoln, he played small-town lout Scrub White, whose murder sets in motion the film's classic courtroom finale. He remained active until 1968, nearly always in westerns. On two occasions, Kohler and his father appeared in the same film: the more memorable of the two was RKO's Lawless Valley, in which they played father-and-son outlaws. In a priceless scene, Fred Kohler Jr. responds to one of his father's wicked schemes by shouting "Aw, that's crazy!," whereupon Fred Sr. growls "Careful, son, you're talkin' to your dad, ya know!"