James Howard Dunn (November 2, 1901September 1, 1967), billed as Jimmy Dunn in his early career, was an American actor and vaudeville performer. The son of a New York stockbroker, he initially worked in his father's firm but was more interested in theater. He landed jobs as an extra in short films produced by Paramount Pictures in its Long Island studio, and also performed with several stock theater companies, culminating with playing the male lead in the 1929 Broadway musical Sweet Adeline. This performance attracted the attention of film studio executives, and in 1931, Fox Film signed him to a Hollywood contract.
His screen debut in the 1931 film Bad Girl made him an overnight box-office star and he was cast as the lead in a succession of romantic drama and comedy films. In 1934, he co-starred with Shirley Temple in her first three films. In 1935, at the height of his popularity, he broke his studio contract two years before it expired and became a free agent. With musicals on the wane in the late 1930s, he was cast in a series of B movies and struggled with alcoholism in his personal life. In 1945, having not worked for a major studio for five years, he was selected by director Elia Kazan for the role of Johnny Nolan, the dreamy alcoholic father in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1945), which earned him the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.
The Oscar did not advance his film career, however, and while he still found roles in Broadway productions, he became a character actor on television. He had a regular role in the hit sitcom It's a Great Life from 1954 to 1956, and guest-starred in dozens of episodes of popular television series from the 1950s through mid-1960s. In 1960, his contributions to film and television were recognized with two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Early life James Howard Dunn was born on November 2, 1901, in Manhattan. His parents, Ralph H. Dunn (c. 1875–1943), a member of the New York Stock Exchange, and mother Jessie L. Archer (c. 1871–1946) had married in January 1901. He was their only child. He was of Irish descent.
In December 1905, while wintering with his parents at Shippan Point, Connecticut, the four-year-old Dunn had a near-accident, reported in The New York Times, when a bulldog belonging to his babysitter lunged at him. He was unhurt. Dunn grew up in New Rochelle, New York, and attended school there. He often skipped high school classes to hang around film studios in the upper Bronx.
Early film and stage career 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 touring company of the musical Sweet Adeline, opposite Helen Morgan.
Success in Hollywood
Dunn's Broadway performance attracted the attention of film studio executives. In 1931, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), which conducted its screen tests at Fox Film's Astoria Studios in Queens, New York, called Dunn in for a screen test. A Fox Film employee asked if they could also test Dunn, and had him read a scene from the stage production of Bad Girl. While MGM was not impressed with their result, Fox director Frank Borzage liked Dunn's screen test and wanted to cast him in his upcoming film version of Bad Girl. Dunn signed a film contract with Fox a few days later and relocated to Hollywood; his mother came to live with him the following year.
Dunn made his screen debut in Bad Girl (1931), which catapulted him and co-star Sally Eilers to "overnight fame". A Baltimore Evening Sun review wrote: "Without Dunn, Bad Girl would be just another movie. With him, it's something that provokes chuckles, tears, laughs, sighs and everything else that a nice little movie hopes to provoke". The Los Angeles Times called Dunn's star turn "triumphant", asserting that "no performance has lately equaled the impression made by this rather plain young man, who, aside from having a likable personality, scores a major hit by his ability as an actor".
Fox immediately re-teamed Dunn and Eilers in Over the Hill (1931), followed by Dance Team (1932), Sailor's Luck (1933), and Hold Me Tight (1933). Dunn also played the lead in Sob Sister (1931), Society Girl (1932), and Hello, Sister! (1933). By the end of 1932, Dunn was considered "one of the top 10 box office draws". By the end of 1933, he was being referred to as "America's boy friend".
Shirley Temple co-star
In 1934, Dunn appeared in seven films for Fox. Three of them were also the first three film appearances of six-year-old Shirley Temple. In Stand Up and Cheer!, Dunn and Temple play a father and daughter who perform in one song-and-dance sequence. Rather than have the young girl learn a new routine, the producers had Temple teach Dunn the steps to a tap-dance routine she had learned in her dancing school. Their memorable performance prompted studio executives to immediately cast them in a follow-up film, Baby Take a Bow, a remake of the 1928 silent film Square Crooks. Temple again plays Dunn's daughter in this film, whose title was the name of Dunn and Temple's song in Stand Up and Cheer! Their third film pairing was in Bright Eyes, a vehicle specifically written for Temple and co-starring Dunn as a bachelor pilot and friend of Temple's character's deceased father who seeks to adopt her. Temple sings "On the Good Ship Lollipop" aboard Dunn's character's airplane in this film. Later that same year, Temple was cast in a small part as Dunn's neighbor in Change of Heart.
Dunn and Temple worked well together. Temple later said that the day they began shooting their first film "was the start of my great romance with Jimmy Dunn". She also appreciated the fact that Dunn treated her as a peer. Dunn admitted that he was initially worried about playing opposite Temple, saying: "All actors dislike working with children. The kids usually steal most of your scenes, or run away with the picture entirely". Despite this, he admired Temple's professionalism and professed to being one of her fans. Temple received top billing in each of their films, and her career soon eclipsed his.
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.
Academy Award winner
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:
Little Miss Garner, with her plain face and lank hair, is Francie Nolan to the life. And James Dunn plays her father, Johnny Nolan, with deep and sympathetic tenderness. In the radiant performance by these two actors of a dreamy adoration between father and child is achieved a pictorial demonstration of emotion that is sublimely eloquent.
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).
Return to the stage