Bruce Cabot

Bruce Cabot
Cabot in a scene from the 1947 western Angel and the Badman.
Born	Etienne Pelissier Jacques de Bujac April 20, 1904(1904-04-20) Carlsbad, New Mexico, USA
Died	May 3, 1972(1972-05-03) (aged 68) Woodland Hills, California, USA
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1931–71
Spouse	Adrienne Ames (1933–37, divorced); Francesca De Scaffa (?–1951, divorced); Gracy Mary Mather Smith (divorced)

Bruce Cabot (April 20, 1904 – May 3, 1972) was an American film actor, best remembered as Jack Driscoll in King Kong (1933). He is also known for his roles in films such as the sixth version of Last of the Mohicans, Fritz Lang's Fury and the western Dodge City.

Early life

Cabot was born Etienne Pelissier Jacques de Bujac in Carlsbad, New Mexico, to French Army Colonel Etienne de Bujac and his wife Julia Armandine Graves, who died shortly after giving birth to him. Leaving the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee without graduating, Cabot worked at a many jobs, including as a sailor, an insurance salesman, oil worker, surveyor, prize fighter, sold cars, handled real estate and also worked a slaughterhouse. A meeting with a film magnate started his screen career.

Early career

Cabot appeared in nearly one hundred feature films. He made his debut in 1931 in Heroes of the Flames. He tested for the lead role of The Ringo Kid in John Ford's western Stagecoach (1939), but John Wayne got the part.

He played a soldier who seduced a naive woman (portrayed by Irene Dunne) and got her pregnant as he left for the war, in the 1933 production Ann Vickers. He then starred in the 1933 blockbuster King Kong, which became an enormous success and established Cabot as a star. Cabot also played villains, appearing as a gangster boss in Let 'Em Have It (1936) and as the Huron warrior Magua opposite Randolph Scott in The Last of the Mohicans (1936). He starred with Spencer Tracy, playing the leader of a lynch mob in Fritz Lang's first Hollywood film, Fury (1936), and with Errol Flynn in Michael Curtiz's epic Western Dodge City, which became one of Warner Bros.'s biggest hits. A consistent box office draw, Cabot appeared in many movies at many studios before leaving Hollywood to serve in World War II.

During and after World War II

Cabot was a first lieutenant in the U.S. Army Air Forces and was as an Air Transport Command operations officer in Tunis.^{[citation needed]} It is alleged he was implicated by the Army Counter-Intelligence Corps in a gold smuggling ring that shipped Nazi gold to Brazil after the war's end.

Cabot returned to Hollywood after his discharge. He met John Wayne on the set of Angel and the Badman (1947) and they became close friends. Cabot played supporting roles in many of Wayne's movies. They appeared together in ten additional films: The Comancheros (1961), Hatari! (1962), McLintock! (1963), In Harm's Way (1965), The War Wagon (1967), The Green Berets (1968), Hellfighters (1968), The Undefeated (1969), Chisum (1970), and Big Jake (1971).

Cabot's final screen appearance was in the 1971 James Bond film Diamonds Are Forever.

Personal life and death

Cabot was married three times, to actresses Adrienne Ames and Francesca De Scaffa, and finally to Mary Mather Smith. He was famously good friends with Errol Flynn but they fell out during the production of the unfinished William Tell. Flynn was producing the film and asked Cabot, whom he described as "an old, old pal," to play in it. When Flynn's financial backers defaulted, production halted, leaving Flynn broke in Rome. Cabot, in an attempt to get paid, had Flynn's and his wife Patrice Wymore's personal cars attached. Flynn wrote angrily in his autobiography of what he termed Cabot's "betrayal."

Bruce Cabot died in 1972 in Woodland Hills, California from lung cancer and was buried in his hometown, Carlsbad, New Mexico.

Selected filmography

Cabot and Gene Tierney in a scene from the 1941 film Sundown.

Cabot and Maureen O'Hara in a scene from the 1963 film McLintock!.

• Ann Vickers (1933)
• King Kong (1933)
• Finishing School (1934)
• Murder on the Blackboard (1934)
• Night Alarm (1934)
• Fury (1936)
• The Robin Hood of El Dorado (1936)
• The Last of the Mohicans (1936)
• The Bad Man of Brimstone (1937)
• Dodge City (1939)
• Traitor Spy (1939)
• Captain Caution (1940)
• Susan and God (1940)
• The Flame of New Orleans (1941)
• Sundown (1941)
• Silver Queen (1942)
• The Desert Song (1943)
• Divorce (1945)
• Fallen Angel (1945)
• Angel and the Badman (1947)
• Fancy Pants (1950)
• The Best of the Badmen (1951)
• Kid Monk Baroni (1952)
• Lost in Alaska (1952)
• The Quiet American (1958)
• The Love Specialist (La ragazza del palio) (1958)
• The Sheriff of Fractured Jaw (1958)
• Guardatele ma non toccatele (1959)
• John Paul Jones (1959)
• Goliath and the Barbarians (Il terrore dei barbari) (1959)
• The Comancheros (1961)
• Hatari! (1962)
• McLintock! (1963)
• In Harm's Way (1965)
• The War Wagon (1967)
• The Green Berets (1968)
• Hellfighters (1968)
• The Undefeated (1969)
• Chisum (1970)
• WUSA (1970)
• Big Jake (1971)
• Diamonds Are Forever (1971)

External links

• Bruce Cabot at the Internet Movie Database
• Bruce Cabot at AllRovi
• Bruce Cabot at Find a Grave