Stars & Players · Biography

John Ridgely

1909–1968 · Actor

Biography

​From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

John Ridgely (born John Huntington Rea, September 6, 1909 – January 18, 1968) was an American film character actor with over 175 film credits.

He appeared in the 1946 Humphrey Bogart film The Big Sleep as blackmailing gangster Eddie Mars and had a memorable role as a suffering heart patient in the film noir Nora Prentiss (1947). He appeared in a large number of other Warner Bros. films in the 1930s and 1940s.

Freelancing after 1948, John Ridgely continued to essay general-purpose parts until he left films in 1953. Thereafter, he worked in summer-theater productions and television until his death from a heart attack at the age of 58 in 1968.

Notable Noir Roles

The Big Sleep

1946Dir. Howard Hawks · Eddie Mars

Private Investigator Philip Marlowe is hired by wealthy General Sternwood regarding a matter involving his youngest daughter Carmen. Before the complex case is over, Marlowe sees murder, blackmail, de…

High Wall

1947Dir. Curtis Bernhardt · Assistant District Attorney David Wallace (as John Ridgeley)

Steven Kenet, suffering from a recurring brain injury, appears to have strangled his wife. Having confessed, he's committed to an understaffed county asylum full of pathetic inmates. There, Dr. Ann Lo…

Border Incident

1949Dir. Anthony Mann · Mr. Neley

The story concerns two agents, one Mexican (PJF) and one American, who are tasked to stop the smuggling of Mexican migrant workers across the border to California. The two agents go undercover, one as…

Edge of Doom

1950Dir. Mark Robson · Detective #1

A priest sets out to catch the man who killed one of his colleagues.

Full Noir Filmography

4 films · 1946–1950