Brian Donlevy

At 71 years old, Brian Donlevy has this physical status:

Waldo Brian Donlevy (February 9, 1901 – April 6, 1972) was an American actor best known for portraying quirky tough guys from the 1930s to the 1960s.

He mainly appeared in supporting roles.

Beau Geste (1939), The Great McGinty (1940), and Wake Island (1942), in which he appeared in, were two of his best-known films.

He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role as Sergeant Markoff in Beau Geste. In the radio/TV series Dangerous Assignment, Donlevy played US special agent Steve Mitchell.

Mitchell received assignments to exotic locales involving international intrigue from Herbert Butterfield's appearance in The Times newspaper in the United Kingdom that "any consideration of the American 'film noir' of the 1940s would be incomplete without him."

Early life

Donlevy was born in Cleveland, Ohio, to Irish parents Rebecca (née Parks) and Thomas Donlevy, both from Portadown, County Armagh. The family lived in Sheboygan Falls, Wisconsin, where Donlevy's father was a manager at the Brickner Woolen Mills sometime between 1910 and 1912.

Personal life

Donlevy was married to Yvonne Grey from 1928 to 1936. She divorced him on purely humane reasons, and he agreed to pay $5,000 per month in alimony. In 1936, Marjorie Lane married actress Marjorie Lane. They had one child and divorced in 1947. From 1966 to 1972, he was married to Lillian Arch Lugosi (the ex wife of Bela Lugosi).

Thomas Dewey was a candidate in the 1944 United States presidential election.

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Career

Donlevy, a young man, moved to New York City, where he modeled for illustrator J. C. Leyendecker, who created drawings for the famous Arrow Collar advertisements. His acting career began in the early 1920s, when he first appeared in theater productions and then gained roles in silent films.

He appeared in little films (1923), Damaged Hearts (1924), and School for Wives (1925). He appeared in the Broadway play What Price Glory (1925), a big hit and ran for two years, establishing him as an actor. He appeared in the film A Man of Quality (1926).

On Broadway, he appeared in the hit the Deck (1927–28), which lasted for a year; later, Ringside (1928), Queen Bee (1929). He appeared in the films Gentlemen of the Press (1929) and Mother's Boy (1929). Peter Flies High (1931–31), The Inside Story (1932), and The Boy Friend (1932). He appeared in a film short with Ethel Merman, Ireno (1932) and A Modern Cinderella (1932).

He and Lilian Bond starred on Three And One (1933), a big personal triumph; No Questions Asked (1934); and The Milky Way (1934). The latter led to his Hollywood invitation to reprise his role in the film version, but he was unable to due to a production delay. With Bert Lahr and Ray Bolger, he had his last Broadway success with Life Begins at 8:40 (1934). "They were all signed for the movies," Donlevy said after that performance. I was hoping that if they can make it, I'm going to take a crack at it.

Donlevy's break came in 1935, when he was cast in the film Barbary Coast, directed by Howard Hawks and produced by Samuel Goldwyn. He appeared in Mary Burns, Fugitive, later this year. He received second billing in It Happened in Hollywood and appeared in Goldwyn's Strike Me Pink and He appeared in 13 Hours by Air.

Donlevy's first appearance in a Fox film, Human Cargo (1936), was as a wisecracking reporter opposite Claire Trevor. Half Angel (1936), High Tension (1936), 36 Hours to Kill (1936), and Midnight Taxi (1937).

He appeared in a "A" film, This Is My Affair (1937), with Robert Taylor, Barbara Stanwyck, and Victor McLaglen; later in another "B" film, Born Reckless (1937). He was in Old Chicago (1938) and was partnered with Victor McLaglen in Battle of Broadway (1938) and We're Going to Be Rich (1938). He appeared in Sharpshooters (1938) and was the lead villain in the film's prestigious Jesse James (1939).

In Cecil B. Cecil B., Donlevy was used by Paraguy in a significant role. Union Pacific (1939) by De Mille (1939), the grandson of Charles Bickford's De Mille's Union Pacific (1939). He remained at Beau Geste's studio (1939). His success in the former as the ruthless Sergeant Markoff earned him an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. Donlevy went to Columbia to appear in a "B film" called Behind Prison Gates (1939), and then to RKO for a support role in the Allegheny Uprising (1939). He appeared in Universal's Destry Rides Again (1939).

Donlevy was then given the lead role in The Great McGinty (1940) at Paramount, Preston Sturges' debut on Sunday. It wasn't a huge success, but it did get good feedback and began Sturges' directing career, which started Sturges' career. On radio and television, Donlevy appeared on radio and television multiple times.

Donlevy was in Universal when the Daltons Rode (1940), then moved to Fox's Brigham Young: Frontiersman (1940). He was fourth-billed in I Wanted Wings (1941) and then MGM borrowed him to assist Robert Taylor in Billy the Kid (1941). He was top-billed in Tahiti (1941) and he backed Bing Crosby in Birth of the Blues (1942).

