Person:James Cagney (2)

Biographical Summary

the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

James Francis Cagney Jr. (; July 17, 1899March 30, 1986)^[1] was an American actor, dancer and film director. On stage and in film, Cagney was known for his consistently energetic performances, distinctive vocal style, and deadpan comic timing. He won acclaim and major awards for a wide variety of performances. He is remembered for playing multifaceted tough guys in films such as The Public Enemy (1931), Taxi! (1932), Angels with Dirty Faces (1938), The Roaring Twenties (1939), City for Conquest (1940) and White Heat (1949), finding himself typecast or limited by this reputation earlier in his career. He was able to negotiate dancing opportunities in his films and ended up winning the Academy Award for his role in the musical Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942). In 1999 the American Film Institute ranked him eighth among its list of greatest male stars of the Golden Age of Hollywood. Orson Welles described Cagney as "maybe the greatest actor who ever appeared in front of a camera".

In his first professional acting performance in 1919, Cagney was costumed as a woman when he danced in the chorus line of the revue Every Sailor. He spent several years in vaudeville as a dancer and comedian, until he got his first major acting part in 1925. He secured several other roles, receiving good notices, before landing the lead in the 1929 play Penny Arcade. Al Jolson saw Cagney in the play and bought the movie rights, before selling them to Warner Bros. with the proviso that James Cagney and Joan Blondell be able to reprise their stage roles in the movie. After rave reviews, Warner Bros. signed him for an initial $400-a-week, three-week contract; when the executives at the studio saw the first dailies for the film, Cagney's contract was immediately extended.

Cagney's fifth film, The Public Enemy, became one of the most influential gangster movies of the period. Notable for a famous scene in which Cagney pushes half a grapefruit against Mae Clarke's face, the film thrust him into the spotlight. He became one of Hollywood's leading stars and one of Warner Bros.' biggest contracts. In 1938 he received his first Academy Award nomination for Best Actor for his subtle portrayal of the tough guy/man-child Rocky Sullivan in Angels with Dirty Faces. In 1942 Cagney won the Oscar for his energetic portrayal of George M. Cohan in Yankee Doodle Dandy. He was nominated a third time in 1955 for Love Me or Leave Me with Doris Day. Cagney retired from acting and dancing in 1961 to spend time on his farm with his family. He came out of retirement 20 years later for a part in the movie Ragtime (1981), mainly to aid his recovery from a stroke.

Cagney walked out on Warner Bros. several times over the course of his career, each time returning on much improved personal and artistic terms. In 1935 he sued Warner for breach of contract and won. This was one of the first times an actor prevailed over a studio on a contract issue. He worked for an independent film company for a year while the suit was being settled, establishing his own production company, Cagney Productions, in 1942 before returning to Warner seven years later. In reference to Cagney's refusal to be pushed around, Jack L. Warner called him "the Professional Againster". Cagney also made numerous USO troop tours before and during World War II and served as president of the Screen Actors Guild for two years.

Lifetime Accomplishments

He was voted the 11th Greatest Movie Star of all time by Premiere magazine. Named the #8 greatest Actor on The 50 Greatest Screen Legends List by The American Film Institute.

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Cagney in "Taxi" (1932)

Cagney in "The Oklahoma Kid" (1939)

Cagney in "White Heat" (1949)

Cagney in "Love Me or Leave Me" (1955)

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3} The New York Times. (New York, New York)
   2 Apr 1986.

   A fond farewell to Cagney at his neighborhood Church by Thomas Morgan

2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3} The New York Times. (New York, New York)
   31 Mar 1986.

   James Cagney is dead at 86; Master of pugnacious grace by Peter B. Flint

3. ↑ ^3.0 3.1 James F. Cagney, in United States. 1930 U.S. Census Population Schedule. (National Archives Microfilm Publication T626)
   Enumeration District (ED) ED 248, sheet 26A, line 3, family 2, NARA microfilm publication T626 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 2002), roll 1558; FHL microfilm 2,341,293., 1930.

   Name James F Cagney
   Event Type Census
   Event Date 1930
   Event Place Manhattan (Districts 0001-0250), New York, New York, United States
   Gender Male
   Age 30
   Marital Status Married
   Race White
   Race (Original) White
   Relationship to Head of Household Head
   Relationship to Head of Household (Original) Head
   Birth Year (Estimated) 1900
   Birthplace New York
   Father's Birthplace New York
   Mother's Birthplace New York
   Sheet Letter A
   Sheet Number 26

   "United States Census, 1930," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33S7-9RCM-BD1?cc=1810731&wc=QZFQ-FC9%3A649437801%2C651606201%2C651606202%2C1589282974 : 8 December 2015), New York > New York > Manhattan (Districts 0001-0250) > ED 248 > image 51 of 58; citing NARA microfilm publication T626 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 2002).

4. ↑ ^{4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3} James Cagney, in Internet Movie Database
   Retrieved 9 Aug 2017.

