Rex Lease


Rex Lloyd Lease was an American actor. He appeared in over 300 films, mainly in Poverty Row Westerns.

Biography

Rex Lease arrived in Hollywood in 1924. He found bit and supporting parts at Film Booking Office, Rayart, and more, and was given the opportunity to play a few leads. His first film was A Woman Who Sinned.
Lease's earliest Westerns were a pair of Tim McCoy silents at MGM, one of which was The Law of the Range which had a young Joan Crawford as the heroine and Lease as the Solitaire Kid. McCoy and Lease became friends, and over the next dozen or so years, he appeared in seven more McCoy Westerns.
He had a featured role in director Frank Capra's The Younger Generation, a tale of a Jewish family that moves to a more up-scale neighborhood.
He successfully made the transition to talkies, and starred in melodramas, action flicks, old dark house mysteries, and comedies, as well as a couple of Western serials and about a dozen low-budget sagebrush yarns and outdoor adventures. His work in the 1930s included six Western films for Superior Talking Pictures Corporation. Some featured cowboy music, and some had him paired with young actor Bobby Nelson.
In between lead roles, Lease featured parts in some B Westerns. He was Hoot Gibson's brother in Cavalcade of the West ; Lease played the "Pecos Kid" in McCoy's Lightnin' Bill Carson ; played Col. William B. Travis in Heroes of the Alamo and he worked in a couple of Tom Tyler's, Ridin' On and Fast Bullets. Lease had the lead in the 1936 film serial Custer's Last Stand.
Lease's finale as a star had him teaming up with Rin-Tin-Tin Jr. in The Silver Trail.
Though no longer afforded star billing, he continued in smaller roles into the 1950s in films and on TV.

Personal life

In 1930, Lease pleaded guilty in a Malibu court to a charge of battery on actress and dancer Vivian Duncan. The charge resulted from his beating of Duncan at a home in Malibu Beach on July 7, 1930. He paid a $50 fine, insisting that she initiated the altercation. Duncan's brother, Harold, retaliated in August 1930, beating Lease in a hotel cafe in Hollywood.
Lease was married at least five times.

Death

On January 3, 1966, Lease was found dead by his son Richard on the kitchen floor at his Van Nuys, California, home. He had died sometime between New Year's Eve and January 3. The cause of death was undisclosed. Richard was later shot and killed at age 25 in a road rage traffic altercation with two teenagers.

Selected filmography

A Woman Who Sinned - Her Son - as an adultChalk Marks - Bert ThompsonEasy Money - 'Red'Before Midnight - Julio SaldivarThe Last Edition - Clarence WalkerSomebody's Mother - PeterMystery Pilot - Bob JonesThe Last Alarm - TomRace Wild The Timid Terror - Howard CrammHeroes of the Night - Tom RileyEnemies of Society - Jim BarryThe Outlaw Dog - Bill BradyNot for Publication - Philip HaleThe Cancelled Debt - Patrick BurkeClancy's Kosher Wedding - Tom ClancyThe College Hero - Jim HalloranThe Law of the Range - Solitaire KidQueen of the Chorus - Billy CookeBroadway Daddies - Richard KennedyThe Phantom of the Turf - John NicholsRed Riders of Canada - Pierre DuvalRiders of the Dark - Jim GrahamThe Last Lap Making the Varsity - Ed EllsworthThe Speed Classic - Jerry ThorntonStolen Love - BillThe Candy Kid When Dreams Come True - Ben ShelbyThe Younger Generation Two Sisters Troopers Three Sunny Skies Hot Curves Borrowed Wives Wings of Adventure The Utah Kid Chinatown After Dark In Old Cheyenne The Sign of the Wolf 10-chapter serial