Gene Stutenroth became a successful manager of movie theaters for Fox and Warner Bros., in Brooklyn, New York; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and Burlington, New Jersey.

Apart from playing bit roles in two low-budget productions of 1939, his screen career began in earnest in 1943, when he joined the war effort in California.

"[1] Stutenroth was visiting the Universal studio and watching a movie scene being photographed, when a member of the crew noticed that he looked like Ernst "Putzi" Hanfstaengl, then a crony of Adolf Hitler in Nazi Germany.

Stutenroth was promptly fitted with makeup and costume, and appeared as a Nazi agent in the wartime serial Adventures of the Flying Cadets (1943).

)[citation needed] Stutenroth's burly frame and craggy features made him ideal as an all-purpose menace, gangster, tough guy, or sheriff.

Roth is remembered for his portrayals of formidable authority figures in Three Stooges comedies such as Slaphappy Sleuths, Hot Stuff, Quiz Whizz, Outer Space Jitters, and (as a professor) Pies and Guys.