Francis McDonald
Francis McDonald (August 22, 1891 – September 18, 1968) was an American actor whose career spanned 52 years. McDonald's started acting professionally in stock theater with the Forepaugh Stock Company in Cincinnati. Following eight months with it, he worked one season with a... Read full bio →
Featured Characters
Roles you can spot in Whatthemovie snapshots
The Great Race
Professional daredevil and white-suited hero, The Great Leslie, convinces turn-of-the-century auto makers that a race from New York to Paris (westward across America, the Bering Straight and Russia) will help to promote automobile sales.
Robin and the 7 Hoods
Set in Prohibition era Chicago, bootlegger Robbo and his cronies refuse to pay the greedy Guy Gisborne a cut of their profits after Guy shoots mob boss Big Jim and takes over.
The Big Fisherman
Drama that focuses on the later life of Peter, one of the closest disciples of Jesus.
Fort Massacre
A cavalry troop finds itself under constant attack by Indians.
The Guns of Fort Petticoat
Union Army deserter, Lt. Hewitt, trains a ragtag band of all-female homesteaders to defend themselves against a Comanche tribe on the warpath.
Walk the Proud Land
Indian Agent sent to try new approach to peace with Apache based on respect for autonomy rather than submission to Army. Wins over reservation chiefs and the Indian widow given to him as housekeeper. Through use of diplomacy and demonstrations of faith in Apache leaders, reservation is put on the road to autonomy.
The Ten Commandments
Escaping death, a Hebrew infant is raised in a royal household to become a prince. Upon discovery of his true heritage, Moses embarks on a personal quest to reclaim his destiny as the leader and liberator of the Hebrew people.
The Naked Dawn
In Mexico, at the dawn of the automobile, modern bandit Santiago burglarizes train freight cars and falls in love with a poor farmer's wife.
Dig That Uranium
The boys buy a uranium mine out west, but when they get there they find that it's pretty much worthless. However, the local badmen are distrustful of these new strangers, and when they mistakenly get the impression that the mine is loaded with uranium, they hatch a scheme to get rid of the boys and take over the mine.
Bad Day at Black Rock
A one handed stranger comes to a tiny town possessing a terrible past they want to keep secret, by violent means if necessary.
The Stranger Wore a Gun
Having been a spy for Quantrill's raiders during the Civil War, Jeff Travis thinking himself a wanted man, flees to Prescott Arizona where he runs into Jules Mourret who knows of his past. He takes a job on the stage line that Mourret is trying to steal gold from. When Mourret's men kill a friend of his he sets out to get Mourret and his men.
Son of Ali Baba
In ancient Persia the son of Ali Baba (of forty thieves fame), Kashma Baba is a military cadet by day and a party goer by night. He falls for a girl who he later finds is an escaped slave girl belonging to the wicked Caliph. They flee to his father's palace. But alas, there's more to her than meets the eye. Will the evil schemers succeed?
Rancho Notorious
A cowboy infiltrates a bandit hideout in search of his girlfriend''s killer.
Red Mountain
Towards the end of the American Civil War, a rebel captain flees to Colorado to join a band of Southern mercenaries. He drags an innocent gold prospecting couple into trouble when the husband is accused of a murder he committed.
Woman in Hiding
As far as the rest of the world is concerned, mill heiress Deborah Chandler Clark is dead, killed in a freak auto accident. But Deborah is alive, if not too well. Having discovered a horrible truth about her new husband, Deborah is now a “woman in hiding,” living in mortal fear that someday her husband will catch up with her again.
Son of a Badman
Lash and Fuzzy come to town to unmask the mysterious outlaw kingpin, El Sombre.
Samson and Delilah
The classic story of Samson and Delilah as told by Cecil B. DeMille.
Apache Chief
When his tribesmen begin killing off white settlers, Young Eagle is opposed to the carnage. In order to assure a lasting peace, however, the chief must deal with renegade Apache Black Wolf.
Abandoned
A Los Angeles newspaperman seeks a woman's sister and finds a black-market baby ring.