In The Remarkable Andrew (1942), Peter Jackson appeared as Andrew Jackson, then Columbia partnered him with Pat O'Brien in Two Yanks, Trinidad (1942). Edward Small recruited him to star in A Gentleman After Dark (1942), and he loved Joel McCrea and Barbara Stanwyck in (1942) The Great Man's Lady (1942). He appeared on Wake Island with William Bendix and Robert Preston in 1942, when he was based on James Devereux. The film, directed by John Farrow, was a huge success, as was Dashiell Hammet's classic The Glass Key (1942). Donlevy appeared in Nightmare (1942), and MGM borrowed him to help Taylor in Stand By for Action (1942). Donlevy was the lead actor in Fritz Lang's Hangmen Also Die! (1943) Brecht, a German artist who was co-written by Bertolt Brecht and made for United Artists (1943). In Sturges' The Miracle of Morgan's Creek (1944), he appeared on as Governor McGinty.

Donlevy was given the lead role in An American Romance (1944), produced by King Vidor for MGM, in a role that was not planned for Spencer Tracy. It was a high-end production, but it was also a box-office and critical disappointment. In Duffy's Tavern (1945), he appeared as himself, and he was Trampas to Joel McCrea's The Virginian (1946). He was loaned by Walter Wanger for Canyon Passage (1946), after being the male lead in Our Hearts Were Growing Up (1946).

He was in Two Years Before the Mast (1946), at Paramount, although top billing went to Alan Ladd. Donlevy had intended to play the sadistic captain but decided against Howard da Silva instead and playing Richard Dana. Donlevy supported Ray Milland in The Trouble with Women (1947), then went to Fox to compete in a historic DA in Kiss of Death (1947) with Victor Mature and Richard Widmark. He accompanied Robert Cummings in Heaven Only Knows (1947), then moved to MGM for the Killer McCoy (1947), a hit with Mickey Rooney (1948) with Red Skelton; and Command Decision (1948) with Clark Gable. Dorothy Lamour in The Lucky Stiff (1949), then appeared in Arthur Lubin's Impact (1949).

He appeared on television in The Chevrolet Tele-Theatre (1950) and the Kansas Raiders (1950) (playing William Quantrill opposite Audie Murphy's Jesse James). He appeared on television and then moved to the United States for the War On Fire (1951), Hoodlum Empire (1952) and Women Who Were Pretty (1952) for RKO.

He created and appeared in Dangerous Assignment, a television series that he had appeared on radio from 1949 to 1954.

Donlevy concentrated on television: Robert Montgomery Presents, The Motorola Television Hour, Medallion Theatre, Climax!, Damon Runyon Theater, Studio One in Hollywood, Los Angeles, The DuPont Show of the Month, and Lux Video Theatre.

Donlevy appeared in the British science-fiction horror film The Creeping Unknown in the United States) for Hammer Films (1955), following a supporting role. The film was based on a 1953 BBC Television serial of the same name. The character had been British, but Hammer cast Donlevy was employed in an attempt to help the film reach North American audiences. Donlevy's appearance was smear-based, with Quatermass founder Nigel Kneale referring to him as "a former Hollywood heavy gone to seed." Nonetheless, the film was a success, and Donlevy returned for the sequel Quatermass 2 (Enemy From Space in the United States), which was also based on a BBC television serial, which was also based on a BBC television serial. He was the first man to play the well-known scientist on film and radio (although Scottish actor Andrew Keir later played him both on film and radio).

Donlevy appeared in A Cry in the Night (1956), one of the film's oldest (1956). He was a lead in a "B" western, Escape from Red Rock (1957) and a supporting role in Cowboy (1958). He announced that he had formed his own production firm for whom he would make a western, The Golden Spur, but that no such arrangements had been made. He appeared on television in Rawhide, Wagon Train, Hotel de Paree, The Texan, The DuPont Showdown, June Allyson, Zane Grey Theatre, and The Red Skelton Hour, as well as Girl in Room 13 (1960). In a production of The Andersonville Trials, he appeared on stage. Jerry Lewis, who appeared in The Errand Boy (1961) and Charlton Heston in The Pigeon That Took Rome (1962), and the guest on Target: The Corruptors, Saints and Sinners and The DuPont Show of the Week.

Donlevy was involved in Curse of the Fly (1965) for Robert L. Lippert (1965), and he was aided in How to Stuff a Wild Bikini (1965). "The Case of the Positive Negative Negative," Perry Mason's last episodes, he played defendant General Roger Brandon.

Donlevy's last performances included The Fat Spy (1966), an episode of Family Affair, a new American film shot in New York shot for Harry Alan Towers (1966), Waco (1966), Arizona Bushwhackers (1968), and Rogue's Gallery (1968).

Pit Stop, his last film, was released in 1969.

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