Biography
Laird Cregar in "This Gun for Hire" (1942)
Laird Cregar (28 July 1913--9 December 1944) was an American actor. Cregar was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and died of a heart attack in Los Angeles, California. His funeral eulogy was delivered by Vincent Price.
Cregar supported himself as a bouncer early in his career. The formally-trained actor and son of a rich Philadelphian, sometimes had to sleep in a car due to lack of money before his acting career took off.
He is best remembered as the title character in The Lodger. Seldom weighing less than 300 pounds (136 kg) throughout his adult life, Cregar came to a tragic end because of his obsession to become a slim, what he called a "beautiful man". His rapid loss of 100 pounds (45 kg) may have contributed to the deadly heart attack.
It is often wrongly stated that Laird Cregar was born in 1914, but he was, in fact, born in 1913. He was the youngest of six sons of Edward Matthews Cregar, a cricketer and member of a team called the Gentlemen of Philadelphia. They toured internationally in the late 1890s and early 1900s. Laird's mother was the former Miss Elizabeth Smith daughter of Frank Howard Smith. (Although bearing some resemblance to Canadian-American actor Raymond Burr, the pair were not related, as is sometimes suggested.)
Filmography
Oh Johnny, How You Can Love (1940)
Granny Get Your Gun (1940)
Hudson's Bay (1941)
Blood and Sand (1941)
Charley's Aunt (1941)
I Wake Up Screaming (1941)
Joan of Paris (1942)
Rings on Her Fingers (1942)
This Gun for Hire (1942)
Ten Gentlemen from West Point (1942)
The Black Swan (1942)
Hello Frisco, Hello (1943)
Heaven Can Wait (1943)
Holy Matrimony (1943)
The Lodger (1944)
Hangover Square (1945)
