Wallace Fitzgerald Beery was an American film and stage actor. He is best known for his portrayal of Bill in Min and Bill (1930) opposite Marie Dressler, as General Director Preysing in Grand Hotel (1932), as Long John Silver in Treasure Island (1934), as Pancho Villa in Viva Villa! (1934), and his title role in The Champ (1931), for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor. Beery appeared in some 250 films during a 36-year career. His contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer stipulated in 1932 that he would be paid $1 more than any other contract player at the studio. This made Beery the highest-paid film actor in the world during the early 1930s. He was the brother of actor Noah Beery and uncle of actor Noah Beery Jr.
Noah Nicholas Beery was an American actor who appeared in films from 1913 until his death in 1946. He was the older brother of Academy Award-winning actor Wallace Beery as well as the father of prominent character actor Noah Beery Jr. He was billed as either Noah Beery or Noah Beery Sr. depending upon the film.
Noah Lindsey Beery was an American actor often specializing in warm, friendly character roles similar to many portrayed by his Oscar-winning uncle, Wallace Beery. Unlike his more famous uncle, however, Beery Jr. seldom broke away from playing supporting roles. Active as an actor in films or television for well over half a century, he was best known for playing James Garner's character's father, Joseph "Rocky" Rockford, in the NBC television series The Rockford Files (1974–1980). His father, Noah Nicholas Beery enjoyed a similarly lengthy film career as an extremely prominent supporting actor in major films, although the elder Beery was also frequently a leading man during the silent film era.
The Spoilers is a 1914 American silent Western film directed by Colin Campbell. The film is set in Nome, Alaska during the 1898 Gold Rush, with William Farnum as Roy Glennister, Kathlyn Williams as Cherry Malotte, and Tom Santschi as Alex McNamara. The film culminates in a spectacular saloon fistfight between Glennister and McNamara. In 1916, an expanded version was released, running 110 minutes.
The Spoilers is a 1923 American silent Western film directed by Lambert Hillyer. It is set in Nome, Alaska during the 1898 Gold Rush, with Milton Sills as Roy Glennister, Anna Q. Nilsson as Cherry Malotte, and Noah Beery Sr. as Alex McNamara. The film culminates in a saloon fistfight between Glennister and McNamara.
China Seas is a 1935 American adventure film starring Clark Gable as a brave sea captain, Jean Harlow as his brassy paramour, and Wallace Beery as a suspect character. The oceangoing epic also features Rosalind Russell, Lewis Stone, Akim Tamiroff, and Hattie McDaniel, while humorist Robert Benchley memorably portrays a character reeling drunk from one end of the film to the other.
Slave Ship is a 1937 American historical adventure film directed by Tay Garnett and starring Warner Baxter, Wallace Beery and Elizabeth Allan. The supporting cast features Mickey Rooney, George Sanders, Jane Darwell, and Joseph Schildkraut. It is one of very few films out of the forty-eight that Beery made during the sound era for which he did not receive top billing.
I Am the Law is a 1922 American drama film starring Alice Lake and Kenneth Harlan, and featuring Noah Beery, Sr. and Wallace Beery. The movie was written by Raymond L. Schrock based upon a 1910 story by James Oliver Curwood, and directed by Edwin Carewe. Curwood successfully sued Affiliated Distributors to have his name taken off of the film as he felt it did not resemble his short story, a result next achieved 70 years later when Stephen King successfully sued to have his name taken off of The Lawnmower Man.
Bright Lights, later retitled Adventures in Africa, is a 1930 American pre-Code musical comedy film produced and released by First National Pictures, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. It premiered in Los Angeles in July 1930 but was edited and rereleased in early 1931. Although it was photographed entirely in Technicolor, the only surviving print is in black and white. The film stars Dorothy Mackaill, Frank Fay, Noah Beery and Frank McHugh. It also features the screen debut of John Carradine, who appears in a small, uncredited role.
The Millionaire is a 1931 all-talking pre-Code comedy film produced and distributed by Warner Bros. and starring George Arliss in the title role. The film is a remake of the 1922 film titled The Ruling Passion, which also starred Arliss. The film was based on the short story "Idle Hands" by Earl Derr Biggers. In one of his early film roles, James Cagney had a brief but key appearance as a life insurance salesman. The supporting cast features Florence Arliss, David Manners, Evalyn Knapp, Noah Beery Sr., Cagney, J. Farrell MacDonald, Charley Grapewin and Tully Marshall.
The Girl of the Golden West is a 1938 American musical Western film adapted from the 1905 play of the same name by David Belasco, better known for providing the plot of the opera La fanciulla del West by Giacomo Puccini. A frontier woman falls in love with an outlaw.
The Carson City Kid is a 1940 American Western film directed by Joseph Kane starring Roy Rogers, George "Gabby" Hayes, and Bob Steele.
The Frog is a 1937 British crime film directed by Jack Raymond and starring Gordon Harker, Noah Beery, Jack Hawkins and Carol Goodner. The film is about the police chasing a criminal mastermind who goes by the name of The Frog. It was based on the 1925 novel The Fellowship of the Frog by Edgar Wallace, and the 1936 play version by Ian Hay. It was followed by a loose sequel The Return of the Frog, the following year.
Wild Horse Mesa is a 1925 American silent Western film directed by George B. Seitz and starring Jack Holt, Noah Beery Sr., Billie Dove, and Douglas Fairbanks Jr. Based on the novel Wild Horse Mesa by Zane Grey, the film is about a rancher who, desperate for money, decides to trap and sell wild horses using barbed wire. The local Navajo tribe tries to persuade him not to do it. The film was produced by Famous Players–Lasky and released by Paramount Pictures. Wild Horse Mesa was filmed on location in Colorado. Prints of the film have survived.
Bad Lands is a 1939 Western film. Bad Lands is a remake of John Ford's The Lost Patrol, with the locale changed from the Mesopotamian to the Arizona desert.
Murder Will Out is a 1930 American pre-Code mystery film with songs produced and released by First National Pictures and directed by Clarence G. Badger. The movie stars Jack Mulhall, Lila Lee and features Noah Beery and Malcolm McGregor. The film was based on the short story The Purple Hieroglyph by Murray Leinster writing as Will F. Jenkins, which was published in Snappy Stories on March 1, 1920.
Charles Sellers was an American minstrel show performer who worked in blackface under the stage name Charles Mack. He worked with John Swor and later George Moran as the Two Black Crows.
Outlaws of Pine Ridge is a 1942 American Western film directed by William Witney and starring Don 'Red' Barry, Lynn Merrick and Noah Beery.
Flight at Midnight is a 1939 American action film directed by Sidney Salkow and written by Eliot Gibbons. The film stars Phil Regan, Jean Parker, Roscoe Turner, Robert Armstrong, Noah Beery Jr. and Harlan Briggs. Flight at Midnight was released on August 28, 1939, by Republic Pictures.
The Lying Truth is a 1922 American silent drama film written and directed by Marion Fairfax and starring Noah Beery, Marjorie Daw and Tully Marshall.
