James Cagney: The Pugnacious Movie Star

Woodcut of actor James Cagney. (Artwork by author)

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…