Brian Donlevy

Brian Donlevy
Brian Donlevy in Kiss of Death, 1947
Born	Waldo Brian Donlevy February 9, 1901(1901-02-09) Armagh, Northern Ireland
Died	April 5, 1972(1972-04-05) (aged 71) Woodland Hills, California, U.S.
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1924–1969
Spouse	Yvonne Grey (1928–1936) Marjorie Lane (1936–1947) Lillian Lugosi (1966–1972)

Brian Donlevy (February 9, 1901 – April 5, 1972) was an Irish-born American film actor, noted for playing tough guys from the 1930s to the 1960s. He usually appeared in supporting roles. Among his best known films are Beau Geste (1939) and The Great McGinty (1940). For his role as Sergeant Markoff in Beau Geste he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.

His obituary in The Times newspaper in the United Kingdom stated that "any consideration of the American 'film noir' of the 1940s would be incomplete without him".

Early life

Donlevy was born Waldo Brian Donlevy in Portadown, County Armagh, Ireland (now Northern Ireland) to a whiskey distiller and his wife in 1901. When he was 10 months old his parents moved to Racine, Wisconsin. When he was 9 years old, his family moved to Cleveland, Ohio. He lied about his age (he was actually 14) in 1916 so he could join the army. When Mexican rebels under Villa's command raided Columbus, NM, and killed 18 American soldiers and civilians, Gen. John J. Pershing sent American troops to invade Mexico in pursuit of Pancho Villa. Donlevy served with that expedition.

Acting career

Donlevy began his career in New York in the early 1920s, appearing in many theater productions and also winning an increasing number of silent film parts. Previously, he had modeled for the illustrator J.C. Leyendecker, who produced illustrations for the famous Arrow Collar ads. His Broadway credits included Hit the Deck and Life Begins at 8:40.

Donlevy's break came in 1935, when he was cast in the Edward G. Robinson film Barbary Coast. A large amount of film work followed, with several important parts. In 1939, he played the lead villain in Destry Rides Again and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role as the ruthless Sergeant Markoff in Beau Geste, although the Oscar went to Thomas Mitchell for Stagecoach.

The following year, he played the role for which he is perhaps best remembered, that of McGinty in The Great McGinty, a role he reprised four years later in The Miracle of Morgan's Creek. In 1942, Donlevy starred in Wake Island and The Glass Key. In 1955, he played the lead in the British science-fiction horror film The Quatermass Xperiment (called The Creeping Unknown in the US) for the Hammer Films company, playing the lead role of Professor Bernard Quatermass. The film was based on a 1953 BBC Television serial of the same name. The character had been British, but Hammer cast Donlevy, who was born in County Armagh, Ireland, and raised in the United States, in an attempt to help sell the film to North American audiences. Quatermass creator Nigel Kneale disliked Donlevy's portrayal, referring to Donlevy as "a former Hollywood heavy gone to seed". Nonetheless, the film version was a success and Donlevy returned for the sequel, Quatermass 2 (Enemy From Space in the US), in 1957, also based on a BBC television serial. This made Donlevy the only man ever to play the famous scientist on screen twice, although later Scottish actor Andrew Keir would play him two times, once on film and later on the radio.

Throughout his film career, Donlevy also did several radio shows, including a reprise of The Great McGinty. He played the lead character in Dangerous Assignment between 1949 and 1954, taking the series to TV in 1952. He featured in a number of films over the following years until his death. He also appeared in a variety of television series from the late 1940s until the mid-1960s, guest-starring on such popular programs as Crossroads, Perry Mason, Wagon Train and Rawhide,. In 1957, he appeared in a CBS production of the A. J. Cronin's Beyond This Place. In 1960, he appeared as John Ridges in the episode "Escape" of CBS's anthology series The DuPont Show with June Allyson, with Sylvia Sidney portraying his wife. His last film role was in The Winner, released in 1969.

Personal life

Donlevy was married three times: first to Yvonne Grey from 1928–36, then to actress Marjorie Lane from 1936–1947, and finally to Lillian Arch Lugosi (the ex-wife of Bela Lugosi, famous for playing Dracula) from 1966 until his death in 1972.

Donlevy died from throat cancer on April 5, 1972 at the Motion Picture Country Hospital in Woodland Hills, California. He was survived by his wife and a daughter, Judy Donlevy, by his second wife. His ashes were scattered over Santa Monica Bay.

Partial filmography

• Barbary Coast (1935)
• Mary Burns, Fugitive (1935)
• Strike Me Pink (1936)
• Crack-Up (1936)
• In Old Chicago (1937)
• This Is My Affair (1937)
• Jesse James (1939)
• Union Pacific (1939)
• Beau Geste (1939)
• Allegheny Uprising (1939)
• Destry Rides Again (1939)
• The Great McGinty (1940)
• Brigham Young (1940)
• When the Daltons Rode (1940)
• Billy the Kid (1941)
• The Birth of the Blues (1941)
• Wake Island (1942)
• The Great Man's Lady (1942)
• The Glass Key (1942)
• Stand by for Action (1942)
• Hangmen Also Die! (1943)
• The Miracle of Morgan's Creek (1944)
• Two Years Before the Mast (1946)
• The Virginian (1946)
• Canyon Passage (1946)
• The Beginning or the End (1947)
• Kiss of Death (1947)
• Heaven Only Knows (1947)
• Song of Scheherazade (1947)
• Command Decision (1948)
• A Southern Yankee (1948)
• Impact (1949)
• Kansas Raiders (1950)
• The Big Combo (1955)
• The Quatermass Xperiment (1955) - USA title The Creeping Unknown
• Quatermass 2 (1957) - originally titled Quatermass II, Enemy from Space; known in USA as The Enemy from Space
• Cowboy (1958)
• Never So Few (1959)
• The Errand Boy (1961)
• Curse of the Fly (1965)
• How to Stuff a Wild Bikini (1965)
• Waco (1966)
• Gamera (1965)
• The Fat Spy (1966)
• Five Golden Dragons (1967)

References

The Birth of the Blues (1941)

External links

• Brian Donlevy at the Internet Movie Database Retrieved on 2009-02-19
• Brian Donlevy at the Internet Broadway Database
• "Brian Donlevy". Find a Grave. http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=6201945. Retrieved 2009-02-19.