Film actor, born in New York City, USA. He studied at Columbia, and after 10 years as an actor and dancer in vaudeville, his film performance as the gangster in The Public Enemy (1931) brought him stardom. His ebullient energy and aggressive personality kept him in demand for the next 30 years, including such varied productions as A Midsummer Night's Dream (1935), Angels with Dirty Faces (1938), and Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942), for which he was awarded an Oscar. He retired to his farm in New York State in 1961, but returned for a brief appearance in Ragtime (1981).
| James Cagney | |
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James Cagney was part of the Legends of Hollywood USPS stamp series. |
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| Born |
July 17, 1899 New York City, New York |
| Died |
March 30, 1986, age 86 Dutchess County, New York |
James Francis Cagney, Jr. (July 17, 1899 – March 30, 1986) was an American film actor most remembered for playing gangsters in crime films and who won the Oscar for Best Actor in 1942 for his role in Yankee Doodle Dandy.
In common with fellow American screen icon James Stewart, Cagney became so familiar to audiences that they usually referred to him as "Jimmy" Cagney--a billing never found on any of his films.
Biography
Early life
Cagney was born in New York City to James Cagney Sr., an Irish American bartender and amateur boxer, and Carolyn Nelson;
Both his brother William Cagney, who was also a producer, and sister Jeanne Cagney were actors. They adopted a son James Cagney Jr and a daughter Cathleen "Casey" Cagney.
Five-five, 130-pound young James Cagney went on to star in numerous films, making his name as a 'tough guy' in a series of crime films beginning with the smash hit classic The Public Enemy (1931). Robinson (shot before The Public Enemy was released and made him an immediate sensation, Cagney played a supporting role), Blonde Crazy (1931), and Hard to Handle (1933). Cagney later played fictional gangster Rocky Sullivan in Angels with Dirty Faces (1938), worked as a gangster opposite Humphrey Bogart in The Roaring Twenties, won an Oscar playing George M.
Later life
Cagney's final appearance on film was in Ragtime in 1981, capping a career that covered over seventy films, although his last film prior to Ragtime had been 20 years earlier in 1961 with Billy Wilder's One, Two, Three, still regarded as the fastest-paced performance ever recorded on film.
Trivia
Grant Withers headlined over supporting actor James Cagney's first film, Sinner's Holiday (1930), and his third, Other Men's Women (1931). Fox, who idolized Cagney, narrated a TV special called James Cagney: Top of the World, which aired on July 5, 1992. The actual origin of the "dirty rat" phrase is the 1932 film Taxi!, in which Cagney delivered the line "Come out and take it, you dirty, yellow-bellied rat, or I'll give it to you through the door!" often misquoted as "Come out, you dirty rat, or I'll give it to you through the door!". According to his biography Cagney on Cagney the Mafia had a contract on him whereby a studio light weighing 'several hundred pounds' was to "accidentally" fall on him. In the 1981 television documentary James Cagney: That Yankee Doodle Dandy Cagney spoke of his well-known penchant for sarcasm, remarking in an on-screen interview with typical charismatic candor, "Sex with another man? Although he said he was never further to the political left than "a strong FDR Democrat," Cagney lost the role of Notre Dame football coach Knute Rockne in Knute Rockne: All-American to his friend Pat O'Brien because Cagney had signed a petition in support of the anti-clerical Spanish Republican government in the then-ongoing Spanish Civil War. According to an episode of Paul Harvey's The Rest of the Story aired August 1, 2006, Cagney's "acting" career began in a New York drag show at the age of 17.Filmography
Sinners' Holiday (1930) The Doorway to Hell (1930) Other Men's Women (1931) The Public Enemy (1931) The Millionaire (1931) Smart Money (1931) Blonde Crazy (1931) How I Play Golf, by Bobby Jones No. 11: 'Practice Shots' (1931) (short subject) Taxi! (1932) The Crowd Roars (1932) Winner Take All (1932) Hard to Handle (1933) Picture Snatcher (1933) The Mayor of Hell (1933) Footlight Parade (1933) Lady Killer (1933) Jimmy the Gent (1934) He Was Her Man (1934) Here Comes the Navy (1934) The Hollywood Gad-About (1934) (short subject) The St. Louis Kid (1934) A Dream Comes True (1935) (short subject) A Trip Thru a Hollywood Studio (1935) (short subject) Devil Dogs of the Air (1935) G Men (1935) The Irish in Us (1935) A Midsummer Night's Dream (1935 film) (1935) Mutiny on the Bounty (1935) (uncredited as extra) Frisco Kid (1935) Ceiling Zero (1936) Great Guy (1936) Something to Sing About (1937) For Auld Lang Syne (1938) (short subject) Boy Meets Girl (1938) Angels with Dirty Faces (1938) The Oklahoma Kid (1939) Hollywood Hobbies (1939) (short subject) Each Dawn I Die (1939) The Roaring Twenties (1939) The Fighting 69th (1940) Torrid Zone (1940) City for Conquest (1940) The Strawberry Blonde (1941) The Bride Came C.O.D. (1941) Captains of the Clouds (1942) Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942) You, John Jones (1943) (short subject) Johnny Come Lately (1943) Battle Stations (1944) (short subject) (narrator) Blood on the Sun (1945) 13 Rue Madeleine (1947) The Time of Your Life (1948) White Heat (1949) Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye (1950) The West Point Story (1950) Come Fill the Cup (1951) Starlift (1951) (Cameo) What Price Glory? (1952) A Lion Is in the Streets (1953) Run for Cover (1955) Love Me or Leave Me (1955) The Seven Little Foys (1955) Mister Roberts (1955) Tribute to a Bad Man (1956) These Wilder Years (1956) Man of a Thousand Faces (1957) Short-Cut to Hell (1957) (in pre-credits sequence) (also director) Never Steal Anything Small (1959) Shake Hands with the Devil (1959) The Gallant Hours (1960) (also producer) One, Two, Three (1961) Arizona Bushwhackers (1968) (narrator) Ragtime (1981)|
Preceded by: Gary Cooper for Sergeant York |
Academy Award for Best Actor 1942 for Yankee Doodle Dandy |
Succeeded by: Paul Lukas for Watch on the Rhine |
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