Stage Marlowe began his stage career in the 1930s at the
Pasadena Playhouse in
California, first under his birth name, then as John Marlowe. He was first seen in
Arrest That Woman (1936) on
Broadway, settling on Hugh Marlowe as his stage name. His Broadway appearances included
Kiss the Boys Goodbye,
The Land Is Bright,
Lady in the Dark,
Laura, and
Duet for Two Hands.
Film and television Marlowe was usually a secondary lead or supporting actor in the films he appeared in. His first film was
Brilliant Marriage (1936). His films included
Meet Me in St. Louis (1944). For a time, he worked regularly for
20th Century Fox, appearing in ''
Twelve O'Clock High (1949), All About Eve (1950), Night and the City (1950), The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), Rawhide'' (1951), and
Howard Hawks'
Monkey Business (1952). His later films include
Earth vs. the Flying Saucers (1956),
Elmer Gantry (1960),
Birdman of Alcatraz (1962), and
Seven Days in May (1964). Marlowe played a real person, the Reverend William Hyde, in the 1956 episode "Dig or Die, Brother Hyde" of the television
anthology series,
Crossroads. In the 1957 episode, "Jhonakehunkga Called Jim", set in 1883, Marlowe plays the Reverend Jacob Stucki, who is dispatched to the mission at the
Winnebago reservation. Marlowe guest-starred in the 1961 episode "Mayberry on Record" of CBS's
The Andy Griffith Show. In 1962, he played the part of Sam Garner in the episode "The Pitchwagon" on CBS's
Rawhide. Marlowe made six guest appearances on
CBS's
Perry Mason, starring
Raymond Burr. Among those roles, he was cast as district attorney and Mason client Brander Harris in "The Case of the Fraudulent Foto" (1959), and as murder victim Commander James Page in "The Case of the Slandered Submarine" (1960). He also played murder victim Ernest Stone in "The Case of the Nebulous Nephew" (1963), a doctor Lambert in "The Case of The Sleepy Slayer" (1963) and murderer Guy Munford in "The Case of the Hasty Honeymooner" (1965). In 1964, Marlowe appeared as Clay Billings on
The Virginian in the episode "The Intruders." Marlowe also performed as Donald Burton, a newspaper reporter, on a 1965 episode of
Hazel titled "Hazel's Day in Court" and as pretentious TV documentarian Bainbridge Wells in
Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (1966). In later years, Marlowe was a regular on the
NBC television daytime drama Another World, the last of four actors who portrayed the Matthews family patriarch Jim Matthews. Marlowe played the role from 1969 until his death in 1982. Marlowe bore a marked physical and vocal resemblance to actor
Richard Carlson who co-starred with him in the 1943 short subject training film,
For God and Country, and the two are often mistaken for each other. ==Personal life==