JACK INGRAM
November 15th, 1902 -- February 20th, 1969

Above: Jack Ingram in a publicity portrait from his third serial, ZORRO RIDES AGAIN (Republic, 1937).

John Samuel "Jack" Ingram was dubbed "Mr. Henchman" by the late serial scholar William C. Cline in Cline's book IN THE NICK OF TIME. A considerable honor coming from such an authority--and an honor that Ingram well deserved. The lazy-looking, drawling bad guy, usually equipped with a mustache and a sarcastic sneer, menaced cliffhanger protagonists for nearly twenty years, a longer span than any other serial henchman ever managed. Ingram's henchmen, despite their seemingly easy-going facade, were always cunning, vicious, and quite independent, never blindly obeying their boss's orders and frequently turning on the head villain. From Witney and English's early Republic outings to Sam Katzman's Columbia serials, Jack always plied his villainous trade with the same aplomb. Many cliffhangers would simply not have been as exciting as they turned out had not Jack been there to spearhead the evil deeds and keep the good guys on the alert from chapter to chapter to chapter.

Ingram was born in Chicago; his marked midwestern accent was very helpful to him in his various Western bad guy roles He served in WW1 and was wounded in action more than once. On his discharge from the army, he studied law at the University of Texas and then began his showbiz career as a musical entertainer, touring with Don McGuire's Minstrel Show for awhile. Jack made his screen debut in 1935, in a Republic John Wayne B-western called WESTWARD HO. He played an uncredited bit role in Republic's second serial, UNDERSEA KINGDOM, in 1936, and played two parts--a bad Cossack and a good vigilante--in THE VIGILANTES ARE COMING the same year. He made his Columbia debut in Columbia's first serial, JUNGLE MENACE, in 1937, as an undercover detective, and had another small role (as a sailor) in SOS COAST GUARD (Republic, 1937), before getting his first important cliffhanger part in ZORRO RIDES AGAIN (Republic, 1937). The serial was a milestone for another reason, in that it marked the first collaboration of William Witney and John English, who would go on to become the most respected team of serial directors in cliffhanger history. ZORRO was also a great serial, with a terrific performance by John Carroll as James Vega, a modern-day descendant of the original Zorro. Vega, as the masked avenger Zorro, rode against the train-raiding gang of J.A. Marsden (Noah Beery Sr.), who was out to take over the California-Yucatan railway. Marsden's gang of murderous raiders (they mow down a Mexican and his young son in the first chapter as just the first example of their viciousness) was led by Richard Alexander as "El Lobo", and Alexander was ably supported by Bob Kortman as "Trellinger" and by the young Jack Ingram as "Carter." Ingram undoubtedly learned much from Alexander and Kortman, two masters of serial villainy, and he put his increasing henchman expertise to work in his next outings for Republic.

Above: John Carroll (masked, far left) and Bob Kortman (green shirt) stand gun to gun as Jack Ingram (red shirt) and Mona Rico keep at a safe distance in ZORRO RIDES AGAIN (Republic, 1937).

Republic gave Jack two more small henchmen roles--in THE LONE RANGER and FIGHTING DEVIL DOGS, both 1938--before his next big role in DICK TRACY RETURNS (Republic, 1938). Though underbilled, Ingram had a major role as Slasher Stark, one of the vicious Stark clan, a family of racketeers. The head of the family, Pa Stark (Charles Middleton) had trained each one of his five sons in crime, and the group gave FBI agent Dick Tracy (Ralph Byrd) a very hard time as he attempted to bring them to justice for the murder of rookie agent Ron Merton (Dave Sharpe). Stark's sons were gradually killed off in the course of the serial, but Ingram lasted longer than his siblings Kid, Trigger, and Dude, and was killed in a motorboat crash at the end of Chapter 13, leaving only Champ Stark (John Merton) and Pa for the last two chapters. The part of the knife-wielding Slasher was the meatiest of Jack's roles so far, and he turned in a stellar performance.

Above: Jack Ingram (in the car), as Slasher Stark, goes over his Pa's plans with Champ (John Merton, far left) and Dude (Jack Roberts, white suit) while two henchmen unload a cargo of explosives.

Jack began to be active in B-westerns--at Republic, Columbia, and Monogram alike--at this point, and didn't get back to serials till 1940, when he made his first appearance as a major henchman at Columbia in THE SHADOW. He was Flint, right-hand man of the mystery villain the Black Tiger, and always commanded the Tiger's evil forces in their battle against the heroic Shadow (Victor Jory). While the serial offered a great performance by Jory, both as the Shadow and as Lamont Cranston, it ultimately emerged as a comedy rather than a cliffhanger, thanks to the direction of James W. Horne. Still, it gave Jack Ingram plenty of screen time and a chance to hone his henchman persona to even greater perfection.

