Victor Andrew de Bier Everleigh McLaglen (10 December 1886 – 7 November 1959) was a British-American actor and boxer.Obituary Variety, 11 November 1959, page 79. His film career spanned from the early 1920s through the 1950s, initially as a leading man, though he was better known for his character acting. He was a well-known member of John Ford’s Stock Company, appearing in 12 of the director’s films, seven of which co-starred John Wayne.
For his performance as a treacherous Irish Republican in the 1935 film The Informer, he won the Academy Award for Best Actor, and was nominated for Best Supporting Actor for his role in The Quiet Man, both directed by Ford. In 1960, he was posthumously given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Early life and education McLaglen claimed to have been born in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, although his birth certificate records 505 Commercial Road, Stepney in the East End of London as his true birthplace. His father, Andrew Charles Albert Mclaglen, was a missionary in the Free Protestant Church in South Africa, and was later a bishop of the Free Protestant Episcopal Church of England.Victor McLaglen's father – new revelations; Peter Anson BISHOPS AT LARGE (1964) has further information on Bishop McLaglen.
The McLaglen family is ultimately of Scottish origin, descended from a MacLachlan who settled in South Africa in the 19th century. The name was rendered into McLaglen from Dutch pronunciation. A.C.A. McLaglen was christened Andries Carel Albertus McLaglen in Cape Town on 4 April 1851.
Victor had eight brothers and a sister. Four of his brothers also became actors: Arthur, an actor and sculptor, and Clifford, Cyril, and Kenneth.Victor McLaglen, Query, invisionzone.com, 19 March 2006.
His other siblings included Frederick, Lewis, and a sister, Lily. Another brother, Sydney Temple Leopold McLaglen, who appeared in one film, gained notoriety prior to World War I as a showman and self-proclaimed world jujutsu champion,"The Science of Jiujitsu". Journal of Non-lethal Combatives. December 2002. who authored a book on the subject.Noble, Graham. Early Ju-jutsu: The Challenges, Dragon-Tsunami.org; accessed 17 December 2017.
Victor moved with his family to South Africa for a time, where his father was Bishop of Claremont.
Army service and boxing career McLaglen left home at 14 to join the British Army with the intention of fighting in the Second Boer War,Daley, Alex (2018) "Hollywood Heavyweight", Boxing News, 13 September 2018, p. 44 but much to his chagrin, he was stationed at Windsor Castle in the Life Guards and was later forced to leave the army when his true age was discovered.
Four years later, he moved to Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, where he became a local celebrity,Winnipeg's 'Quiet' Man Manitoba Historical Society. earning a living as a wrestler and heavyweight boxer, with several notable wins in the ring. He also briefly served as a constable in the Winnipeg Police Force in 1907.See the Winnipeg Police Museum, Police Commission Books.
One of his most famous fights was against heavyweight champion Jack Johnson in a six-round exhibition bout at the Vancouver Athletic Club on 10 March 1909.Victor McLaglen, Cyber Boxing Zone; accessed 17 December 2017. This was Johnson's first bout since winning the heavyweight title from Tommy Burns. Between bouts, McLaglen toured with a circus, which offered $25 to anyone who could go three rounds with him.
He returned to Britain in 1913, and during the First World War was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the 10th Battalion, Middlesex Regiment, on 19 June 1915.London Gazette, 18 June 1915. He landed at Basra on 10 August 1916 and served as an assistant provost marshal in Mesopotamia, ending the war as a temporary captain. (He may also have seen some service with the Royal Irish Fusiliers.)McLaglen medal card, The National Archives, Kew, file WO 372/13/36272.McLaglen thread at Great War Forum. He continued boxing, and was named heavyweight champion of the British Army in 1918.
After the war, he continued boxing, including a defeat at the hands of British champion Frank Goddard. His final fight was a loss by knockout to Arthur Townley in October 1920. He finished his professional career with a record of 16 wins, eight losses, and a draw.
Acting career
Britain McLaglen was visiting a sporting club when spotted by a film producer who was looking for a boxer to play the lead in a film, The Call of the Road (1920). Although McLaglen had never acted before, he auditioned and got the part.
He was in the adventure films: Corinthian Jack (1921) and The Prey of the Dragon (1921). He followed it with The Sport of Kings (1921). Donald Crisp cast him in The Glorious Adventure (1922) and he was in A Romance of Old Baghdad (1922), Little Brother of God (1922), A Sailor Tramp (1922), The Crimson Circle (1922), The Romany (1922), and Heartstrings (1922).
McLaglen played leads in M'Lord of the White Road (1923), In the Blood (1923), The Boatswain's Mate (1923), Women and Diamonds (1924), and The Gay Corinthian (1924). He was in The Passionate Adventure (1924), co-written by Alfred Hitchcock, and The Beloved Brute (1924), The Hunted Woman (1925), and Percy (1925).
Hollywood McLaglen's career took a surprise turn in 1925 when he moved to Hollywood. He became a popular character actor, with a particular knack for playing drunks. He also usually played Irishmen, leading many film fans to mistakenly assume he was Irish rather than English. McLaglen played one of the titular characters of The Unholy Three (1925) in Lon Chaney Sr.'s original silent version of the macabre crime drama.
McLaglen had a support part in Winds of Chance (1925), directed by Frank Lloyd, then made The Fighting Heart (1925) at Fox, directed by John Ford. Ford would have a major impact on McLaglen's career. McLaglen was in The Isle of Retribution (1925), Men of Steel (1926), and Beau Geste (1926), playing Hank in the last.
What Price Glory? and stardom
McLaglen was the top-billed leading man in director Raoul Walsh's First World War classic What Price Glory? (1926) with Edmund Lowe and Dolores del Río. The film was a huge success, making over $2 million, and Fox signed McLaglen to a long-term contract.
