trailer screenshot (King Brothers Productions - Monogram Pictures) · Public domain

Born Max Goldsmith, Lawrence built a screen career spanning seven decades and more than 200 film, television, and stage roles, almost all of them playing gangsters and other underworld figures. That narrow specialization made him one of the most reliable and recognizable character actors of classic Hollywood, working steadily from the early 1930s through the early 2000s. Few actors sustained a single type across so long a career without it becoming a liability.