Above: Jack Ingram snatches up an axe but is overpowered by Victor Jory in this suitably shadowy scene from THE SHADOW (Columbia, 1940).

Apparently Horne liked working with Jack, as he featured him in four more serials in quick succession. Ingram was again cast as the head henchman, Stanton, in the jungle adventure serial TERRY AND THE PIRATES (Columbia, 1940). Based on Milton Caniff's comic strip, TERRY was a frantic, slapstick serial along the same lines as the Shadow, with William Tracy's Terry coming off almost as a cartoon character and head villain Dick Curtis not faring much better. THE GREEN ARCHER (Columbia, 1940), was similarly insane, with boundlessly energetic hero Victor Jory battling gangsters headed by hysterical James Craven, with the aid of the masked avenger known as the Green Archer. To complicate things further, Ingram was thrown into the mix as Brad, a henchman of Craven's who also dressed as the Green Archer and eliminated any fellow henchmen who got out of line. Jack tried to maintain his villainous dignity in this serial, but it was hard when he was attacked every episode and knocked unconscious by Craven's thugs, who mistook him for the good Green Archer. Then, in DEADWOOD DICK (Columbia, 1940), Jack was Buzz Ricketts, chief henchman of the Skull, a masked Western outlaw who terrorized the entire Deadwood area. Newspaper editor Dick Stanley (Don Douglas) becomes Deadwood Dick in an effort to destroy the Skull's evil gang. Horne played this serial fairly straight, and it has a fan following among cliffhanger buffs. The same cannot be said for WHITE EAGLE (Columbia, 1941), in which Horne relapsed into silliness. Buck Jones was the hero, a Pony Express rider combating the schemes of Dandy Darnell (James Craven again) and Ingram was Jones's chief antagonist, a henchman leader named Greg Cantro.

Above: Jack Ingram, leaning on the bar, watches as Victor De Camp (far left) enters the trading post in TERRY AND THE PIRATES (Columbia, 1940). A bartender (Eddie Fetherston) also observes the goings-on, as do William Tracy (third from right), Jeff York, and Allen Jung (far right).

Above: Joyce Bryant grabs Ingram on one side while Forrest Taylor attacks him on the other in this publicity still for TERRY AND THE PIRATES (Columbia, 1940).

Above: A publicity portrait of Jack Ingram as the villainous version of THE GREEN ARCHER (Columbia, 1940).

Jack returned to Republic for the classic modern-day Western KING OF THE TEXAS RANGERS in 1941, playing Shorty, one of a pack of Western outlaws working for foreign agents and attempting to sabotage the Texas oil fields. Slingin' Sammy Baugh, playing a Texas Ranger, avenges the murder of his father at the saboteurs' hands and unmasks the ringleader, John Barton (Neil Hamilton), but only after twelve action-packed chapters. While Ingram's partners in crime (Roy Barcroft, Kenne Duncan, Robert Barron, and Bud Geary) were all brought to justice during the course of the serial, Jack dropped out of sight after Chapter Eleven and apparently escaped the general roundup of bad guys.

Ingram reteamed with James Horne one more time for the aging director's last serial, PERILS OF THE ROYAL MOUNTED (Columbia, 1942). Robert Kellard starred as RCMP Sergeant MacLane, and fought a gang of outlaws who were instigating an Indian war in an attempt to monopolize the fur trade in the Canadian wilds. Kenneth MacDonald was the outwardly respectable leader of these renegades, and, since he could not risk his position, the active villain work was handled by Jack, along with George Chesebro, I. Stanford Jolley, Al Ferguson, and Charles King.

Above: Jack Ingram (left) takes a great shot on the jaw from Robert Kellard in PERILS OF THE ROYAL MOUNTED (Columbia, 1942).

Ingram signed on under Kenneth MacDonald again in the Western serial VALLEY OF VANISHING MEN (Columbia, 1942). Again MacDonald was an outwardly respectable figure and had to leave all the dirty stuff to his more-than-able lieutenant, Butler (Jack, of course). Wild Bill Elliott, the serial's hero, opposed MacDonald and Ingram's plans (which included establishing an empire in the American southwest) and defeated them in a pitched battle at the end of the cliffhanger.

