James Cagney

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James Cagney
Image:James Cagney in Love Me or Leave Me trailer.jpg in the trailer for the film Love Me or Leave Me (1955)
Birth name	James Francis Cagney Jr.
Born	July 17 1899(1899-07-17) New York, New York
Died	March 30 1986 (aged 86) Stanfordville, New York
Years active	1930 - 1981
Spouse(s)	Frances Cagney (1922-1986)
Awards Academy Awards Best Actor 1942 Yankee Doodle Dandy Screen Actors Guild Awards Life Achievement Award 1978 Lifetime Achievement Other Awards NYFCC Award for Best Actor 1938 Angels with Dirty Faces 1942 Yankee Doodle Dandy AFI Life Achievement Award 1974 Lifetime Achievement

James Francis Cagney Jr. (July 17, 1899 – March 30, 1986) was an Academy Award-winning American film actor who won acclaim for a wide variety of roles, including the career-launching The Public Enemy, and won the Oscar for Best Actor in 1942 for his role in Yankee Doodle Dandy.

Like 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.

In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked Cagney eighth among the Greatest Male Stars of All Time.

Contents 1 Biography 1.1 Early life 1.2 Career 1.3 Honors 1.4 Death 2 Quotes 3 Trivia 4 Filmography 5 Television 6 References 7 External links

[edit] Biography

[edit] Early life

Cagney was born on the Lower East Side to James Cagney Sr., an Irish American bartender and amateur boxer, and Carolyn Nelson; his maternal grandfather was a Norwegian ship captain^[1] while his maternal grandmother was an Irish American.^[2] He moved to Yorkville when he was about two years old. The red-haired, blue-eyed Cagney graduated from Stuyvesant High School in New York City in 1918 and attended Columbia University.^[3]

On September 28, 1922, he married dancer Frances Willard (aka: “Billie”) Vernon (1899 – 1994) with whom he remained for the rest of his life. They adopted a son, James Cagney Jr, and a daughter, Cathleen “Casey” Cagney.

Both his brother William, who was also a producer, and sister Jeanne were actors.

[edit] Career

Cagney began his acting career in vaudeville and on Broadway. Al Jolson saw Cagney and Joan Blondell in a Broadway play, Penny Arcade, which only lasted three weeks. Jolson bought the rights to the play for $20,000 and sold the play to Warner Brothers with the stipulation that Cagney and Blondell be cast in the film version. Cagney and Blondell then moved to Hollywood to appear in the film version, titled Sinners' Holiday (1930), featuring Grant Withers.

Cagney went on to star in many films, making his name as a 'tough guy' in a series of crime films beginning with The Public Enemy (1931), which made him an immediate sensation. His career continued with Smart Money (1931), his only film with Edward G. Robinson (which was actually shot before The Public Enemy, but released later), Blonde Crazy (1931), and Hard to Handle (1933). He played one Shakespearean character on film - Nick Bottom in the 1935 screen version of A Midsummer Night's Dream. Cagney later starred opposite supporting player Humphrey Bogart in Angels with Dirty Faces (1938) and The Roaring Twenties (1939).

Although he claimed to be 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. The Notre Dame administration, which controlled all aspects of the filming, denied Cagney the role^[4]. This was a major career disappointment for Cagney, who had hoped that playing the football legend would help break him out of gangster roles.

He won an Oscar playing George M. Cohan in Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942). He returned to his gangster roots in Raoul Walsh's film White Heat (1949) and played a tyrannical ship captain opposite Jack Lemmon and Henry Fonda in Mister Roberts (1955). Cagney's health deteriorated substantially after 1979. Cagney's final appearance in a feature film was in Ragtime (1981), capping a career that covered over 70 films, although his last film prior to Ragtime had occurred 20 years earlier with Billy Wilder's One, Two, Three (1961). During the long hiatus, Cagney rebuffed all film offers, including a substantial role in My Fair Lady as well as a blank check from Charles Bluhdorn at Gulf & Western to play Vito Corleone in The Godfather, to devote time to learning how to paint (at which he became very accomplished), and tending to his beloved farm in Stanford, New York. His roles in Ragtime and Terrible Joe Moran, a 1984 made-for-television movie, were designed to aid in his convalescence.

He was one of the founders of the Screen Actors Guild and its president from 1942 to 1944.

James Cagney was 5' 5" tall.

