Guard left his birthplace of
Hals, Denmark, around the turn of the 20th century, one of five brothers to do so. He moved to San Francisco, and in 1913 he became assistant stage manager and actor at the
Alcazar Theatre there. He later acted on stage at the Wigwam Theatre in San Francisco. During World War I, he entertained troops overseas in France and England and later served in the
Rainbow Division of the
U. S. Army. Guard made his sound film debut with
The Racketeer (1929), in the role of a small-time criminal, a social type he would often play. He was a prolific performer, appearing in over 400 films. He appeared with
Al Cooke as a comic duo in a number of films from 1923 to 1927 and briefly reuniting in 1931 to co-star in the low-budget
Defenders of the Law with
Mae Busch. Most of his 30 feature films in which he appeared were decidedly low-budget,
poverty row projects, but he had small roles in a number of high-production movies, among these
Frank Capra’s
It Happened One Night (1935) as a bus passenger and ''
You Can't Take It With You (1938) as prison inmate, neither role credited. Kit Guard’s final role was in Paramount Picture’s The Joker Is Wild'' (1957), in which he plays a doorman. Guard died of cancer at the
Picture Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills on July 18, 1961, aged 67. ==Selected filmography==