Jack temporarily concluded his Columbia work with THE BATMAN in 1943. Together with other formidable heavies such as Anthony Warde and George J. Lewis, Ingram carried out the orders of devilish Japanese spy Dr. Daka (J. Carroll Naish) and constantly clashed with caped crusaders Batman and Robin (Lewis Wilson and Douglas Croft). Jack's next two serials would be at Universal: THE GREAT ALASKAN MYSTERY and RAIDERS OF GHOST CITY, both released in 1944. He had a small, uncredited part in MYSTERY, but in RAIDERS he played a key role, as Braddock, mercenary lieutenant to dedicated Confederate officer Regis Toomey. While Toomey's character was attempting to steal valuable gold shipments to aid the Confederacy, Ingram struck a deal with villainous Lionel Atwill to appropriate the gold for more selfish ends. What Ingram didn't know was that Atwill was a Prussian agent with his own agenda and his own plans for the gold; it took hero Dennis Moore to sort out this complicated web of double-dealing in the course of the serial's 13 chapters.

Above: Jack Ingram (far left) and Regis Toomey (far right, foreground), along with their men, prepare for action in RAIDERS OF GHOST CITY (Universal, 1944).

Jack sandwiched a Columbia appearance in between his Universal ones, playing a bit role in 1944's THE DESERT HAWK. He then popped up at Republic again in MANHUNT OF MYSTERY ISLAND (Republic, 1945), a detective/science fiction thriller. The serial dealt with a "manhunt" for the evil Captain Mephisto (Roy Barcroft), an apparently reincarnated pirate who was holding a scientist (Forrest Taylor) prisoner and forcing him to develop an energy-transmitting device that would enable the Captain to rule the world. The professor's daughter (Linda Stirling) and criminologist Richard Bailey did their best to locate the scientist, but were hampered by the fact that Mephisto was really one of the four seemingly friendly owners of the island. It seems one of them had the power to "molecularly transform" himself into his ancestor Mephisto. (SPOILERS AHEAD) Jack, in a departure from his usual henchman parts, played Armstrong, one of the owner/suspects, but did not turn out to be guilty. Instead, he got a picture of the guilty owner and nearly succeeded in exposing Mephisto but was shot down (following a terrific fight) by the pirate's henchman Kenne Duncan.

Ingram returned to the mold with BRENDA STARR REPORTER (Columbia, 1945), playing Kruger, a gang hit man and chief action heavy for the principal villainous faction (the gang’s leadership included George Meeker and John Merton). Jack knocked off gang rival Wheeler Oakman and nearly killed heroine Joan Woodbury in the first chapter, and then proceeded to add many other dirty deeds to his discredit throughout the rest of the serial. Jack then teamed with Anthony Warde to do henchman duties for mad scientist George Macready in THE MONSTER AND THE APE (Columbia, 1945), and made another quick journey to Republic to play Riggs, a henchman who was shot following an altercation with FBI agent Marten Lamont in the first chapter of FEDERAL OPERATOR 99 (Republic, 1945). He broke stride again to play a good guy in JUNGLE RAIDERS (Columbia, 1945); as explorer Tom Hammil, Ingram helped rather than hindered hero Kane Richmond in the latter's search for his missing father in an African lost city.

Above: Kane Richmond kicks the gun out of Jack Ingram's hand as Joan Woodbury and Wheeler Oakman react in BRENDA STARR REPORTER (Columbia, 1945).

Above: Kane Richmond hands Jack Ingram a canteen while Eddie Quillan watches in JUNGLE RAIDERS (Columbia, 1945).

Jack continued on the side of law and order in WHO'S GUILTY (Columbia, 1945) and HOP HARRIGAN (Columbia, 1946), playing capable police officers in both serials. In between these two, however, he made his third Universal cliffhanger, THE SCARLET HORSEMAN (Universal, 1946), as a bad guy named Tragg. Tragg was the henchman to outlaw Zero Quick (Edward Howard), an ambitious outlaw bent on muscling in on a political plot to partition Texas into separate states. Together with Edmund Cobb, Ingram took on heroes Paul Guilofyle and Peter Cookson and rival villain Virginia Christine, but both henchmen were killed when they tried to ambush Guilofyle in the last chapter. Jack was back at Columbia for his role of Mack, gangster henchman to shady George Meeker and Charles King in CHICK CARTER DETECTIVE (Columbia, 1946), and, with two exceptions, was there to stay. The first exception was THE MYSTERIOUS MR. M in 1946, Jack's last Universal cliffhanger and the studio's last cliffhanger as well. Appropriately, Jack was Nick Shrag, the chief henchman of the titular mystery villain.

Above: Jack Ingram (far left) and Robert Kent are suspicious of Minerva Urecal in WHO’S GUILTY (Columbia, 1945).

