Wallace Ford (born Samuel Grundy Jones; 12 February 1898 – 11 June 1966) was an English–American vaudevillian, stage performer and screen actor. Usually playing wise-cracking characters, he combined a tough but friendly-faced demeanor with a small but powerful, stocky physique.
Early life Ford was born Samuel Grundy JonesEngland and Wales Civil Registration Birth Index, January to March 1898, Bolton, Lancashire in Bolton, Lancashire, England, into a working-class family of limited means who left him in the care of an aunt and uncle. At the age of three, his uncle and aunt left him with Barnardo's orphanage because they were unable to maintain him and their own children. When he was seven, he and other children from similar backgrounds were shipped to Canada to new foster families as a part of the British Empire's ongoing programme to populate the territory.
Jones was adopted by a family in Manitoba. He was ill-treated and became a serial runaway, being resettled several times with different families by the Canadian authorities. According to his own account, at the age of 11 he ran away for the last time and joined a vaudeville traveling troupe touring Canada called the Winnipeg Kiddies, from which he acquired his initial training as a performer.
In 1914, 16-year-old Jones and another youth named Wallace Ford decided to head south to the United States to seek their fortunes, riding a freight train illicitly. During the trip, Ford was killed beneath the wheels of a train. Later, Jones adopted as his stage name the name of his dead traveling companion.Lest We Forget
Acting career
Following his service as a trooper in the army at Fort Riley, Kansas, with the United States Cavalry during World War I, he became a vaudeville stage actor in an American stock company. In 1919, he performed in an adaptation of Booth Tarkington's Seventeen, which played to full houses in Chicago for several months, before transferring to a successful run on Broadway in New York City.Hal Erickson, Allmovie biography on Wallace Ford Ford became a successful Broadway performer through the Roaring Twenties, appearing in multiple productions, including the lead role in the Broadway smash hit Abie's Irish Rose.
In motion pictures, Ford made his credited debut with Possessed in 1931, appearing with Clark Gable and Joan Crawford, and the next year he was given the lead in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's Freaks, directed by Tod Browning. Ford went on to have an extensive career over 30 years, appearing in more than 150 films, with lead roles in the 1930s and '40s in Hollywood B movies such as The Rogues' Tavern (1936), Murder by Invitation (1941), and Roar of the Press (1941) and supporting roles in larger feature films such as The Lost Patrol (1934), The Informer (1935), Shadow of a Doubt (1943), Spellbound (1945), and Dead Reckoning (1947).
In 1938, Ford returned to the Broadway stage to play the role of George in the original production of Of Mice and Men. In 1945, Ford appeared in the film Blood on the Sun alongside Jimmy Cagney, whose physique and acting style resembled his own. In the late 1940s and early 1950s, he transitioned into a character actor, appearing as a regular performer in the newly fashionable Western genre, and in multiple John Ford productions as one of his preferred support players.
In the latter stage of his career, during the 1950s and early 1960s, Ford performed increasingly on television. He had a recurring role in the Western series The Deputy starring Henry Fonda and his final appearance on the "small screen" was on The Andy Griffith Show in 1964, playing Roger Hanover, Aunt Bee's old flame, who unsuccessfully attempts to obtain a payoff from Andy by implying an engagement to Bee if Andy refuses. The next year, he appeared in A Patch of Blue, for which he received a Golden Laurel nomination. Ford's performance as Ole Pa in A Patch of Blue proved to be the final role of his extensive acting career. He died just six months after the film’s release.
Personal life Ford became a naturalized United States citizen on 8 May 1942; by this act, he also legally changed his name from Samuel Grundy to Wallace Ford. He met his future wife, Martha Haworth, in 1922 while they were performing together on Broadway in Abie's Irish Rose, she being a chorus girl at the time. They had one child, a daughter named Patricia (1927–2005).
