Born in New York City,[1] Beck entered college with the intention of becoming a doctor but abandoned that for engineering.

He also worked opposite Will Rogers in Life Begins at 40 (1935), in which he played the spoiled son of a landowner; appeared as a French legionnaire in Under Two Flags (1936), played Pastor Schultz, the village priest, in Shirley Temple's 1937 film Heidi;[2] and appeared opposite Temple's counterpart Jane Withers in Can This Be Dixie?

He was seen to good advantage in two 1936 Fox motion pictures, in which he had leading roles: as a pilot in Peter Lorre's first American film, the espionage thriller Crack-Up and as a rich socialite in Champagne Charlie.

He briefly returned to the theatre in 1946, appearing with Blanche Yurka in Temper the Wind, in New York City.

[4] Beck died after battling Alzheimer's disease and heart conditions in Miami Shores, Florida on September 23, 1995.