Wallace Ford

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Wallace Ford (* 12. February 1898 in Bolton , England when Samuel Jones Grundy ; † 11. June 1966 in Los Angeles , California , USA ) was a British actor .

Life

Wallace Ford had a Dickens- like childhood under the maiden name Samuel Jones Grundy : He was born in very poor conditions near Manchester and separated from his parents as a toddler (he found them again in the 1930s through a successful search that received much attention from the press ). The boy then lived temporarily in one of Thomas John Barnardo's orphanages . Ultimately, Grundy ended up in a children's home in Manitoba , Canada , where he was “loaned out” as a laborer to over a dozen local farmers, some of whom were treated like a slave. At the age of eleven he ran away from this work and subsequently took on a variety of small jobs - including as an usher in the theater. He eventually joined a vaudeville group called the Winnepeg Kiddies , with which he stayed until 1914. Then Samuel Grundy went to the United States with a friend named Wallace Ford , but the friend Wallace was killed by a railroad car. In memory of his companion, Grundy finally gave himself the stage name Wallace Ford .

After a deployment in World War I , Ford found engagements in classic theater roles and also appeared on Broadway , including in the plays Abraham Lincoln , Abie's Irish Rose and Bad Girl . With the beginning of the sound film era, Ford finally came to Hollywood, where he took on regular engagements in motion pictures until his death. He made his Hollywood debut as the fiancé of Joan Crawford in Everything for Your Luck . The main role in Tod Browning's horror drama Freaks (1932) represented one of its most important tasks in the game film. In the following years he often played leading roles in B-movies, mostly crime or horror movies Another notable appearance was Ford as an Irish freedom fighter in The Traitor ( 1935) directed by John Ford . The actor Ford was used by the director Ford in a total of 13 of his films, making him a member of John Ford's unofficial company .

From the mid-1930s he was mainly used in supporting roles, especially in westerns such as Der Mann aus Laramie (1955) and Warlock (1959). Because of his increasing weight, Ford shifted to character roles, often good-natured and friendly in nature. From the 1950s onwards he also made many guest roles on US television. He was married to actress Martha Haworth from 1922 until his death and they had a daughter named Patricia. Wallace Ford died of a heart attack in 1966 at the age of 68.

Filmography (selection)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Kay Less : The film's great personal dictionary . The actors, directors, cameramen, producers, composers, screenwriters, film architects, outfitters, costume designers, editors, sound engineers, make-up artists and special effects designers of the 20th century. Volume 3: F - H. Barry Fitzgerald - Ernst Hofbauer. Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-89602-340-3 , p. 51.
personal data
SURNAME Ford, Wallace
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British actor
DATE OF BIRTH February 12, 1898
PLACE OF BIRTH Bolton , England
DATE OF DEATH June 11, 1966
Place of death Los Angeles , California , USA