- J. M. Kerrigan
Joseph Michael Kerrigan (
December 16 ,1884 -April 29 ,1964 ), better known as J. M. Kerrigan, born inDublin, Ireland , was an Irish character actor who had very little screen time in films which he starred as minor roles, such as the "First Drayman" in "Merely Mary Ann " (1931) withJanet Gaynor . One of his most recognizable minor roles in "Gone with the Wind" (1939), when he played John Gallegher, the seemly jovial mill owner who whips his convict labour in to "co-operation". He also appeared inWalt Disney 's " 1954 famous film version" ofJules Verne 's "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea " in a minor role at the beginning of the film.Kerrigan worked as a newspaper reporter until 1907 when he joined the famous
Abbey Players . There he became a stalwart, appearing in plays byLady Gregory ,John Millington Synge ,William Butler Yeats , andSean O'Casey (for whom he played the role of Jimmy Farrell in "The Playboy of the Western World ". His first screen appearance was in the silent film "Food of Love " in 1916. By the 1920s he was appearing on Broadway, often in plays byShakespeare ,Ibsen , andSheridan . He settled permanently inHollywood in 1935, having been recruited along with several other Abbey performers, to appear inJohn Ford 's "The Informer". In that film and in Ford's "The Long Voyage Home " he plays similar roles, that of a leach who attaches himself to men until they run out of money. Perhaps his best known role was in "The General Died at Dawn ", in which he steals scenes fromGary Cooper ,Madeleine Carroll , andWilliam Frawley . In it he plays a sinister little petty thief who, holding a gun on Cooper, says, "I may be fat, but I'm agile." Regrettably, in the forties and fifties he rarely got good parts and eventually became little more that a bit player.Despite having small roles, Kerrigan has a "Star" on the
Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6621 Hollywood Blvd.He died in
Hollywood, Los Angeles, California on April, 29, 1964.External links
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