Name
J.M. Kerrigan
Known For
Acting
Birthday
1884-12-16
Deathday
1964-04-29 (80 years old)
Place of Birth
Dublin, Ireland
Biography
Joseph Michael Kerrigan (16 December 1884 – 29 April 1964), better known as J.M. Kerrigan, was an Irish character actor. Kerrigan was born in Dublin, Ireland. He worked as a newspaper reporter until 1907 when he joined the famous Abbey Players. There he became a stalwart, appearing in plays by Lady Gregory, William Butler Yeats and John Millington Synge (for whom he played the role of Shawn Keogh 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 by Shakespeare, Ibsen, and Sheridan. He settled permanently in Hollywood in 1935, having been recruited along with several other Abbey performers, to appear in John Ford's The Informer. In that film and in Ford's The Long Voyage Home, he plays similar roles, that of a leech who attaches himself to men until they run out of money. Perhaps his best known role was in The General Died at Dawn, where he plays a character actually named Leach, in which he steals scenes from Gary Cooper, Madeleine Carroll and William 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." He had little screen time in films which he starred as minor roles, such as the "First Drayman" in Merely Mary Ann (1931) with Janet Gaynor. One of his most recognizable minor roles was in Gone with the Wind (1939), in which he played John Gallegher, the seemly jovial mill owner who whips his convict labour in to "co-operation". He appeared in Walt Disney's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954), the famous film version of Jules Verne's Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea in a minor role at the beginning of the film. In 1946, he tried breaking into Broadway shows, playing the discombobulated leprechaun Jackeen J. O'Malley in the show "Barnaby and Mr. O'Malley", based on the Crockett Johnson comic strip. J. M. Kerrigan died in Hollywood on 29 April 1964, aged 79. Kerrigan has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6621 Hollywood Blvd.
Known For
7.905
The spoiled daughter of a Georgia plantation owner conducts a tumultuous romance with a cy...
7.071
A ship sent to investigate a wave of mysterious sinkings encounters the advanced submarine...
6.1
Movie star Shelah Fane is seeing wealthy Alan Jaynes while filming in Honolulu, Hawaii, bu...
7.035
After his brother's death, Larry Talbot returns home to his father and the family estate. ...
6.831
Gypo Nolan is a former Irish Republican Army man who drowns his sorrows in the bottle. He'...
6.1
A strange animal attack turns a botanist into a bloodthirsty monster....
6.726
One of the last bills signed by President Lincoln authorizes pushing the Union Pacific Rai...
6.629
The crew of the merchant ship Glencairn hope to survive a transatlantic crossing during Wo...
7.32
Norfolk, England, 1770. The nephew of an innkeeper and the son of a reverend maintain a ve...
- 1954 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea as Billy
- 1939 Gone with the Wind as Johnny Gallagher
- 1948 Call Northside 777 as Sullivan - Court Bailiff (uncredited)
- 1944 The Fighting Seabees as Sawyer Collins
- 1952 Park Row as Dan O'Rourke
- 1956 The Fastest Gun Alive as Kevin McGovern
- 1942 Captains of the Clouds as Foster
- 1935 Werewolf of London as Hawkins
- 1941 The Wolf Man as Charles Conliffe
- 1935 The Informer as Terry
- 1931 The Black Camel as Thomas MacMasters