The Paleface
Bob Hope stars in this laugh-packed wild west spoof co-starring Jane Russell as a sexy Calamity Jane, Hope is a meek frontier dentist, "Painless" Peter Potter, who finds himself gunslinging alongside the fearless Calamity as she fights off outlaws and Indians.
The Dead Don't Dream
Three bodies turn up in a frontier hotel. Hoppy solves the murders and chases the killers through unusually misty and dark locations.
Strange Gamble
Hoppy and his pals arrive in a remote town to investigate the counterfeiting of both U.S. and Mexican money; his only clues are the name "Mordigan" and a drawing of a comet.
Panhandle
John Sands, a former Texas marshal turns to ranching, and later to a gunfighter when he sets out to prove that casino/saloon owner, Matt Garson, had his brother, a newspaperman, killed.
The Perils of Pauline
Funloving Pearl White, working in a garment sweatshop, gets her big chance when she "opens" for a delayed Shakespeare play...with a comic vaudeville performance. Her brief stage career leads her into those "horrible" moving pictures, where she comes to love the chaotic world of silent movies, becoming queen of the serials.
Dangerous Venture
Sue Morgan gets Hoppy and his friends to join their expedition looking for Indian artifacts. Expedition leader Atwood makes a deal with nearby cattle rustler Morgan to loot the Indian treasures instead and sell them. Hoppy is on to their plan and pretending to leave follows them.
The Devil's Playground
Hoppy finds a wounded girl and later finds Judge Morton who claims the girl is his daughter and he is looking for her. But Hoppy soon learns the girl is looking for stolen gold she wants to return and the Judge in not her father but only wants the gold.
Roll on Texas Moon
To get the Delaney ranch Cole's henchman Anders has started a phony range war between the cattlemen and sheepmen. After killing Delaney, he tries to kill his daughter Jill and then Roy who was sent to investigate the war. But the failed attempts gives Roy the information he needs.
Notorious
Released shortly after the war, this classic Hitchcock film illustrates the battle between German Nazis and American spies and the trafficking of drugs.
Magnificent Doll
Dolly Payne Madison is the daughter of boardinghouse owners in Washington, DC who falls in love with Aaron Burr and James Madison.
Duel in the Sun
Canyon Passage
Businessman Logan Stuart is torn between his love of two very different women in 1850's Oregon and his loyalty to a compulsive gambler friend who goes over the line.
Strange Confession
A scientist who is working on a cure for influenza is victimized by his unscrupulous boss, who releases the vaccine before it's ready, resulting in the death of the scientist's young son.
Great Stagecoach Robbery
In this western, Red Ryder tries to be a good example for a young man who idolizes his father, an outlaw. The boy wants to follow in his father's footsteps when the hero intervenes.
Texas Masquerade
A young Eastern lawyer, seriously injured in a stage holdup, secures the help of Hoppy, California and Jimmy in completing his mission to his woman cousin's ranch in Texas.
Mystery Man
Hoppy's ranch is threatened by rustlers. Hoppy and the gang oblige as usual.
Lumberjack
Julie's husband has been murdered and land agents want her to sign away her property rights. Hoppy warns against this but she does so anyway. It looks as though she will be unable to deliver the timber called for in her agreement. Hoppy has to make the lumber deal happened and solve the murder.
Cheyenne Wildcat
Bill Elliot is back as Red Ryder in Cheyenne Wildcat. Also back are Ryder's perennial cohorts Little Beaver (Bobby Blake, later Robert Blake of Baretta fame) and the Duchess (Alice Fleming). When not pummeling the bad guys, Ryder is the reluctant apex of a love triangle.
Belle of the Yukon
Left by a con man (Randolph Scott), a dancer (Gypsy Rose Lee) finds him in gold-rush Alaska running an honest casino/dance hall.
Bar 20
Stagecoach robbers take the money Hoppy was going to use to buy cattle so Hoppy, California and Lin go after them.
The Sea Wolf
Shipwrecked fugitives try to escape a brutal sea captain who's losing his mind.
