James Cagney(1899-1986)
- Actor
- Director
- Producer
One of Hollywood's preeminent male stars of all time, James Cagney was also an accomplished dancer 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.
