Douglas Spencer
| Douglas Spencer | |
|---|---|
| Born |
William Henry Mesenkop February 10, 1910 Princeton, Illinois, United States |
| Died | October 6, 1960 (aged 50) Los Angeles, California, United States |
| Cause of death | Complications from Diabetes |
| Resting place | Oakland Cemetery, Princeton, Illinois |
| Occupation | Actor |
| Years active | 1939-1960 |
Douglas Spencer (February 10, 1910 – October 6, 1960) was an American film actor. Starting in the mid-1930s and going through the 1940s, he appeared in dozens of films as an extra, then cameo roles and uncredited roles.
Spencer was born William Henry Mesenkop in Princeton, Illinois, the son of Grace Beerus (née Evarts) and William Lewis Messenkop.
He worked as a stand-in and in production departments. An early featured film appearance of Spencer was in 1945's The Lost Weekend where he portrayed a delusional patient in the alcoholic ward at Bellevue Hospital, tormented by visions of beetles crawling over him in a fit of delerium tremens. He also appeared in The Big Clock (1948), Monkey Business with Marilyn Monroe, Ginger Rogers and Cary Grant (1952). Also in the western classic Shane with Alan Ladd (1953) as "Swede" and in the thriller The Glass Wall (1953). The balding, lanky actor usually appeared in films as a doctor or wise-cracking reporter, as he did in Houdini (1953) and Them! (1954). He appeared in a number of science fiction and fantasy themed movies, including reporter Ned Scott in the horror classic The Thing from Another World (1951), in which he uttered the film's final line: "Keep watching the skies!". Spencer also had a memorable role as a two-headed Martian in The Twilight Zone episode, aired the year after his death, "Mr. Dingle, the Strong", and played the role of Mr. Kraler, a protector of Anne Frank, in the 1959 film The Diary of Anne Frank, for a total of 83 films and TV shows. Other notable appearances (often uncredited):
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