After the death of his wife in February 1966, Ford moved into the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital at Woodland Hills, California, and died in the hospital there of heart failure four months later. His body was buried in an unmarked grave at Culver City's Holy Cross Cemetery.Celebrities in Los Angeles Cemeteries
Broadway credits Date Title Role Notes 29 August – September 1921 The Poppy God Higgins Hudson Theatre, New York 6 March–?, 1922 Broken Branches Arthur Weldon 39th Street Theatre, New York 22 October – November 1923 Nobody's Business Oliver Pratt Klaw Theatre, New York 14 January – February 1924 Gypsy Jim Tom Blake 49th Street Theatre, New York 31 March – May 1924 Nancy Ann Dan Dennis 49th Street Theatre, New York 1 September 1924 – June 1925 Pigs Thomas Atkins Jr. Little Theatre, New York 14 January – March 1929 Gypsy Mac Klaw Theatre, New York 14 October – November 1929 The Nut Farm Willie Barton Klaw Theatre, New York 23 November 1937 – May 1938 Of Mice and Men George Music Box Theatre, New York 26 December 1939 – 6 January 1940 Kindred Dermot O'Regan (Prologue) Maxine Elliott Theatre, New York
Filmography Film
Year Title Role Notes 1929 Married in Hollywood Mitzi's Fan Uncredited 1931 Possessed Al Manning X Marks the Spot Ted Lloyd 1932 Freaks Phroso Ed Fitzpatrick Jerry Tyler Are You Listening? Larry Barnes Skyscraper Souls Slim Central Park Rick Hypnotized Bill Bogard 1933 Employees' Entrance Martin West Night of Terror Tom Hartley Russ Penny Headline Shooter Mike Three-Cornered Moon Kenneth Rimplegar Goodbye Again Arthur Westlake My Woman Chick Rollins East of Fifth Avenue Vic Howard 1934 Money Means Nothing Joe Flynn Morelli Men in White Shorty I Hate Women Scoop McGuire Money Means Nothing Kenneth 'Kenny' McKay Jason H. Barton Curly 1935 Healy In Spite of Danger Bob Crane Willie Barton One Frightened Night Joe Luvalie Swell-Head Terry McCall Men of the Hour Andy Blane Frankie McPhillip Get That Man Jack Kirkland / John Prescott She Couldn't Take It Fingers Boston Mary Burns, Fugitive Harper Another Face Joe Haynes 1936 Two in the Dark Harry Hillyer Absolute Quiet Jack Jimmy Kelly Steve 1937 You're in the Army Now Jimmy Tracy Jericho Mike Clancy Exiled to Shanghai Ted Young 1938 Swing It, Sailor! Pete Kelly Stardust Peter Jackson The Marines Come Thru Pvt. 'Singapore' Stebbins re-released in 1943 as Fight On, Marines 1939 Back Door to Heaven Frankie Rogers 1940 Isle of Destiny Millard Barnes Two Girls on Broadway Jed Marlowe Love, Honor, and Oh Baby! Joe Redmond Scatterbrain Sam Maxwell Babe Jenson Give Us Wings Mr. York 1941 Casey Roar of the Press Wally Williams Murder by Invitation Bob White Blues in the Night Brad Ames 1942 All Through the Night Spats Hunter Inside the Law Billy Scattergood Survives a Murder Wally Collins Babe Hanson Seven Days' Leave Sergeant Mead 1943 Shadow of a Doubt Fred Saunders Jeff Carter Pierre Flandeau 1944 Secret Command Miller Machine Gun Mama Johnny O'Reilly 1945 Blood on the Sun Ollie Miller McManus On Stage Everybody Emmett Rogers Spellbound Stranger in hotel lobby 1946 Bill Conley Jamie Nigg Lover Come Back Tubbs Rendezvous with Annie Al Morgan Black Angel Joe Crack-Up Lieutenant Cochrane 1947 Dead Reckoning McGee Magic Town Lou Dicketts T-Men The schemer 1948 The Man from Texas Jed Shed No Tears Sam Grover Embraceable You Police Lt. Ferria Coroner Creek Andy West Belle Starr's Daughter Lafe Bailey 1949 Gus Red Stallion in the Rockies Talky Carson 1950 Dakota Lil Carter Scotty Hyslip F.R. Duncan Harvey Ellis Logfren 1951 He Ran All the Way Mr. Dobbs Warpath Private Potts Painting the Clouds with Sunshine Sam Parks 1952 She Couldn't Say No Joe Wheelen Rodeo Barbecue Jones Flesh and Fury Jack "Pop" Richardson 1953 Elias Hobbs Mac McBride 1954 Wally Higgins Destry Doc Curtis 3 Ring Circus Sam Morley 1955 Charley O'Leary Wichita Arthur Whiteside Lucy Gallant Gus Basserman Dr. Amos Wynn Flapjack Simms 1956 Jamie Henry Delaney Johnny Concho Albert Dark Thunder Over Arizona Hal Stiles Stagecoach to Fury Judge Lester Farrell Sheriff Howard Thomas 1958 Twilight for the Gods Old Brown Malachi Stack Charles J. Hennessey 1959 Warlock Judge Holloway 1960 Tess of the Storm Country Fred Thorson 1965 Ole Pa
Partial television
Year Title Role Notes 1953 "Outlaw's Reckoning" (series debut) Goodyear Television Playhouse "The Happy Rest" Armstrong Circle Theatre "The Marshal of Misery Gulch" 1954 Father Knows Best Nick "The Christmas Story” Inner Sanctum Photographer "Dark of the Night" 1955 Ford Theatre Talker "Sunday Mourn" Damon Runyon Theatre Lt. Harrigan "Tobias the Terrible" 1957 William Markham "The Jim Thompson Case" 1958 Playhouse 90 Mule Rogers "The Last Man" 1959–1961 Marshal Herk Lamson 1960Tales of Wells FargoMarshal F.X. Murphy"Dead Man's Street" 1964 The Andy Griffith Show Roger Hanover
References
External links
Literature on Wallace Ford