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.
Mary Tomlinson, professionally known as Marjorie Main, was an American character actress and singer of the Classical Hollywood period, best known as a Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer contract player in the 1940s and 1950s, and for her role as Ma Kettle in 10 Ma and Pa Kettle movies. Main started her career in vaudeville and theatre, and appeared in film classics, such as Dead End (1937), The Women (1939), Dark Command (1940), The Shepherd of the Hills (1941), Meet Me in St. Louis (1944), and Friendly Persuasion (1956).
Ninnian Joseph Yule was a Scottish-American burlesque and vaudeville actor who later appeared in many films as a character actor. He starred alongside Renie Riano in the Jiggs and Maggie film series. Yule was the father of actor Mickey Rooney.
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.
Marjorie Burnet Rambeau was an American film and stage actress. She began her stage career at age 12, and appeared in several silent films before debuting in her first sound film, Her Man (1930). She was twice nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her roles in Primrose Path (1940) and Torch Song (1953), and received the 1955 National Board of Review Award for Best Supporting Actress for her roles in A Man Called Peter and The View from Pompey's Head.
The Secret Six is a 1931 American pre-Code crime film starring Wallace Beery as "Slaughterhouse Scorpio", a character very loosely based on Al Capone, and featuring Lewis Stone, John Mack Brown, Jean Harlow, Clark Gable, Marjorie Rambeau and Ralph Bellamy. The film was written by Frances Marion and directed by George W. Hill for MGM.
Bad Bascomb is a 1946 American western film starring Wallace Beery and Margaret O'Brien. The movie was directed by S. Sylvan Simon. The supporting cast features Marjorie Main, J. Carrol Naish, Frances Rafferty, Marshall Thompson and Henry O'Neill.
20 Mule Team is a 1940 American Western film about Death Valley, and Daggett, California borax miners, directed by Richard Thorpe and starring Wallace Beery, Marjorie Rambeau and Anne Baxter. The film provides an extremely rare opportunity to see Beery act opposite his nephew Noah Beery Jr., best known for playing Joseph "Rocky" Rockford on television's The Rockford Files starring James Garner during the 1970s. The film was originally released in Sepiatone, a brown and white process used by the studio the previous year for the Kansas scenes in The Wizard of Oz.
The Mighty Barnum is a 1934 film starring Wallace Beery as P.T. Barnum. The movie was written by Gene Fowler and Bess Meredyth, adapted from their play of the same name, and directed by Walter Lang. Beery had played Barnum four years earlier in A Lady's Morals, a highly fictionalized biography of singer Jenny Lind. The supporting cast features Adolphe Menjou, Virginia Bruce as Jenny Lind, and Rochelle Hudson.
Wyoming is a 1940 Western film directed by Richard Thorpe and starring Wallace Beery. It was the first of seven films pairing Beery and character actress Marjorie Main.
The Bugle Sounds is a 1942 American World War II movie starring Wallace Beery as a cavalry sergeant resistant to replacing horses with tanks. The supporting cast includes Marjorie Main, Lewis Stone, George Bancroft, Donna Reed, and Chill Wills, and the film was directed by S. Sylvan Simon.
Barnacle Bill is a 1941 feature film starring Wallace Beery. The screen comedy was directed by Richard Thorpe. Barnacle Bill was the second of seven MGM films pairing Beery and character actress Marjorie Main.
Rationing is a 1944 American comedy film about governmental restrictions on the sale of food, fuel, and other consumer items and services in the United States during World War II. Directed by Willis Goldbeck and distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, the production stars Wallace Beery and features Marjorie Main.
Big Jack is a 1949 American Western film starring Wallace Beery, Richard Conte and Marjorie Main. The movie was directed by Richard Thorpe, and the screenplay was written by Gene Fowler and Otto Eis from the novel by Robert Thoeren. The picture is a comedy-drama, set on the American frontier in the early 1800s, about outlaws who befriend a young doctor in legal trouble for acquiring corpses for anatomical research.
Beggars of Life is an American Part-talkie sound film that was directed by William Wellman. Although the film featured sequences with audible dialogue, the majority of the film had a synchronized musical score with sound effects. The film was released on both sound-on-disc and sound-on-film formats. Currently circulating are mute prints from the sound-on-disc version. The majority of the sound discs are believed to be lost.
Prairie Chickens is a 1943 American Western film and a sequel to Dudes are Pretty People (1942) and Calaboose (1943), Western films from "Hal Roach's Streamliners", a series of approximately 50-minute comedic movies, in this case directed by Hal Roach, Jr. and starring Jimmy Rogers as "Jimmy" and Noah Beery, Jr. as "Pidge Crosby". The supporting cast features comedy veteran Raymond Hatton, who had been an unofficial comedy partner with Beery's uncle Wallace Beery in several pictures two decades earlier, and the featurette's running time is 48 minutes.
Lawrence Hazard was an American playwright and screenwriter active between 1933 and 1958. His career was cut short when he died at age 61 in 1959. His films include Man's Castle (1933) directed by Frank Borzage and starring Spencer Tracy and Loretta Young; Mannequin (1937) directed by Borzage and starring Joan Crawford and Spencer Tracy; Strange Cargo (1940) directed by Borzage and starring Clark Gable and Joan Crawford; The Spoilers (1942) starring Marlene Dietrich and John Wayne; Jackass Mail (1942) starring Wallace Beery; Dakota (1945) starring John Wayne and Walter Brennan, and numerous other films as well as scripts for television anthologies in the 1950s.
Strangers on Honeymoon is a 1936 British comedy film directed by Albert de Courville and starring Constance Cummings, Hugh Sinclair and Noah Beery, based on the 1926 novel The Northing Tramp by Edgar Wallace. Much of the film takes place in Canada. It was made by Gainsborough Pictures at the Lime Grove Studios in Shepherd's Bush. The film's sets were designed by the art director Ernö Metzner. Wallace's son also contributed to the film's screenplay, along with 5 other writers.
Some Blondes Are Dangerous is a 1937 American drama film directed by Milton Carruth and written by Lester Cole. It is based on the 1930 novel Iron Man by W. R. Burnett. The film stars Noah Beery Jr., William Gargan, Nan Grey, Dorothea Kent, Roland Drew, Lew Kelly, Polly Rowles and John Butler. The film was released on November 1, 1937, by Universal Pictures.