Blood and Sand
Bullfighter Juan Gallardo falls for socialite Dona Sol, turning from the faithful Carmen who nevertheless stands by her man as he continues to face real danger in the bullring.
The Sea Hawk
Dashing pirate Geoffrey Thorpe (Errol Flynn) plunders Spanish ships for Queen Elizabeth I and falls in love with Dona Maria a beautiful Spanish royal he captures.
Strange Cargo
Convicts escaping from Devil's Island come under the influence of a strange Christ-like figure.
One Night in the Tropics
Jim "Lucky" Moore (Allan Jones), an insurance salesman, comes up with a novel policy for his friend Steve (Robert Cummings): a 'love insurance policy', that will pay out $1 million if Steve does not marry his fiancée, Cynthia (Nancy Kelly).
North West Mounted Police
Texas Ranger Dusty Rivers ("Isn't that a contradiction in terms?", another character asks him) travels to Canada in the 1880s in search of Jacques Corbeau, who is wanted for murder. He wanders into the midst of the Riel Rebellion, in which Métis (people of French and Native heritage) and Natives want a separate nation.
Union Pacific
In 1862, Central Pacific and Union Pacific Railroads compete westward across the wilderness toward California. A crooked politician tries to stop construction of the transcontinental railroad.
Range War
Buck Colins heads a group of local ranchers who are trying to prevent the railroad from completing its line through their property. Till now they have been able to charge tolls on herds passing through. Hoppy goes undercover to expose them.
Beau Geste
Brothers Beau, John and Digby Geste join the Foreign Legion, where they fall under the rule of tyrannical Sergeant Markoff. Beau and John are assigned to Fort Zinderneuf, where Markoff tries to break their spirit, aware of a dark family secret concerning a fabulous jewel one of them carries.
The Prisoner of Shark Island
After healing the leg of the murderer John Wilkes Booth — responsible for the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln — Dr. Samuel A. Mudd, considered part of the atrocious conspiracy, is sentenced to life imprisonment and sent to the sinister Shark Island Prison.
The Plainsman
Wild Bill Hickok and Buffalo Bill Cody attempt to stop an Indian uprising that was started by white gun-runners.
Robin Hood of El Dorado
In the 1840's Mexico has ceded California to the United States, making life nearly impossible for the Mexican population due to the influx of land and gold-crazy Americans. Farmer Joaquin Murrieta revenges the death of his wife against the four Americans who killed her and is branded an outlaw.
Big Brown Eyes
Sassy manicurist Eve Fallon is recruited as an even more brassy reporter and she helps police detective boyfriend Danny Barr break a jewel theft ring and solve the murder of a baby.
Mississippi
A young pacifist, after refusing on principle to defend her sweetheart's honor and being banished in disgrace, joins a riverboat troupe as a singer, acquires a reputation as a crackshot after a saloon brawl in which the villain of the piece accidentally kills himself with his own gun, falls in love with his former fianceé's sister and finally…
Sadie McKee
A maid (Joan Crawford) has romances with a two-timer (Gene Raymond), a boozing millionaire and the master (Franchot Tone) of the house.
Morocco
Mogador, Morocco. Late 1920s. A complex romance develops between a womanizing Legionnaire and a disillusioned Parisian cabaret singer.
The Viking
In this historical adventure based on traditional legend concerning Leif Ericsson and the first Viking settlers to reach North America by sea, Norse half-brothers vie for a throne and for the same woman.
A Girl in Every Port
Two sailors with a rivalry over chasing women become friends. But when one decides to finally settle down, will this mysterious young woman come between them?
The Temptress
A seductive woman forsakes her husband and lover to pursue a young engineer.
Battling Butler
A love-struck weakling must pretend to be boxer in order to gain respect from the family of the girl he loves.
Monte Cristo
Young sailor Edmond Dantès is wrongfully imprisoned, escapes, finds treasure, and reinvents himself as the wealthy Count of Monte Cristo to exact revenge on those who betrayed him.
Intolerance: Love's Struggle Throughout the Ages
Four historical tales depict the ongoing human struggle against prejudice and inhumanity.