Karl Swenson
Karl Swenson (July 23, 1908 – October 8, 1978) was an American theatre, radio, film, and television actor. Swenson is remembered for his role as the doomsayer in the diner in Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds (1963) and as the voice of Merlin in Disney's The Sword in the Stone... Read full bio →
Featured Characters
Roles you can spot in Whatthemovie snapshots
The Gun and the Pulpit
A young gunslinger on the lam impersonates a preacher, brings hope to his parishioners and law-and-order to a town terrorized by a strongman's bunch.
Ulzana's Raid
After fierce war chief Ulzana and a small war party jump the reservation bent on murder and terror, an inexperienced young lieutenant is assigned to track him down.
Vanishing Point
Kowalski, works for a car delivery service. He takes delivery of a 1970 Dodge Challenger to take from Colorado to San Fransisco, California. Shortly after pickup, he takes a bet to get the car there in less than 15 hours.
...tick... tick... tick...
Racial tensions threaten to explode when a black man is elected Sheriff of a small, racially divided town in the deep south.
Hour of the Gun
Marshal Wyatt Earp kills a couple of men of the Clanton-gang in a fight. In revenge Clanton's thugs kill the marshal's brother. Thus, Wyatt Earp starts to chase the killers together with his friend Doc Holliday.
Seconds
A secret organisation offers wealthy people a second chance at life. The customer picks out someone they want to be and the organisation surgically alters the customer to look like the intended person, stages the customer's death, gets rid of the intended person and the customer takes on a new life.
The Sons of Katie Elder
The four sons of Katie Elder reunite in their hometown of Clearwater, Texas for her funeral and discover that the family ranch is now in the hands of Morgan Hastings, a corrupt businessman who wants to exploit the area around the town.
Major Dundee
During the last winter of the Civil War, cavalry officer Amos Dundee leads a contentious troop of Army regulars, Confederate prisoners and scouts on an expedition into Mexico to destroy a band of Apaches who have been raiding U.S. bases in Texas.
The Sword in the Stone
Wart is a young boy who aspires to be a knight's squire. On a hunting trip he falls in on Merlin, a powerful but amnesiac wizard who has plans for him beyond mere squiredom. He starts by trying to give him an education, believing that once one has an education, one can go anywhere. Needless to say, it doesn't quite work out that way.
The Prize
As the Nobel Prize winners come to Stockholm to receive their awards, their lives are overturned and perturbed in various ways.
The Birds
The Birds is a classic cult film from Alfred Hitchcock. His new horror elements made film history and one of hismasterpieces.
Walk on the Wild Side
Poor lovesick white-trash Dove Linkhorn arrives in New Orleans searching for his former girlfriend Hallie Gerard, an artist who works in The Doll House brothel, whose madam Jo Courtney considers her girls to be her property.
The Spiral Road
A selfish and prideful young Dutch doctor, through a series of circumstances, comes to learn that he does indeed "need" a higher spiritual being and other people.
Lonely Are the Brave
A fiercely independent cowboy arranges to have himself locked up in jail in order to then escape with an old friend who has been sentenced to the penitentiary.
How the West Was Won
Hollywood's most celebrated luminaries - behind the camera as well as in front of it - combine talents to present this epic tale of the development of the American West from the 1830s through the Civil War to the end of the century, as seen through the eyes of one pioneer family.
Judgment at Nuremberg
Judgment at Nuremberg is an American film based on the trials of 4 Nazi judges in Nuremberg Germany in 1948 by an American court.
One Foot in Hell
Mitch Barrett becomes embittered because his wife is allowed to die when he can't pay for the medicine she needs. The remorseful townspeople hire Mitch to be a deputy sheriff, thereby enabling him to plot an elaborate bank robbery with the help of an artist, a pickpocket, a gunslinger and a bar-girl.
North to Alaska
Sam and George strike gold in Alaska. George sends Sam to Seattle to bring George's fiancé back to Alaska. Sam finds she is already married, and returns instead with Angel. Sam, after trying to get George and Angel together, finally romances Angel, who, in the meantime, is busy fighting off the advances of George's younger brother, Billy.
Flaming Star
Sam Burton's second wife Neddy is Indian, their son Pacer a half-breed. As struggle starts between the whites and the Kiowas, the Burton family is split between loyalties.
The Hanging Tree
Character study of a Doctor who saves a local criminal from a mob who are trying to hang him, but then tries to control the life of the young man, realising that he can exploit his secret.
No Name on the Bullet
When hired killer John Gant rides into Lordsburg, the town's folk become paranoid as each leading citizen has enemies capable of using the services of a professional killer for personal revenge.
Kings Go Forth
Toward the end of World War II, two American soldiers fighting in Southern France become romantically involved with a young, American woman. Her background will reveal more about them than her.