James Dunn (actor)

His parents, Ralph H. Dunn (c. 1875–1943), a member of the New York Stock Exchange, and mother Jessie L. Archer (c. 1871–1946) had married in January 1901.

He was their only child.

He was of Irish descent.

At age 4, while wintering with his parents at Shippan Point, Connecticut, the four-year-old Dunn had a near-accident reported in The New York Times when a bulldog belonging to his babysitter lunged at him.

He was unhurt.

Dunn grew up in New Rochelle, New York, and attended school there.

He often skipped high school classes to hang around film studios in the upper Bronx.

After graduation, Dunn tried his hand at sales, selling lunch wagons and also becoming an automobile demonstrator.

He worked for three years in his father's brokerage firm.

But his real love was the theater.

James Howard Dunn (November 2, 1901September 1, 1967), billed as Jimmy Dunn in his early career, was an American stage, film, and television actor, and vaudeville performer.

The son of a New York stockbroker, he initially worked in his father's firm but was more interested in theater.

James Howard Dunn was born on November 2, 1901, in Manhattan.

In 1927 he left his father's employ to join a small theatrical troupe.

He landed jobs as an extra in short films produced by Paramount Pictures in its Long Island studio, and also performed with several stock theater companies, culminating with playing the male lead in the 1929 Broadway musical Sweet Adeline.

Upon his return to New York, he landed the male lead in the 1929 Broadway musical Sweet Adeline, opposite Helen Morgan.

Dunn's Broadway performance attracted the attention of film studio executives.

With musicals on the wane in the late 1930s, he was cast in a series of B movies and struggled with alcoholism in his personal life.

This performance attracted the attention of film studio executives, and in 1931, Fox Film signed him to a Hollywood contract.

His screen debut in the 1931 film Bad Girl made him an overnight box-office star and he was cast as the lead in a succession of romantic drama and comedy films.

In 1931, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), which conducted its screen tests at Fox Film's Astoria Studios in Queens, New York, called Dunn in for a screen test.

A Fox Film employee asked if they could also test Dunn, and had him read a scene from the stage production of Bad Girl.

While MGM was not impressed with their result, Fox director Frank Borzage liked Dunn's screen test and wanted to cast him in his upcoming film version of Bad Girl.

Dunn signed a film contract with Fox a few days later and relocated to Hollywood; his mother came to live with him the following year.

Dunn made his screen debut in Bad Girl (1931), which catapulted him and co-star Sally Eilers to "overnight fame".

A Baltimore Evening Sun review wrote: "Without Dunn, Bad Girl would be just another movie. With him, it's something that provokes chuckles, tears, laughs, sighs and everything else that a nice little movie hopes to provoke".

The Los Angeles Times called Dunn's star turn "triumphant", asserting that "no performance has lately equaled the impression made by this rather plain young man, who, aside from having a likable personality, scores a major hit by his ability as an actor".

Fox immediately re-teamed Dunn and Eilers in Over the Hill (1931), followed by Dance Team (1932), Sailor's Luck (1933), and Hold Me Tight (1933).

Dunn also played the lead in Sob Sister (1931), Society Girl (1932), and Hello, Sister! (1933).

By the end of 1932, Dunn was considered "one of the top 10 box office draws".

In 1934, he co-starred with Shirley Temple in her first three films.

He later said in a 1934 interview: "I wasn't at all sure I'd be a hit, or even an actor good enough to obtain reasonably steady work. But that didn't make a lot of difference. I could not see any other career and I knew I wouldn't be happy unless I tried it".

He also sought out jobs as an extra in short films at Paramount Pictures' Long Island studios.

He joined a stock theater company out of Englewood, New Jersey, for a 37-week engagement, and performed with another company, the Permanent Players, at the Playhouse Theatre in Winnipeg, Canada, for a 22-week run.

With the latter troupe, he was said to be "highly popular" among theatre-goers for his "pleasing, breezy personality".

In 1935, at the height of his popularity, he broke his studio contract two years before it expired and became a free agent.

In 1945, having not worked for a major studio for five years, he was selected by director Elia Kazan for the role of Johnny Nolan, the dreamy alcoholic father in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1945), which earned him the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.

The Oscar did not advance his film career, however, and while he still found roles in Broadway productions, he became a character actor on television.

He had a regular role in the hit sitcom It's a Great Life from 1954 to 1956, and guest-starred in dozens of episodes of popular television series from the 1950s through mid-1960s.

In 1960, his contributions to film and television were recognized with two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.