   Date of Birth 17 July 1899, New York City, New York, USA
   Date of Death 30 March 1986, Stanfordville, New York, USA (heart attack following illness from diabetes)
   Birth Name James Francis Cagney
   Nicknames The Professional Againster, Jimmy
   Height 5' 6½" (1.69 m)

   One of Hollywood's preeminent male stars of all time (eclipsed, perhaps, only by "King" Clark Gable and arguably by Gary Cooper or Spencer Tracy), and the cinema's quintessential "tough guy", James Cagney was also an accomplished--if rather stiff--hoofer and easily played light comedy. James Francis Cagney was born on the Lower East Side of Manhattan in New York City, to Carolyn (Nelson) and James Francis Cagney, Sr., who was a bartender and amateur boxer. Cagney was of Norwegian (from his maternal grandfather) and Irish descent. Ending three decades on the screen, he retired to his farm in Stanfordville, New York (some 77 miles/124 km. north of his New York City birthplace), after starring in Billy Wilder's One, Two, Three (1961). He emerged from retirement to star in the 1981 screen adaptation of E.L. Doctorow's novel "Ragtime" (Ragtime (1981)), in which he was reunited with his frequent co-star of the 1930s, Pat O'Brien, and which was his last theatrical film and O'Brien's as well). Cagney's final performance came in the title role of the made-for-TV movie Terrible Joe Moran (1984), in which he played opposite Art Carney.

   His paternal grandparents and maternal grandmother were all of Irish descent, and his maternal grandfather was from Norway. As he told an interviewer shortly before his death in 1986: "My mother's father, my Grandpa Nelson, was a Norwegian sea captain, but when I tried to investigate those roots I didn't get very far, for he had apparently changed his name to another one that made it impossible to identify him within the rest of the population."

   Originally a very left-wing Democrat activist during the 1930s, Cagney later switched his viewpoint and became progressively more conservative with age. He supported his friend Ronald Reagan's campaigns for the Governorship of California in 1966 and 1970, as well as his Presidential campaigns in 1980 and 1984. President Reagan delivered the eulogy at Cagney's funeral in 1986.

5. ↑ ^{5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3} James Cagney, in Wikidata
   (URL: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q94041).

   date of birth: 17 July 1899
   place of birth: New York City
   date of death: 30 March 1986
   place of death: New York City
   manner of death: natural causes
   cause of death: myocardial infarction
   place of interment: Gate of Heaven Cemetery

6. ↑ James Cagney, in The American Film Institute.

   67 titles in filmography
   The Doorway to Hell  (1930) 
   Sinners' Holiday  (1930) 
   Smart Money  (1931) 
   The Public Enemy  (1931) 
   Blonde Crazy  (1931) 
   The Millionaire  (1931) 
   Other Men's Women  (1931) 
   Winner Take All  (1932) 
   The Crowd Roars  (1932) 
   Taxi!  (1932) 
   Footlight Parade  (1933) 
   Hard to Handle  (1933) 
   Picture Snatcher  (1933) 
   The Mayor of Hell  (1933) 
   Lady Killer  (1933) 
   He Was Her Man  (1934) 
   Here Comes the Navy  (1934) 
   Jimmy the Gent  (1934) 
   The St. Louis Kid  (1934) 
   The Irish in Us  (1935) 
   G-Men  (1935) 
   Devil Dogs of the Air  (1935) 
   Frisco Kid  (1935) 
   A Midsummer Night's Dream  (1935) 
   Ceiling Zero  (1936) 
   Great Guy  (1937) 
   Something to Sing About  (1937) 
   Angels with Dirty Faces  (1938) 
   Boy Meets Girl  (1938) 
   The Roaring Twenties  (1939) 
   Each Dawn I Die  (1939) 
   The Oklahoma Kid  (1939) 
   The Fighting 69th  (1940) 
   City for Conquest  (1940) 
   Torrid Zone  (1940) 
   The Bride Came C.O.D.  (1941) 
   The Strawberry Blonde  (1941) 
   Captains of the Clouds  (1942) 
   Johnny Come Lately  (1943) 
   Yankee Doodle Dandy  (1943) 
   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) 
   What Price Glory  (1952) 
   A Lion Is in the Streets  (1953) 
   Love Me or Leave Me  (1955) 
   Mister Roberts  (1955) 
   Run for Cover  (1955) 
   The Seven Little Foys  (1955) 
   These Wilder Years  (1956) 
   Tribute to a Bad Man  (1956) 
   Man of a Thousand Faces  (1957) 
   Never Steal Anything Small  (1959) 
   Shake Hands with the Devil  (1959) 
   The Gallant Hours  (1960) 
   One, Two, Three  (1961) 
   Arizona Bushwhackers  (1968) 
   America at the Movies  (1976) 
   That's Entertainment, Part 2  (1976) 
   Ragtime  (1981) 
   Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid  (1982) 

   Cagney was first actor to receive the Life Achievement Award of the American Film Institute (1974).