Dean Jagger
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Ira Dean Jagger (November 7,
1903 – February 5, 1991) was a film actor who received an Academy Award for his role in Henry King's Twelve O'Clock High
(1949).[1]
Career
Born in Columbus Grove, Ohio,
Jagger made his film debut in The Woman from Hell
(1929) with Mary Astor. He became a successful character
actor, without becoming a major star, and appeared in almost 100 films in a
career that lasted until shortly before his death.
Jagger made his
breakthrough to major roles in film with his portrayal of Brigham Young in Brigham Young
(1940).[2] According to George D. Pyper, a technical consultant on the
film who had personally known Brigham Young, said that Jagger not only
resembled Young, he also spoke like him and had many of his mannerisms.[2]
Jagger then
played prominent roles in Western Union
(1941), Sister Kenny
(1946) and Raoul Walsh's Western neo-noir Pursued (1947).
He received an Academy
Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in Twelve O'Clock High
(1949). In the film he played the middle-aged adjutant Major Stovall, who acts
as an advisor to the commander General Savage (Gregory Peck), and is tasked with writing letters
to the next of kin of slain airmen. He appeared in the biblical epic The Robe (1953) as the weaver Justus of Cana,
"whose words were like his work: simple, lasting, and strong," as
Marcellus Gallio (Richard Burton) put
it later in the film.
He was the
retired general honored by Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye in the musical White Christmas
(1954) and a helpless sheriff in the iconic Bad Day at Black Rock
(1955) directed by John Eliot Sturges.
For the 1956
British science-fiction film X the Unknown, there was controversy when the
actor refused to work with director Joseph Losey on this film because Losey was on
the Hollywood blacklist.
Losey was removed from the project after a few days shooting and replaced with Leslie Norman.
Jagger
portrayed the father of Elvis Presley in
1958's King Creole. He was the traveling manager for
an evangelist played by Jean Simmons in the
acclaimed 1960 drama Elmer Gantry,
which won three Academy Awards.
In 1961 he
portrayed Sala Post in Delmer Daves's film
drama Parrish as a
tobacco plantation owner in Connecticut. The film
also starred Troy Donahue, Claudette Colbert, Karl Malden and Connie Stevens.
In 1969 Jagger
played "The Highwayman" in John Huston's The Kremlin Letter.
In 1971's Vanishing Point,
the actor made a brief but memorable appearance as a prospector in the desert
with a knack for handling rattlesnakes.
Jagger also
achieved success in the television series
Mr. Novak, receiving Emmy Award nominations for his role, in 1964 and
1965. He won a Daytime Emmy award
for a guest appearance in the religious series This Is the Life.
He did dozens of TV dramatic roles, including an episode of The Twilight Zone called "Static."
In an early episode of the television series Kung Fu
Jagger appeared as Caine's grandfather who wants little to do with him, but
starts Caine on his series long search for his half brother Danny. One of
Jagger's last television roles was a guest appearance on St. Elsewhere.
In later years,
Jagger appeared in made-for-TV movie
roles in The Glass House (1972, ABC) which also starred Alan Alda and Vic Morrow. The screenplay was partially based on
a story by Truman Capote. Jagger
played state prison Warden Auerbach.
In 1970 he
performed memorably in Brotherhood Of The Bell, a made-for-TV movie with
Glenn Ford. In 1973, he was in another TV movie,
a pilot for a proposed series called "The Stranger,"
a science-fiction film starring Glenn Corbett as an astronaut stranded on an
alien planet, with Jagger as a leader of a corrupt deceptive government known
as "The Perfect Order". Lew Ayres and Cameron Mitchell
also starred. None of the major U.S. networks picked it up as a weekly series.
Dean Jagger has
a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame,
for his contribution to motion pictures, at 1523 Vine Street.
Personal life
He dropped out
of school several times before finally attending Wabash College. While at Wabash he was a member
of Lambda Chi Alpha
fraternity. He worked as a teacher before studying acting at Chicago's Lyceum
Art Conservatory. Before making his first movie "in 1929, Jagger had
worked in stock, vaudeville and radio."[3]
Jagger was
baptized a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1972.[4][5]
He died from heart disease in Santa Monica,
California. He was 87, and was buried in the small town of Hughson, California,
at Lakewood Memorial Park.
The entire wiki link can be found
at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dean_Jagger
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