Biography
Joseph Michael Kerrigan (16 December 1884 β 29 April 1964), better known as J.M. Kerrigan, was an Irish character actor. Kerrigan was born in Dublin, Ireland. He worked as a newspaper reporter until 1907 when he joined the famous Abbey Players. There he became a stalwart, appearing in plays by Lady Gregory, William Butler Yeats and John Millington Synge (for whom he played the role of Shawn Keogh in The Playboy of the Western World. His first screen appearance was in the silent film Food of Love in 1916. By the 1920s he was appearing on Broadway, often in plays by Shakespeare, Ibsen, and Sheridan. 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 that film and in Ford's The Long Voyage Home, he plays 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, where he plays a character actually named Leach, in which he steals scenes from Gary Cooper, Madeleine Carroll and William Frawley. In it he plays a sinister little petty thief who, holding a gun on Cooper, says, "I may be fat, but I'm agile." He had little screen time in films which he starred as minor roles, such as the "First Drayman" in Merely Mary Ann (1931) with Janet Gaynor. One of his most recognizable minor roles was in Gone with the Wind (1939), in which he played John Gallegher, the seemly jovial mill owner who whips his convict labour in to "co-operation". He appeared in Walt Disney's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954), the famous film version of Jules Verne's Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea in a minor role at the beginning of the film. In 1946, he tried breaking into Broadway shows, playing the discombobulated leprechaun Jackeen J. O'Malley in the show "Barnaby and Mr. O'Malley", based on the Crockett Johnson comic strip. J. M. Kerrigan died in Hollywood on 29 April 1964, aged 79. Kerrigan has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6621 Hollywood Blvd.
Filmography
all 103
Movies 95
TV Shows 8
Union Pacific (1958)
Shirley Temple's Storybook (1958)
The Fastest Gun Alive (1956)
It's a Dog's Life (1955)
Matinee Theater (1955)
Frontier (1955)
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954)
Letter to Loretta (1953)
The Silver Whip (1953)
General Electric Theater (1953)
My Cousin Rachel (1952)
Park Row (1952)
The Wild North (1952)
Sealed Cargo (1951)
Lux Video Theatre (1950)
Mrs. Mike (1949)
The Fighting O'Flynn (1949)
Studio One (1948)
The Luck of the Irish (1948)
Call Northside 777 (1948)
Abie's Irish Rose (1946)
Black Beauty (1946)
She Went to the Races (1945)
The Spanish Main (1945)
The Crime Doctor's Warning (1945)
The Great John L. (1945)
Tarzan and the Amazons (1945)
The Big Bonanza (1944)
Wilson (1944)
The Fighting Seabees (1944)
Mr. Lucky (1943)
Action in the North Atlantic (1943)
Captains of the Clouds (1942)
The Vanishing Virginian (1942)
The Wolf Man (1941)
Appointment for Love (1941)
Adventure in Washington (1941)
The Long Voyage Home (1940)
No Time for Comedy (1940)
The Sea Hawk (1940)
One Crowded Night (1940)
Untamed (1940)
Curtain Call (1940)
Young Tom Edison (1940)
Congo Maisie (1940)
Gone with the Wind (1939)
Two Thoroughbreds (1939)
Sabotage (1939)
The Witness Vanishes (1939)
Two Bright Boys (1939)
6,000 Enemies (1939)
The Zero Hour (1939)
Sorority House (1939)
Union Pacific (1939)
Undercover Agent (1939)
The Kid From Texas (1939)
The Flying Irishman (1939)
The Great Man Votes (1939)
Ride a Crooked Mile (1938)
Little Orphan Annie (1938)
Spring Madness (1938)
The Barrier (1937)
London by Night (1937)
Motor Madness (1937)
The Plough and the Stars (1936)
Lloyd's of London (1936)
The General Died at Dawn (1936)
Let's Make a Million (1936)
Spendthrift (1936)
Hearts in Bondage (1936)
Special Investigator (1936)
Colleen (1936)
Laughing Irish Eyes (1936)
The Prisoner of Shark Island (1936)
Timothy's Quest (1936)
A Feather in Her Hat (1935)
Barbary Coast (1935)
Hot Tip (1935)
Werewolf of London (1935)
The Informer (1935)
Vanessa: Her Love Story (1935)
The Fountain (1934)
The Key (1934)
A Modern Hero (1934)
The Lost Patrol (1934)
Lone Cowboy (1933)
Paddy the Next Best Thing (1933)
A Study in Scarlet (1933)
Air Hostess (1933)
Rockabye (1932)
Vanity Street (1932)
Careless Lady (1932)
The Rainbow Trail (1932)
Merely Mary Ann (1931)
The Black Camel (1931)
Don't Bet on Women (1931)
Under Suspicion (1930)
Lightnin' (1930)
New Movietone Follies of 1930 (1930)
Song o' My Heart (1930)
Lucky In Love (1929)
Little Old New York (1923)
O'Neill of the Glen (1916)
Ratings
Gallery
Information
Known ForActing
GenderMale
Birthday1884-12-16
Deathday1964-04-29 (79 years old)
Birth PlaceDublin, Republic of Ireland
CitizenshipsRepublic of Ireland
Also Known AsJoseph M. Kerrigan, J. M. Kerrigan
Awardsstar on Hollywood Walk of Fame
This article uses material from Wikipedia.
- J.M. Kerrigan
- Filmography
- Information
- Related Persons