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J. M. Kerrigan

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J.M. Kerrigan
J.M. Kerrigan in Undercover Agent (1939)
Born
Joseph Michael Kerrigan

(1884-12-16)16 December 1884
Dublin, Ireland
Died29 April 1964(1964-04-29) (aged 79)
Hollywood, California, U.S.
Resting placeHoly Cross Cemetery
OccupationActor
Years active1907–1960

Joseph Michael Kerrigan (16 December 1884 – 29 April 1964) was an Irish actor.

Early life

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Joseph Michael Kerrigan[1] was born on 16 December 1884 in Dublin, which was part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland at that time. He studied at Belvedere College and worked as a newspaperman.[2]

Career

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In 1907, Kerrigan joined the Irish National Theatre, later known as the Abbey Players.[2] There he became a stalwart, appearing in plays by Lady Gregory, William Butler Yeats and John Millington Synge (for whom he created the role of Shawn Keogh in The Playboy of the Western World). He toured with the company to New York City in 1908 and again in 1911, when their American premiere of The Playboy of the Western World met with riotous disapproval. By the 1920s he was appearing on Broadway, often in plays by Shakespeare, Ibsen, and Sheridan. In 1924, he and Abbey colleague Dudley Digges appeared in Sutton Vane's Outward Bound, along with Alfred Lunt, Leslie Howard, Margalo Gillmore, and Beryl Mercer. All in all, he played in 35 Broadway productions in his career.[3]

His first screen appearance was in Food of Love, one of six silent films he did in 1916. He settled permanently in Hollywood in 1935, having been recruited along with several other Abbey performers to appear in John Ford's The Informer. In this film and in Ford's The Long Voyage Home, he played similar roles, that of a leech who attaches himself to men until they run out of money. Perhaps his best-known role was in The General Died at Dawn, wherein he plays a character named Leach, a sinister thief who, holding a gun on Cooper, says: "I may be fat, but I'm agile."

He had little screen time in films in which he had minor roles, such as the First Drayman in Merely Mary Ann (1931) with Janet Gaynor. One of his more recognizable roles was in Gone with the Wind (1939), in which he played John Gallegher, the seemly jovial mill owner who whips his convict labor into "co-operation". He appeared in Walt Disney's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954), the film version of Jules Verne's 1870 novel, in a minor role at the beginning of the film.

In a 1946 attempt to reach Broadway, Kerrigan starred as the discombobulated leprechaun Jackeen J. O'Malley in the show Barnaby and Mr. O'Malley, based on the Crockett Johnson comic strip. The play was unsuccessful, completing only four performances.[4] Kerrigan made his final Broadway appearance later that year, however, in Guthrie McClintic's revival of The Playboy of the Western World, this time playing Michael James Flaherty. Over his career, he had roles in 114 short and feature-length motion pictures, and between 1952 and 1960 he appeared in episodes of 15 different TV series.

Kerrigan died in Hollywood on 29 April 1964, aged 79. He has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6621 Hollywood Blvd.

Partial filmography

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Kerrigan with Sara Allgood in 1911

References

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  1. ^ Jones, Idwal (12 July 1936). "Mr. Kerrigan's Vacation". The New York Times. p. X 4. ProQuest 101838952. Retrieved 23 October 2020 – via ProQuest.
  2. ^ a b "Kerrigan Has Never Seen Himself on the Screen". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. 25 February 1947. p. 19. Retrieved 23 October 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
  3. ^ "J. M. Kerrigan – Broadway Cast & Staff | IBDB".
  4. ^ Nel, Philip (20 April 2011). "Cushlamochree! Barnaby on stage!". philnel.com. Retrieved 9 October 2023.
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