Now Ingram was off and running on an incredible string of Columbia cliffhangers, in almost all of which he played the "action heavy", or chief henchman. Starting with JACK ARMSTRONG (Columbia, 1947), and continuing through THE VIGILANTE (also 1947), THE SEA HOUND (1947), BRICK BRADFORD (Columbia, 1948), TEX GRANGER (1948), and SUPERMAN (1948), Jack provided able support for chief villains such as (respectively) Charles Middleton, Lyle Talbot, Robert Barron, Charles Quigley, Smith Ballew, and Carol Forman as well as worthy opposition for heroes like John Hart, Ralph Byrd, Buster Crabbe, Kane Richmond, Robert Kellard, and Kirk Alyn. Jack was finally given a break in CONGO BILL (Columbia, 1948), in which he played a mysterious stranger who kept coming to the aid of hero Don McGuire (not the same McGuire who Ingram toured with in the thirties), and was finally revealed to be a colonial secret agent. Jack, by this time, had rendered himself invaluable to Columbia and its economical producer Sam Katzman: it seemed the studio couldn't make a cliffhanger without him!

Above: Jack Ingram (kneeling left) and Lyle Talbot examine the body of disguised henchman Edmund Cobb (who’s been blasted due to mistaken identity ) in THE VIGILANTE (Columbia, 1947).

Above: Jack Ingram holds the blindfolded Lois Lane (Noel Neill) while the mysterious Spider Lady (Carol Forman) questions her in SUPERMAN (Columbia, 1948).

Above: Jack Ingram (left) and Don McGuire do some exploring in CONGO BILL (Columbia, 1948).

Jack slipped into action heavy mode again for BRUCE GENTRY (Columbia, 1949), in which he and Tristram Coffin carried out the orders of a villain known as the Recorder; CODY OF THE PONY EXPRESS (Columbia, 1950), where he was given the role of Pecos, an outlaw who was killed by the other villains halfway through the serial to prevent him from spilling vital secrets to Jock Mahoney; and ATOM MAN VS. SUPERMAN (Columbia, 1950), where Jack opposed Kirk Alyn's Man of Steel on behalf of the villainous Lex Luthor (Lyle Talbot). Jack then made an "artificial" appearance in DESPERADOES OF THE WEST (Republic, 1950): his footage all came from an earlier Republic B-western, RAIDERS OF THE RANGE. ROAR OF THE IRON HORSE (Columbia, 1950) let Ingram play a brains heavy for a change; as an outwardly honest railroad contractor, he hired gangs of thugs to delay construction of the railroad and thus boost his salary (Ingram was being paid by the month to help complete the railroad) and it took railroad troubleshooter Jock Mahoney to uncover Jack’s duplicity.

Above: Jack Ingram looks like he's up to no good in this scene from BRUCE GENTRY (Columbia, 1949).

Above: Jack Ingram (left) confers with Rusty Westcoatt in ROAR OF THE IRON HORSE (Columbia, 1951).

Jack's last non-Columbia outing was DON DAREDEVIL RIDES AGAIN (Republic, 1951), which gave him the small but noticeable role of a crooked bartender--named Jack! He assisted George Eldredge again in CAPTAIN VIDEO (Columbia, 1951), as a henchman named Aker; Eldredge was "Dr. Tobor" and both characters were lackeys of outer-space villain Vultura (Gene Roth). Ingram, as a thug named Clark, then helped out Communist spy Leonard Penn in KING OF THE CONGO (Columbia, 1952), but both bad guys were thwarted by Buster Crabbe. Jack's farewell serial was RIDING WITH BUFFALO BILL (Columbia, 1954), and it clearly illustrated the man's incredible longevity. The cliffhanger was built around stock footage from DEADWOOD DICK, and hero Marshall Reed and heroine Shirley Whitney were costumed to match the earlier serial's leads, Don Douglas and Lorna Gray. There was no worry about matching footage of DEADWOOD DICK's action heavy with a different actor, though, as "Buzz" in DICK and "Ace" in BUFFALO BILL were one and the same performer--Jack Ingram, the undefeatable henchman.

Above: Jack gets the drop on Buster Crabbe in KING OF THE CONGO (Columbia, 1952), Ingram's next-to-last serial.

Jack understandably retired shortly after concluding his voluminous serial career (and I haven't even listed the hundreds of B-westerns he was in!); his last movie was UTAH BLAINE in 1957. He was quite well-fixed at the close of his career, thanks to a movie location ranch that he had purchased in 1944; he made a solid profit off the property until he sold it in 1956. He passed away 12 years after his retirement, at his home in Canoga Park, California.

How can one adequately sum up Jack Ingram's career? While heroes came, villains went, and heroines faded from the screen, the Great Jack Ingram kept plugging along in his laid-back way, spanning all three decades of serial production and appearing in about one-fifth of all the sound serials ever made. I don't think any of us can quite picture the world of serials as it would have been without "Mr. Henchman."