[edit] Honors

In 1974, he received the Lifetime Achievement Award of the American Film Institute. He received the Kennedy Center Honors in 1980, and in 1984 his friend Ronald Reagan awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

[edit] Death

James Cagney died at his Dutchess County farm in Stanfordville, New York, aged 86, of a heart attack. He is interred in the Cemetery of the Gate of Heaven in Hawthorne, New York. His pallbearers included boxer Floyd Patterson, Mikhail Baryshnikov (who had hoped to play Cagney on Broadway), actor Ralph Bellamy and director Miloš Forman.

[edit] Quotes

Cagney's lines in White Heat (“Made it, Ma! Top of the world!”) were voted the 18^th greatest movie quote by the American Film Institute.

It should be noted, however, that he never actually said, "You dirty rat!", a popular phrase associated with him. In his AFI speech, he evoked considerable laughter by remarking that what he really said was, "Judy, Judy, Judy!", another famous, wrongly-attributed line (in this case to Cary Grant). The phrase actually originated in the 1932 film Taxi!, in which Cagney said, "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!"

As acting techniques became increasingly systematic (as in the case of "Method Acting"), Cagney was asked during the filming of Mister Roberts about his approach to acting. As Jack Lemmon related in the television special, "James Cagney: Top of the World", which aired on July 5, 1992, Cagney said that the secret to acting was simply this: "Learn your lines... plant your feet... look the other actor in the eye... say the words... mean them".

In the 1981 television documentary James Cagney: That Yankee Doodle Dandy ^[5], Cagney spoke of his well-known penchant for sarcasm, remarking in an onscreen interview, "Sex with another man? Real good!"

In his AFI speech, Cagney said that film producer Jack Warner had dubbed him "the professional againster."

Stanley Kubrick often stated that Cagney was among his favorite actors. ^[6]

[edit] Trivia

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Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines. The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones.

• According to his autobiography Cagney by Cagney, the Mafia had a contract on him whereby a studio light weighing 'several hundred pounds' was to "accidentally" fall on him. The hit was cancelled after George Raft, his co-star in Each Dawn I Die, used his Mob connections to save his friend.^[4]

• Cagney invited World War II hero Audie Murphy to Hollywood in September 1945 after seeing Murphy's photo on the cover of the July 16 edition of Life Magazine. ^[7]

• According to an episode of Paul Harvey's The Rest of the Story, first airing August 1, 2006, Cagney's "acting" career began in a New York drag show at the age of 17. According to Harvey's program, Cagney was only interested in the $35 the job paid.

• Cagney spoke fluent Yiddish, a language he picked up during his boyhood in New York City. His fluency in the language helped him start in vaudeville.^[8]

• His grandson, James Cagney IV, is an amateur actor appearing in several indie films, and works at Portland Maine Video store VideoPort.^[9]

