He learned acting at an early age after his father, a doctor, treated actor Edwin Melvin, who paid his bill by giving the son elocution lessons.

Truex began his career of "walk-ons" at Elitch while he was still a student at East High School (where his classmates included Douglas Fairbanks and Harold Lloyd.

[5] His Broadway debut came in Wildfire (1908),[6] and he performed in several David Belasco plays and portrayed the title role in the 1915 musical Very Good Eddie.

[11] He starred in the first season (1958-1959) of The Ann Sothern Show as Jason Macauley, the manager of the swank Bartley House hotel in New York City.

In 1960, Truex appeared with Harpo Marx in the episode "Silent Panic" of the anthology series The DuPont Show with June Allyson.

Philip Truex's greatest success in the theatre was when he landed the starring role of Og in the Broadway musical Finian's Rainbow in 1947.

Philip had expected to have substantial lines to speak in the role but Hitchcock decided to kill off the character of Harry before he could utter one word.

A widower, Ernest Truex married stage actress Mary Jane Barrett, appearing with her in New York in such plays as The Third Little Show, (1931), The Hook-Up (1935), and Fredericka (1937).

His career began in 1949 when he played the role of Ernest's youngest son in the TV situation comedy The Truex Family, broadcast on WPIX New York.

In 1934, Ernest Truex directed, co-produced, and starred in the play Sing and Whistle, which co-starred actress Sylvia Field.