JM Kerrigan

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
JM Kerrigan with Sara Allgood (1911)

Joseph Michael Kerrigan (born December 16, 1884 in Dublin , Leinster , † April 29, 1964 in Hollywood , California ) was an Irish film and stage actor and director who worked mainly in the United States .

Life

JM Kerrigan worked as a newspaper reporter until 1907, when he eventually started making his living as an actor. One of his first stops was at the Abbey Theater , the Irish national theater . He has taken on roles in plays by Lady Gregory , John Millington Synge , William Butler Yeats and Seán O'Casey . In addition to appearances in Ireland, he also played on Broadway in 1908 and in London in 1909. Kerrigan had his first appearance as a film actor in 1916 in the Irish silent film O'Neal of the Glen . Between 1916 and 1918, Kerrigan also directed a dozen silent films in Ireland. Eventually Kerrigan finally moved to the United States. In the 1920s, Kerrigan received regular appearances on Broadway , including plays by William Shakespeare , Henrik Ibsen and Sheridan . Between 1908 and 1947 he had a total of 27 Broadway appearances.

While Kerrigan had only occasionally played roles in silent films, he began to appear regularly in films with the triumph of talkies in the late 1930s. He played various supporting roles in numerous Hollywood films of the 1930s and 1940s, often with an Irish background and often somewhat self-righteous or stubborn. Along with some old colleagues from the Abbey Theater, he played the role of the trickster Terry in John Ford's 1935 The Traitor . Ford also used Kerrigan in The Long Road to Cardiff five years later . He also had a supporting role in the universal horror film The Werewolf of London from 1935, which, however, was not a success. When they dare to return to the werewolf theme at Universal six years later with The Wolf Man , Kerrigan got a supporting role here again. His best-known film is Gone With the Wind , but Kerrigan's appearance as Johnny Gallagher - the overseer in Scarlett's sawmill who rebukes the prisoners who work there and likes to whip them - only includes one striking scene.

In the 1950s, the aging Kerrigan became increasingly smaller and he turned more to emerging television, where he had numerous guest roles. One of his last film works was the role of "Old Billy" in Walt Disney's famous film adaptation of Jules Verne's Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea , where he made a small appearance at the beginning of the film. In 1960 he retired from acting, in the same year he was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his film work. He died in 1964 at the age of 79.

Filmography (selection)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ The London Stage 1909
personal data
SURNAME Kerrigan, JM
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Kerrigan, Joseph Michael (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Irish film and stage actor and director
DATE OF BIRTH December 16, 1884
PLACE OF BIRTH Dublin , Leinster
DATE OF DEATH April 29, 1964
Place of death Hollywood , California