Lauder's acting break came with a role in The Magnificent Rogue (1946), in which he played a model.
Most of his career was spent as a serviceable second lead or heavy, though he continued to play bit parts in larger pictures, including an uncredited part as a plain-clothes policeman in the 1949 crime drama White Heat, which starred James Cagney and Edmond O'Brien. He also had an uncredited, non-speaking role in the 1963 Stanley Kramer comedy It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World as a police dispatcher.
He came to be a familiar presence in supporting roles in low-budget films, serials (where he was often cast because of his facial resemblance to stuntman Tom Steele, who would double for him), and television programs in the 1950s. Only once did he really came close to stardom, as Clay Morgan, one of the leads in the CBS television series Tales of the Texas Rangers, which aired fifty-two episodes from 1955 to 1958. His co-star was Willard Parker as Ranger Jace Pearson.
Lauter was cast twice on the NBC children's western series Fury, with Peter Graves and Bobby Diamond, and on Tombstone Territory, starring Pat Conway. Lauter also appeared on NBC's Jefferson Drum, National Velvet, and Riverboat, on CBS's Have Gun - Will Travel, with Richard Boone, and the syndicated western-themed crime drama U.S. Marshal. In 1958 he appeared in the episode "Rodeo", along with Lee Van Cleef, Barbara Baxley, and Dan Blocker, on the CBS crime drama Richard Diamond, Private Detective, starring David Janssen. Later he guest-starred in the 1962-1963 ABC drama series Going My Way with Gene Kelly. He also made a guest appearance in 1963 on CBS's Perry Mason in "The Case of the Potted Planter."
Lauter appeared twice as Johnny Tyler in 1959-1960 in two episodes of the ABC/Warner Brothers western series Colt .45, starring Wayde Preston.
His last screen appearance was in 1979 as Marshal Charlie Benton in James Arness's ABC series How the West Was Won.
Lauter died of a heart attack on October 30, 1990, in Ojai in Ventura County, California, at age 76. His ashes were scattered into the Pacific Ocean.