Fox put McLaglen in The Loves of Carmen (1927) with del Río, directed by Walsh. He was top-billed in Mother Machree (1928), directed by Ford. He was top-billed in A Girl in Every Port (1928), co-starring Robert Armstrong and Louise Brooks. He starred in Hangman's House (1928) for Ford, a romantic drama set in Ireland, and The River Pirate (1928), and Captain Lash (1929). McLaglen then made two films for Ford: Strong Boy (1929) and The Black Watch (1929).
Talking movies
McLaglen was one of many Fox stars who had cameos in the musical Happy Days (1929). He was reunited with Edmund Lowe and Raoul Walsh in a sequel to What Price Glory?, The Cock-Eyed World (1929), which was another huge success at the box office.
McLaglen made a musical with Walsh, Hot for Paris (1930), then made On the Level (1930). A Devil with Women (1931) was a buddy comedy with Humphrey Bogart in which Bogart played McLaglen's sidekick. He was borrowed by Paramount for Dishonored (1931), starring Marlene Dietrich and directed by Joseph von Sternberg. He was in Not Exactly Gentlemen (1931) and had a cameo in the short film The Stolen Jools (1931). McLaglen, Lowe, and Walsh reunited for a second sequel to What Price Glory?, Women of All Nations (1931). He was in Annabelle's Affairs (1931), Wicked (1931), The Gay Caballero (1932), and Devil's Lottery (1932). McLaglen and Lowe went to Paramount for Guilty as Hell (1932).
Back at Fox, he was in Rackety Rax (1932) then made a fourth What Price Glory? film with Lowe, Hot Pepper (1933). McLaglen starred in Laughing at Life (1933) and returned to Britain to make Dick Turpin (1933).
McLaglen starred opposite Boris Karloff's crazed religious fanatic in John Ford's The Lost Patrol (1934) at RKO, a picture about desperate soldiers gradually losing their minds fighting Arabs in the desert of what is now Iraq.
At Paramount, McLaglen and Lowe were in No More Women (1934) (a non-What Price Glory? film), then McLaglen made Wharf Angel (1934). He was one of many stars in Murder at the Vanities (1934). At Columbia, McLaglen starred in The Captain Hates the Sea (1934) with John Gilbert. Lowe and he reunited at Fox for Under Pressure (1935) (directed by Walsh) and The Great Hotel Murder (1935).
The Informer
Another highlight of his career was winning an Academy Award for Best Actor for his role in Ford's The Informer (1935), shot at RKO, based on a novel of the same name by Liam O'Flaherty. In 1945, McLaglen said that winning the Oscar had no economic benefit and that he did not know where it was because his son had taken it to college for use as a paperweight.
Back at Fox – now 20th Century Fox – McLaglen made Professional Soldier (1935) with Freddie Bartholomew. At Paramount, he was teamed with Mae West in Klondike Annie (1936), then he went back to Fox for Under Two Flags (1936) with Rosalind Russell and Ronald Colman.
McLaglen starred in The Magnificent Brute (1936) for Universal, Sea Devils (1937) for RKO, and Nancy Steele Is Missing! (1937) for Fox. He stayed at Fox to support Robert Taylor in This Is My Affair (1937), and notably, Shirley Temple in Wee Willie Winkie (1937) directed by John Ford at Fox. He had a cameo in Ali Baba Goes to Town (1937). Brian Donlevy and he made a comedy Battle of Broadway (1938) at Fox, then he went to Universal for The Devil's Party (1938).
Gunga Din
McLaglen returned to Britain for We're Going to Be Rich (1938) with Gracie Fields. Back in Hollywood, he did some films for RKO: Pacific Liner (1939) and Gunga Din (1939). The latter, with Cary Grant and Douglas Fairbanks Jr., was an adventure epic loosely based on Rudyard Kipling's poem that served as the template decades later for Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984).
He supported Nelson Eddy in Let Freedom Ring (1939) at MGM, and was in Ex-Champ (1939). He supported Brian Aherne in Captain Fury (1939), and starred in Full Confession (1939) for John Farrow at RKO, the latter film being somewhat a remake of The Informer.
At Universal, McLaglen teamed with Basil Rathbone in Rio (1939) and Jackie Cooper in The Big Guy (1939). He was top-billed in Edward Small's South Seas adventure, South of Pago Pago (1940). He remained top-billed for Diamond Frontier (1940) and Broadway Limited (1941).
McLaglen and Lowe reprised their roles from What Price Glory? in the radio program Captain Flagg and Sergeant Quirt, broadcast on the Blue Network (28 September 1941 – 25 January 1942, and on NBC 13 February 1942 – 3 April 1942).
McLaglen and Lowe then played basically the same roles, but under different names in Call Out the Marines (1942) at RKO. He starred in Powder Town (1942), and went to Fox to support Gene Tierney in China Girl (1942). He was one of many stars in Forever and a Day (1943), and had a support role in Tampico (1943) and Roger Touhy, Gangster (1944). McLaglen was a villain in Bob Hope's The Princess and the Pirate (1944), and he was in Rough, Tough and Ready (1945).
Supporting actor McLaglen began to be exclusively a supporting actor, with parts in Love, Honor and Goodbye (1945), Whistle Stop (1946) with George Raft and Ava Gardner, Calendar Girl (1947), The Michigan Kid (1947), and The Foxes of Harrow (1947).
McLaglen was back with John Ford for Fort Apache (1948) with John Wayne and Henry Fonda. It was very much a support part, as a cavalry sergeant, but so well received that McLaglen basically reprised it in the other two films in the Ford-Wayne "cavalry trilogy": She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949) and Rio Grande (1950) with Maureen O'Hara and Ben Johnson.