Wallace Beery

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Wallace Beery

Wallace Beery (born April 1, 1885 in Kansas City , Missouri , † April 15, 1949 in Beverly Hills ) was an American actor . For his appearance in The Champ he was awarded the Oscar for best leading actor in 1932.

Career

Wallace Beery followed his older brother Noah Beery senior into the entertainment industry around 1900. He came to Broadway through appearances in vaudeville in the early 1910s . In 1913 the first film appearances for the production company Essanay followed . Wallace Beery played in the 1920s, under contract with Paramount , often villains and gangsters, so in 1929 in Chinatown Nights , one of the studio's last silent films , in which he leads Florence Vidor into sexual addiction and drug addiction. With the start of the sound film Beery switched to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer at the instigation of Irving Thalberg . He became one of the studio's major male stars in 1930 with three major hits. In Hell Behind Bars , Beery was seen leading a prisoner revolt. Make Way For a Sailor allowed him to show his comic talent alongside John Gilbert and a trained seal and finally The Stranger Mother . The film became one of the biggest financial successes of the year and was the first collaboration with Marie Dressler .

In the following years, Wallace Beery was occasionally used in shady roles, as a gangster in The Secret Six on the side of Jean Harlow and Clark Gable or as a bankrupt industrialist in people in the hotel . Overall, however, with the sound film era and its growing popularity, he shifted more and more to the portrayal of rough, clumsy and sometimes vicious, but kind-hearted and popular characters. He was considered the "lovable rascal" of Hollywood. Wallace Beery won the Oscar for Best Actor for his portrayal of a worn-out boxer in King Vidor's The Champ , which is about to make a final comeback . With child star Jackie Cooper , who played his son in the film, Beery also appeared in three other films: The Bowery , Treasure Island and O'Shaughnessy's Boy .

The career of Wallace Beery reached its peak in 1933 with appearances in Dinner at Eight , a comedy with star cast , and Tugboat Annie , again with Marie Dressler as a partner. The actor starred as Pancho Villa in the controversial biopic Scream of the Haunted in 1934 . After appearing in Adventures in the Yellow Sea with Jean Harlow and Clark Gable as co-stars, his popularity slowly ebbed and Beery found himself increasingly in B-movies. In 1939 Sergeant Madden joined the hire company, led by Josef von Sternberg . The director got production after his involvement in I Take This Woman with Hedy Lamarr proved one of the movie's many false starts. In the forties, Beery experienced another career upswing and formed a popular screen couple with Marjorie Main . At this point, the actor was frequently seen alongside child stars such as Margaret O'Brien , Elizabeth Taylor and Dean Stockwell . One of his last film roles was in 1948 in the film musical Wirbel um Judy alongside Jane Powell , Elizabeth Taylor and Carmen Miranda .

Private

The Hollywood star was the uncle of actor Noah Beery junior . Wallace Beery entered into two marriages. His first wife was Gloria Swanson , whom he married in 1916. According to Swanson, the marriage was characterized by domestic violence and ended in divorce in 1919. His second marriage, which he concluded in 1924 and which resulted in a daughter, also ended in divorce in 1939. Wallace Beery was considered a difficult man to get along with and many of his co-cast members, including child stars Jackie Cooper and Margaret O'Brien, had negative comments about his temper. Over the past few decades, there has been debate over whether Beery should be involved in the death of comedian Ted Healy in December 1937. Healy died at the age of 41 the day after he was seriously injured in a bar fight with Beery, according to several eyewitnesses. The influence of Beery's studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer is said to have kept him out of the affair, according to the controversial but widely published theory.

Beery died unexpectedly of a heart attack in April 1949 at the age of 64.

Awards

  • Academy Awards 1930 (November) : Nomination for Best Actor for Hell Behind Bars
  • Academy Awards 1932 : Oscar / Best Actor for The Champ . Fredric March was also named Best Actor for his appearance in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde . Both actors received almost the same number of votes in the election process. March is said to have received one more vote, but the rules of the Academy at the time said that if there was a difference of up to three votes, both nominees should receive a prize. Today there would only be multiple awards if there was an exact tie.

Filmography (selection)

Web links

Commons : Wallace Beery  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Wallace Beery | Biography, Movie Highlights and Photos. Retrieved June 23, 2020 (American English).
  2. ↑ Facebook, Twitter, Show more sharing options, Facebook, Twitter: From the Archives: Wally Beery, Veteran Film Actor, Dies. April 17, 1949. Retrieved June 23, 2020 (American English).
  3. ↑ Margaret O'Brien Interview. Retrieved June 23, 2020 .
  4. ↑ Jim Mueller Special to the Tribune: A nyuk on the wild side. Retrieved June 23, 2020 (American English).
  5. ↑ Jim Mueller Special to the Tribune: A nyuk on the wild side. Retrieved June 23, 2020 (American English).
  6. ↑ What Really Happened the Night Ted Healy Was Beaten at Cafe Trocadero? In: Playground to the Stars. June 15, 2013, Retrieved June 23, 2020 (American English).
  7. ↑ Tragic Hollywood - Who killed funnyman Ted Healy? ⋆ Historian Alan Royle. December 18, 2015, accessed June 23, 2020 (American English).
  8. ^ Death of actor Wallace Beery ... - RareNewspapers.com. Retrieved June 23, 2020 .
  9. ^ Esther Zuckerman: Yes, There Have Been Oscar Ties. February 24, 2013, accessed June 23, 2020 (American English).
personal data
SURNAME Beery, Wallace
BRIEF DESCRIPTION US-American actor
DATE OF BIRTH April 1, 1885
PLACE OF BIRTH Kansas City
DATE OF DEATH April 15, 1949
Place of death Beverly Hills