James Cagney: The Pugnacious Movie Star
James Cagney was a force of nature. He was quiet and introspective off screen, but once the camera rolled he exploded like an untethered pit bull. He spoke in a rat-a-tat machine-gun cadence with deadpan comic timing and ruthless wit. Orson Welles called him “the greatest actor to ever appear in front of a camera.”
He was born in 1899 on New York’s Lower East Side. His father was an Irish bartender, his mother a Norwegian ship captain’s daughter. He was a sickly child attracted to painting and writing. After his father died in the 1918 flu pandemic, Cagney helped his family survive by earning money in bare-fisted boxing matches. He came in second place for the New York lightweight boxing title.
Cagney loved tap-dancing as a child. He gained the nickname “Cellar-Door Cagney” for dancing on slanted cellar doors. His talents led to a role in the play Every Sailor (1919) as a serviceman dressed as a woman. He was paid was $35 (“a mountain of money for me in those worrisome days”). In 1922, he met a chorus line girl named Frances “Billie” Vernon. They married and moved to Hollywood.
Cagney’s film career began in 1930 when he was cast opposite Joan Blondell in Sinners’ Holiday. Warner Brothers gave him a three-week contract for $500 a week. His breakout movie performance came a year later when he played vicious killer Tom Powers…
