Victor McLaglen
From boxer to Oscar winner: the versatile career of Victor McLaglen.
Victor McLaglen was a British-American actor and boxer whose film career ran from the early 1920s through the 1950s.[1]
Quick Facts
- Birth name
- Victor Andrew de Bier Everleigh McLaglen
- Born
- 10 December 1886
- Birthplace
- Stepney, East London, U.K.
- Died
- 7 November 1959
- Place of death
- Newport Beach, California, U.S.
- Burial place
- Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery, Glendale, California
- Occupation
- Actor, boxer
- Citizenship
- United Kingdom; United States
Facts from the source article.
Life and work
He left home at 14 to join the British Army intending to fight in the Second Boer War, but was stationed at Windsor Castle and later discharged when his true age was discovered.[2] In 1907, after relocating to Winnipeg, Canada, he gained local fame as a wrestler and heavyweight boxer and worked briefly as a police constable.[3] On 10 March 1909, McLaglen participated in a six-round exhibition match against heavyweight champion Jack Johnson.[4] During World War I, he was made a second lieutenant in the Middlesex Regiment on 19 June 1915 and later served as an assistant provost marshal in Mesopotamia.[5]
While at a sporting club after the war, a film producer noticed him and gave him his first leading role in The Call of the Road (1920).[6] In 1925, McLaglen relocated to Hollywood and built a reputation as a character actor, especially skilled at portraying intoxicated characters.[7] McLaglen won the Academy Award for Best Actor for The Informer (1935) and later received a Best Supporting Actor nomination for The Quiet Man (1952).[8][9]
What the cited sources add
A 2002 article in the Journal of Non-lethal Combatives states that McLaglen began studying jujitsu at age twelve after being a tall, thin schoolboy who was frequently beaten by smaller boys.[10] According to the same source, a Japanese instructor lived with the McLaglen family until McLaglen turned nineteen, at which point he could defeat his teacher.[10] The article quotes McLaglen claiming he could stop a heart from beating and then restart it using katsu.[10]
References
- Wikipedia, "Victor McLaglen" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Obituary Variety, 11 November 1959, page 79. (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Victor McLaglen" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Daley, Alex (2018) "Hollywood Heavyweight", Boxing News, 13 September 2018, p. 44; Daley, Alex (2018) "Hollywood Heavyweight", Boxing News, 13 September 2018, p. 44 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Victor McLaglen" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Winnipeg's 'Quiet' Man Manitoba Historical Society.; "VICTOR MclAGLEN MAY BE ANOTHER JIM JEFFRIES.", Sydney Sportsman, 8 April 1908, p. 7; "Manitoba History: Winnipeg's "Quiet" Man: The Early Public Life of Film Star Victor McLaglen", www.mhs.mb.ca; See the Winnipeg Police Museum, Police Commission Books. (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Victor McLaglen" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Daley, Alex (2018) "Hollywood Heavyweight", Boxing News, 13 September 2018, p. 44; Victor McLaglen, Cyber Boxing Zone; accessed 17 December 2017.; "GIANT ATHLETE", The Daily News, 27 March 1914, p. 2 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Victor McLaglen" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: London Gazette, 18 June 1915. (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Victor McLaglen" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Daley, Alex (2018) "Hollywood Heavyweight", Boxing News, 13 September 2018, p. 44; "VICTOR McLAGLEN'S START", Port Adelaide News, 4 September 1931, p. 4 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Victor McLaglen" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Daley, Alex (2018) "Hollywood Heavyweight", Boxing News, 13 September 2018, p. 44 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Victor McLaglen" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Daley, Alex (2018) "Hollywood Heavyweight", Boxing News, 13 September 2018, p. 44; Heffernan, "How Good Is an Oscar? - Some Prize, Others Ignore Awards", The Star Press, April 22, 1945, p. 18 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Victor McLaglen" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "The 25th Academy Awards 1953", www.oscars.org, 4 October 2014 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- "The Science of Jiujitsu". Journal of Non-lethal Combatives. December 2002.. facts only, no text reused. ejmas.com
Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Victor McLaglen (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.
More in Writers & Journalists
Elsewhere in Historical Figures
Spotted an error? Know more?
Reader corrections go straight into our review queue. Suggest an edit · How this site is sourced