[edit] Filmography

Year	Film	Role	Other notes
1930	The Doorway to Hell	Steve Mileaway
	Sinners' Holiday	Harry Delano
1931	How I Play Golf	Himself	uncredited
	Blonde Crazy	Bert Harris
	Smart Money	Jack
	The Millionaire	Schofield, Insurance Salesman
	The Public Enemy	Tom Powers
	Other Men's Women	Ed 'Eddie' Bailey
1932	Winner Take All	Jim 'Jimmy' Kane
	The Crowd Roars	Joe Greer
	Taxi!	Matt Nolan
1933	Lady Killer	Dan Quigley
	Footlight Parade	Chester Kent
	The Mayor of Hell	Richard 'Patsy' Gargan
	Picture Snatcher	Danny Kean
	Hard to Handle	Myron C. 'Lefty' Merrill
1934	The St. Louis Kid	Eddie Kennedy
	The Hollywood Gad-About	Himself	short subject
	Here Comes the Navy	Chester 'Chesty' J. O'Conner
	He Was Her Man	Flicker Hayes, aka Jerry Allen
	Jimmy the Gent	'Jimmy' Corrigan
1935	Mutiny on the Bounty	Extra	uncredited
	A Midsummer Night's Dream	Bottom, the weaver
	The Irish in Us	Danny O'Hara
	G Men	'Brick' Davis
	Devil Dogs of the Air	Thomas Jefferson 'Tommy' O'Toole
	Trip Thru a Hollywood Studio	Himself	short subject
	A Dream Comes True	Himself	short subject
	Frisco Kid	Bat Morgan
1936	Great Guy	Johnny 'Red' Cave
	Ceiling Zero	Dizzy Davis
1937	Something to Sing About	Terrence 'Terry' Rooney	stage name of Thadeus McGillicuddy
1938	Angels with Dirty Faces	Rocky Sullivan	Nominated - Academy Award for Best Actor
	Boy Meets Girl	Robert Law
	For Auld Lang Syne	Himself - Introducing arriving celebrities	short subject
1939	The Roaring Twenties	Eddie Bartlett
	Each Dawn I Die	Frank Ross
	Hollywood Hobbies	Himself	short subject
	The Oklahoma Kid	Jim Kincaid
1940	City for Conquest	Danny Kenny (Young Samson)
	Torrid Zone	Nick 'Nicky' Butler
	The Fighting 69th	Jerry Plunkett
1941	The Bride Came C.O.D.	Steve Collins
	The Strawberry Blonde	T. L. 'Biff' Grimes
1942	Yankee Doodle Dandy	George M. Cohan	Academy Award for Best Actor
	Captains of the Clouds	Brian MacLean (bush pilot)
1943	Johnny Come Lately	Tom Richards
	You, John Jones	John Jones	short subject
1944	Battle Stations	Narrator	short subject
1945	Blood on the Sun	Nick Condon
1947	13 Rue Madeleine	Robert Emmett 'Bob' Sharkey aka Gabriel Chavat
1948	The Time of Your Life	Joseph T. (who observes people)
1949	White Heat	Arthur 'Cody' Jarrett
1950	The West Point Story	Elwin 'Bix' Bixby
	Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye	Ralph Cotter
1951	Starlift	Himself	Cameo
	Come Fill the Cup	Lew Marsh
1952	What Price Glory?	Capt. Flagg
1953	A Lion Is in the Streets	Hank Martin
1955	Mister Roberts	Capt. Morgan
	The Seven Little Foys	George M. Cohan
	Love Me or Leave Me	Martin Snyder	Nominated - Academy Award for Best Actor
	Run for Cover	Matt Dow
1957	Short-Cut to Hell	Himself	in pre-credits sequence, also director
	Man of a Thousand Faces	Lon Chaney
1956	These Wilder Years	Steve Bradford
	Tribute to a Bad Man	Jeremy Rodock
1959	Shake Hands with the Devil	Sean Lenihan
	Never Steal Anything Small	Jake MacIllaney
1960	The Gallant Hours	Fleet Admiral William F. Halsey Jr.	also producer
1961	One, Two, Three	C.R. MacNamara
1968	Arizona Bushwhackers	Narrator
1981	Ragtime	Commissioner Rheinlander Waldo

Awards
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
Preceded by Paul Muni for The Life of Emile Zola	NYFCC Award for Best Actor 1938 for Angels with Dirty Faces	Succeeded by James Stewart for Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
Preceded by Gary Cooper for Sergeant York	NYFCC Award for Best Actor 1942 for Yankee Doodle Dandy	Succeeded by Paul Lukas for Watch on the Rhine

Preceded by Edward Arnold

President of Screen Actors Guild 1942 – 1944

Succeeded by George Murphy

[edit] Television

• The Ballad of Smokey the Bear (1966) (voice) (narrator)
• Terrible Joe Moran (1984)

[edit] References

1. ^ From Tough Guy to Dandy: James Cagney (June 1986). Retrieved on 2007-11-01.
2. ^ McCabe, John. Cagney. New York Times. Retrieved on 2007-11-01. 
3. ^ Flint, Peter. "James Cagney Is Dead at 86; Master of Pugnacious Grace", New York Times, 1986-03-31. Retrieved on 2007-11-01. 
4. ^ ^{a b} Biography for James Cagney. Internet Movie Database. Retrieved on 2007-11-01.
5. ^ James Cagney: That Yankee Doodle Dandy. Internet Movie Database. Retrieved on 2007-11-01.
6. ^ Lobrutto, Vincent (April 1999). Stanley Kubrick: A Biography. Retrieved on 2007-11-01. 
7. ^ cover image. Life Magazine (1945-07-16). Retrieved on 2007-11-01.
8. ^ http://www.medaloffreedom.com/JamesCagney.htm
9. ^ http://imdb.com/name/nm1615521/bio

[edit] External links

• James Cagney at the Internet Movie Database
• James Cagney at the TCM Movie Database
• James Cagney at the Internet Broadway Database
• James Cagney's Thug Life Fan site with hundreds of photos
• The New York Times (March 31, 1986): "James Cagney Is Dead at 86; Master of Pugnacious Grace", by Peter B. Flint

Persondata
NAME	Cagney, James
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION	Actor
DATE OF BIRTH	July 17 1899(1899-07-17)
PLACE OF BIRTH	New York City, New York
DATE OF DEATH	March 30 1986
PLACE OF DEATH	Dutchess County, New York

bs:James Cagney

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