James Dunn

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After graduation, Dunn tried his hand at sales, selling lunch wagons and also becoming an automobile demonstrator. He worked for three years in his father's brokerage firm. But his real love was the theater. In 1927 he left his father's employ to join a small theatrical troupe. He later said in a 1934 interview: "I wasn't at all sure I'd be a hit, or even an actor good enough to obtain reasonably steady work. But that didn't make a lot of difference. I could not see any other career and I knew I wouldn't be happy unless I tried it". He also sought out jobs as an extra in short films at Paramount Pictures' Long Island studios. He joined a stock theater company out of Englewood, New Jersey, for a 37-week engagement, and performed with another company, the Permanent Players, at the Playhouse Theatre in Winnipeg, Canada, for a 22-week run. With the latter troupe, he was said to be "highly popular" among theatre-goers for his "pleasing, breezy personality". Upon his return to New York, he landed the male lead in the 1929 Broadway musical Sweet Adeline, opposite Helen Morgan.

Career decline

During his five years as a contract player with Fox, Dunn appeared in 30 films. In 1935, at the height of his popularity, Dunn broke his studio contract two years before its expiration. He was about to start filming a remake of The Song and Dance Man, but the project was shelved due to Fox's merger with Twentieth Century Pictures. Dunn claimed he was "dissatisfied with pictures recently given me – except those with Shirley Temple". He was reportedly reimbursed for the remainder of his contract.

In 1936, Dunn signed a two-picture deal with Republic Pictures, with Hearts in Bondage being his first starring turn for the studio. With musicals on the wane in the late 1930s, Dunn's career slumped as he found roles in a series of "mediocre comedies and melodramas".

His prospects were also hurt by his problem with alcoholism. He admitted to a Los Angeles Times journalist in 1945 that he had often gone out for a few drinks with colleagues in the middle of the day while working on the Fox lot. According to Dorothy Lee, who worked alongside him on Take a Chance (1933), Dunn and co-star Lillian Roth took turns getting drunk during the production. Lee said: "They were both darling people ... when they were sober. When they began drinking heavily, they couldn't work at all. As soon as Jimmy sobered up, Lillian would go on a bender. They shot around them as much as they could, but they had scenes together and it was difficult to get them on the set at the same time. So I wound up staying in New York longer than I expected". During the filming of George White's 1935 Scandals, shooting started in the late morning to accommodate Dunn and other members of the cast who frequently imbibed. As drinking affected Dunn's performances in the late 1930s and early 1940s, he was regarded as "unemployable" by the major film studios.

In 1940, Dunn returned to Broadway for an 87-week run in the hit musical Panama Hattie with Ethel Merman, to positive reviews.

Dunn had not worked for a major studio for five years when he was called in to screen-test for the role of Johnny Nolan, the dreamy alcoholic father in the 20th Century Fox production A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1945). Dunn had returned to Hollywood in 1944 to seek film roles but had not applied for this part for fear of another rejection. However, a friend, actress and dancer Gloria Grafton, urged casting directors involved in the extensive talent search to hire him. Director Elia Kazan said he chose Dunn for the role because drinking had impacted the actor's career, and because he saw "a trace of pain in Dunn's face that indicated he had 'failed the test of life' and [Kazan] wanted to bring that 'pain' to the screen". Dunn reportedly drew from his own experiences for his characterization.

Critics widely hailed Dunn's performance as his "finest". The Pittsburgh Sun-Telegraph wrote: "Mr. Dunn's Johnny Nolan has the mark of greatness about it, and he has never done before, nor ever will again, anything of more sublime conviction". Bosley Crowther of The New York Times commended the strong screen chemistry achieved by Dunn and Peggy Ann Garner, who played his daughter Francie:

At the 18th Academy Awards ceremony, Dunn won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance.

Winning the Oscar, however, did not revive his film prospects, and acting jobs were slow in coming. He returned to the role of an alcoholic father in Killer McCoy (1947) opposite Mickey Rooney, to complimentary reviews. His last film performance for nearly a decade was in the short film A Wonderful Life (1951), produced for the Christian film industry. Dunn appeared in four films in the 1960s, including another role as an alcoholic in The Bramble Bush (1960).

Television career

In 1949, Dunn pursued a new direction as a character actor on television. He guest-starred in dozens of episodes of popular television series in the 1950s through mid-1960s, including Bonanza, Rawhide, Route 66, Ben Casey, and The Virginian. He had a regular role in the popular sitcom It's a Great Life, which aired 78 episodes from 1954 to 1956. Dunn played Earl Morgan, the deadbeat brother-in-law of the main character, Amy Morgan (Frances Bavier), who was always concocting get-rich-quick schemes to interest Amy's tenants, Steve Connors (William Bishop) and Denny Davis (Michael O'Shea). The three male comedians had good rapport and often ad-libbed their lines. The role required Dunn to play slapstick, which he had only done previously on stage.

In 1962, Dunn played a clown in full makeup and costume in an episode of Follow the Sun, and sang "On the Good Ship Lollipop" from his 1934 film Bright Eyes. In 1963 he played the character of P. J. Cunningham, the manager-driver for a music band led by Bobby Rydell, in the unsold Desilu half-hour television pilot Swingin' Together.

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