James Cagney
The Professional Againster: James Cagney's energetic performances defined Hollywood's Golden Age.
He won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role in Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942).[1] Born on July 17, 1899, in New York City, James Francis Cagney Jr. was both an actor and a dancer.[2][3]
Quick Facts
- Birth name
- James Francis Cagney
- Born
- 17 July 1899
- Birthplace
- New York City, U.S.
- Died
- 30 March 1986
- Place of death
- Stanford, New York, U.S.
- Resting place
- Gate of Heaven Cemetery
- Occupation
- Actor, dancer
- Years active
- 1919–1984
Facts from the source article.
Life and work
Among seven children, Cagney was the second-born; two of his siblings died in infancy, and he himself was so frail as a baby that his mother worried he would not survive to be baptized.[4] As a youngster, he learned tap dancing and also competed in amateur boxing, ultimately becoming the runner-up for the lightweight title of New York state.[5] The year 1925 marked Cagney's initial major dramatic part, playing a young tough guy in Maxwell Anderson's three-act play Outside Looking In.[6] The Public Enemy*, Cagney's fifth movie, is considered one of the most impactful gangster films from its era.[7]
On two separate occasions during his career, Cagney left Warner Bros., but each time he came back after securing more favorable personal and artistic conditions.[8] Cagney founded his own company, Cagney Productions, in 1942.[8]
What the cited sources add
The Speck article notes that Cagney published his autobiography, Cagney by Cagney, several years before his death.[9] Speck describes Cagney as a "dashingly handsome leading man who never gave a damn what others thought of him."[9] Dirks also reports that the film cost approximately $151,000 to make and was shot in less than a month.[10] The Dirks source notes that Cagney's role in The Public Enemy was his fifth film performance.[10]
According to the Dirks account, the character Cagney played in The Public Enemy was inspired by actual Chicago gangsters Earl "Hymie" Weiss and Charles Dion "Deanie" O'Banion.[10]
References
- Wikipedia, "James Cagney" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: McGilligan, page 11; "Academy Awards Best Actor", FilmSite; "America's Greatest Legends", AFI's 100 Years...100 Stars, 2005; FilmKunst, "Orson Welles - Interview with Michael Parkinson (BBC 1974)", June 29, 2013 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "James Cagney" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: ; McGilligan, page 14 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "James Cagney" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: McGilligan, page 14; McCabe, page 5 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "James Cagney" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Warren, page 4; Cagney, page 2; Cagney, page 3; Bahl, "Jimmy Cagney", St. Francis de Sales Church, January 2008 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "James Cagney" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: McGilligan, page 15; Warren, page 4; Cagney, page 8 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "James Cagney" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Warren 55; Warren 55; Cagney, page 32; McGilligan, page 22 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "James Cagney" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: White, "James Cagney: Looking Backward", February 18, 1982 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "James Cagney" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: James L. Neibaur, James Cagney Films of the 1930s (London: Rowman & Littlefield, 2014), xi.; John McCabe, Cagney (NY: Knopf Doubleday, 2013). ; and NJ Senate con. res. 39 (1998), Nicholas J. Sacco, sponsor; searchable at www.njleg.state.nj.us (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Speck, "From Tough Guy to Dandy: James Cagney", June 1986, p. 319. facts only, no text reused. worldandi.com
- Dirks, Tim, "The Public Enemy (1931)", The Greatest Films, 2006. facts only, no text reused. filmsite.org
Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article James Cagney (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.
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