Frank McHugh
Frank McHugh (born May 23, 1898 in Homestead , Pennsylvania as Francis Curray McHugh ; † September 11, 1981 in Greenwich , Connecticut ) was an American film and stage actor who played mostly comical supporting roles in numerous Hollywood films .
Life
Frank McHugh was born the son of stage actors who owned their own theater company. At the age of ten he played in his parents' plays, often together with his siblings Matt McHugh (1894–1971) and Kitty McHugh (1902–1954). Both became actors as well and had long film careers, albeit not as successfully as their brother Frank. As a young adult, McHugh toured America with various groups and performed in vaudeville pieces. He came to Broadway in the late 1920s , where he appeared in five plays during that time. Like many other theater actors, McHugh came to Hollywood at the beginning of the sound film era. He received a studio contract with Warner Brothers and was one of the busiest and most popular supporting actors there in the 1930s and 1940s. His first film was Start Into The Twilight by Howard Hawks , where he immediately received a good supporting role.
Frank McHugh played for Warner Brothers in all genres, where he was often used as a good-natured, somewhat comical sidekick to the leading actor. His trademark was a slight scream of laughter and his portrayal of drunkards. In the melodrama Journey Without Return from the year McHugh played a friendly pickpocket alongside Kay Francis and William Powell , a role he took up again in the remake Till We Meet Again (1940). He had one of his most striking appearances as a pessimistic choreographer in the Berkeley Musical Parade in the spotlight (1933). In Max Reinhardt's lavish Shakespeare film A Midsummer Night's Dream (1935), he played the carpenter Sequence, who wants to perform a play for the king's wedding with other craftsmen. Occasionally he also played in westerns, for example at the side of Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland as the brave newspaper editor in Lord of the Wild West , who is murdered because of a critical article.
McHugh also gained fame through his longstanding collaboration with James Cagney in eleven films. Both played together in The Roaring Twenties and Im Taumel der Weltstadt . In addition to Cagney, he also worked regularly with Pat O'Brien . McHugh, Cagney, and O'Brien were Irish Americans and good friends in their personal lives. They were members of the "Irish Mafia", a group of friends (which had nothing to do with the Mafia), which included Spencer Tracy , Allen Jenkins and Ralph Bellamy , among others . In 1944, McHugh was seen in the classic film The Way to Happiness as the casual Pastor O'Dowd on the side of Bing Crosby in one of his most famous roles. During the war years he supported the American army as an entertainer. In the late 1940s, McHugh's popularity waned, partly because of his increasing age, but also because fewer films were being made in Hollywood at the time than before.
From the 1950s onwards, McHugh took on numerous guest roles, mainly on emerging television. He played the role of Willie in 27 episodes of the Bing Crosby Show between 1964 and 1965. The better films of his later career include Rhythm in the Blood with Marilyn Monroe and The Last Hurray Beside Spencer Tracy. He played his last film role in 1967 as a ship's captain in the Elvis Presley film Seemann, ahoy! . In total, McHugh completed around 165 film and television appearances by 1969. Frank McHugh was married to Dorothy Spencer (1905-1999) from 1933 until his death. The marriage had three children. He died in 1981 at the age of 83 after a brief illness. He is buried in Fairview Cemetery in West Hartford .
Filmography (selection)
- 1930: Dawn Patrol ( The Dawn Patrol )
- 1930: Bright Lights
- 1930: Going Wild
- 1931: Kiss Me Again and Again
- 1931: Millie
- 1931: The Front Page
- 1931: Men of the Sky
- 1932: Gentlemen for a Day (Union Deport)
- 1932: A clever crook (high pressure)
- 1932: Extra! Extra!
- 1932: The roar of the crowd (The Crowd Roars)
- 1932: The Dark Horse
- 1932: Blessed Event
- 1932: Journey of No Return (One Way Passage)
- 1933: Parachute Jumper
- 1933: Mystery of the Wax Museum (The Mystery of the Wax Museum)
- 1933: High Wolf (The Telegraph Tail)
- 1933: Elmer The Great
- 1933: Lilly Turner
- 1933: Later marriage excluded (Ex Lady)
- 1933: Tomorrow at Seven
- 1933: Parade in the Spotlight (Footlight Parade)
- 1933: The House on 56th Street
- 1934: Love without thread and thread (Fashions of 1934)
- 1934: Heat Lightning
- 1934: The horror of the racetrack (6 Day Bike Race)
- 1934: Here Comes the Navy
- 1935: Devil Dogs of the Air
- 1935: The Gold Diggers of 1935
- 1935: The Kansas City Bomber (The Irish in Us)
- 1935: Page Mrs. Glory
- 1935: A Midsummer Night's Dream (A Midsummer Night's Dream)
- 1935: Murder Without a Gun (Moonlight Murder)
- 1936: Who Owns the City? (Bullets or Ballots)
- 1936: Three Man On A Horse
- 1937: Ever Since Eve
- 1937: Mr. Dodd Takes the Air
- 1938: Father conducts (Four Daughters)
- 1938: The Little Star (Boy Meets Girl)
- 1938: Valley of the Giants
- 1939: Wings of the Navy
- 1939: Lord of the Wild West (Dodge City)
- 1939: Four daughters clean up (Daughters Courageous)
- 1939: Dust Be My Destiny
- 1939: On Your Toes
- 1939: The Roaring Twenties (The Roaring Twenties)
- 1939: Four Wifes
- 1840: Till We Meet Again
- 1940: Gold smuggling to Virginia (Virginia City)
- 1940: Darling, you've changed (I Love You Again)
- 1940: In the frenzy of the world city (City of Conquest)
- 1941: side street ( Backstreet )
- 1941: Hearts on fire (Manpower)
- 1941: Agents of the Night (All Through the Night)
- 1942: Her Cardbord Lover
- 1944: The Road to Happiness (Going My Way)
- 1944: Leather Neck ( Marine Raiders )
- 1945: A Medal for Benny
- 1945: Love Fair (State Fair)
- 1946: The Runaround
- 1947: Carnegie Hall
- 1948: The Bronze Goddess (Velvet Touch)
- 1949: Panic for King Kong (Mighty Joe Young)
- 1953: A Lion Is in the Streets
- 1954: Rhythm in the Blood (There's No Business Like Show Business)
- 1958: The Last Hurray (The Last Hurray)
- 1959: Angels on the Hot Pavement (Say Yes, Say No)
- 1959: Many are called (Career)
- 1964–1965: The Bing Crosby Show (TV series, 27 episodes)
- 1967: Sailor, ahoy! (Easy Come, Easy Go!)
- 1969: Lancer (TV series, 1 episode)
Web links
- Frank McHugh in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Frank McHugh in the Internet Broadway Database (English)
Individual evidence
- ^ Frank McHugh at the New York Public Library
- ↑ Frank McHugh at the New York Times
- ^ Frank McHugh at the New York Public Library
- ^ Frank McHugh at the New York Public Library
- ^ Obituary in the New York Times
- ↑ Frank McHugh at Find A Grave
personal data | |
---|---|
SURNAME | McHugh, Frank |
ALTERNATIVE NAMES | McHugh, Francis Curray (full name) |
BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American film and stage actor |
DATE OF BIRTH | May 23, 1898 |
PLACE OF BIRTH | Homestead , Pennsylvania |
DATE OF DEATH | September 11, 1981 |
Place of death | Greenwich , Connecticut |