Ben Kingsley Biography 

One of the most celebrated, accomplished, and iconic figures in American cinema, James Cagney is most associated with Angels with Dirty Faces and his Oscar winning turn in Yankee Doodle Dandy. His film career spanned over five decades.

James Francis Cagney Jr was born July 17, 1899 in New York, New York. His parents were Carolyn Nelson and James Cagney Sr, a part-time bartender and part-time boxer. Cagney’s father died, however, when he was very young.

At the age of two, Cagney and family relocated to Yorkville, Manhattan where he attended Stuyvesant High School. For one semester, Cagney attended Columbia College of Columbia University.

Cagney’s first entrance into entertainment was on a vaudeville stage followed by Broadway. While performing in Penny Arcade, Al Jolson spotted Cagney and immediately bought the rights to the production in order to launch Cagney’s career.

Moving to Hollywood, his first role was in 1930 with Sinner’s Holiday. And he was an instant hit. Especially his 1931 film The Public Enemy with Jean Harlow served as the prototype for all gangster films to follow, and as such, it is currently viewed as a classic.

Taking a variety of roles, he earned particular notoriety for his lead in 1935’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream with Mickey Rooney and Olivia de Havilland.

He continued his portrayal of gangsters with the extremely well received Angels with Dirty Faces where he shared the screen with Humphrey Bogart and Ann Sheridan. Perfecting the character, Cagney earned his first Oscar nomination.

But it was 1942 that really solidified Cagney as an acting force. While much of his career was dedicated to playing the gangster role, his greatest recognition was for the musical biography Yankee Doodle Dandy. Acting beside Joan Leslie and Walter Huston, Cagney walked with the Oscar for Best Actor in a Leading Role. Cagney reprised his role as George M Cohan in 1955’s The Seven Little Foys, which starred Bob Hope.

He received the Oscar nod one more time in his prolific career, and that was in 1956 for the lead in Love Me or Leave Me. It was also a successful project for female lead Doris Day.

Cagney provided the narrating voice in 1968’s Arizona Bushwhackers, and then he took a long hiatus from entertainment. After a grueling and relentless filming schedule for nearly four decades, Cagney did not appear onscreen again until 1981’s Ragtime.

His last film, in which he was visibly weak and ill, was 1984’s Terrible Joe Moran with Art Cagney, Ellen Barkin, and Peter Gallagher.

His body of work earned him the rank of eighth “Greatest Male Star of All Time” by the American Film Institute. He also co-founded the Screen Actors Guild and resided as its president from 1942 to 1944.

Outside of acting, Cagney was an accomplished painter and dearly loved his farm in Stanfordville, New York.

In his personal life, Cagney defied the Hollywood norm and stayed with his wife his entire life. He married the dancer Frances Willard Vernon on September 28, 1922. They were together until his death on March 30, 1986. The official cause of death was a heart attack induced by complications from diabetes. Ronald Reagan, a close personal friend, was one of his pallbearers.