- 1933 A Study in Scarlet as Jabez Wilson
- 1934 The Lost Patrol as Quincannon
- 1940 Congo Maisie as Captain Finch
- 1933 Air Hostess as Pop Kearny
- 1936 Lloyd's of London as Brook Watson
- 1934 The Key as O'Duffy
- 1939 The Witness Vanishes as Flinters
- 1933 Lone Cowboy as Mr. Curran
- 1936 The Prisoner of Shark Island as Judge Maiben
- 1945 The Spanish Main as Pillery Gow
- 1936 Colleen as Pop Reilly
- 1944 The Big Bonanza as 'Judge' Jasper Kincaid
- 1940 One Crowded Night as Brother 'Doc' Joseph
- 1953 The Silver Whip as Riley
- 1933 Paddy the Next Best Thing as Collins
- 1936 Timothy's Quest as Dr. Cudd
- 1940 Untamed as Mr. Angus McGavity
- 1939 Sorority House as Lew Fisher
- 1937 London by Night as Tims
- 1932 Vanity Street as Dan - Irish Cop (uncredited)
- 1946 Black Beauty as John
- 1939 Union Pacific as Monahan
- 1939 The Kid From Texas as Farr
- 1946 Abie's Irish Rose as Patrick Murphy
- 1945 The Great John L. as Father O'Malley
- 1940 The Long Voyage Home as Crimp
- 1936 The Plough and the Stars as Uncle Peter
- 1935 Barbary Coast as Judge Harper
- 1935 A Feather in Her Hat as Pobjoy
- 1941 Appointment for Love as Timothy
- 1939 Undercover Agent as Tom 'Pop' Madison
- 1939 The Great Man Votes as Hot Shot Gillings
- 1938 Ride a Crooked Mile as Sgt. Flynn
- 1936 Spendthrift as Pop O'Connell
- 1935 Vanessa: Her Love Story as Perkins (uncredited)
- 1939 The Zero Hour as Timothy
- 1945 The Crime Doctor's Warning as Robert MacPherson (uncredited)
- 1945 She Went to the Races as Jeff Habbard
- 1939 6,000 Enemies as Dan Barrett
- 1936 Special Investigator as Judge Plumgate
- 1932 Rockabye as Fagin
- 1949 Mrs. Mike as Uncle John
- 1939 Two Thoroughbreds as Jack Lenihan
- 1934 A Modern Hero as Mr. Ryan
- 1939 The Flying Irishman as Mr. Clyde Corrigan Sr.
- 1938 Spring Madness as Mr. Maloney (uncredited)
- 1949 The Fighting O'Flynn as Timothy
- 1940 The Sea Hawk as Eli Matson
- 1940 Young Tom Edison as Mr. McCarney
- 1952 My Cousin Rachel as Reverend Pascoe
- 1948 The Luck of the Irish as Tatie the Innkeeper
- 1955 It's a Dog's Life as Paddy Corbin
- 1952 The Wild North as Callahan
- 1940 No Time for Comedy as Jim
- 1935 Hot Tip as Matt
- 1934 The Fountain as Shordley
- 1923 Little Old New York as John O'Day
- 1930 Lightnin' as Judge Lemuel Townsend
- 1932 Careless Lady as Trowbridge
- 1931 Don't Bet on Women as Chipley Duff
- 1939 Sabotage as Mel
- 1940 Curtain Call as Mr. Middleton
- 1951 Sealed Cargo as Skipper Ben
- 1930 Song o' My Heart as Peter
- 1929 Lucky In Love as Connors
- 1938 Little Orphan Annie as Tom Jennings
- 1945 Tarzan and the Amazons as Splivens
- 1936 The General Died at Dawn as Leach
- 1942 The Vanishing Virginian as John Phelps
- 1930 New Movietone Follies of 1930 as Gateman in Show
- 1944 Wilson as Edward Sullivan
- 1943 Action in the North Atlantic as Caviar Jinks (uncredited)
- 1943 Mr. Lucky as Mr. McDougal (uncredited)
- 1936 Laughing Irish Eyes as Tim
- 1932 The Rainbow Trail as Paddy Harrigan
- 1931 Merely Mary Ann as First Drayman
- 1936 Let's Make a Million as Sam Smith
- 1939 Two Bright Boys as Mike Casey
- 1938 Vacation from Love as Danny Dolan, Hansom Cabbie
- 1930 Under Suspicion as Doyle
- 1935 The Mystery of Edwin Drood as Chief Verger Tope
- 1951 Two of a Kind
- 1937 Motor Madness as Henry John 'Cap' McNeil
- 1948 Studio One ( 1 episode ) as Pether Flynn
- 1953 General Electric Theater ( 1 episode ) as Jimmy
- 1950 Lux Video Theatre ( 1 episode ) as Dr. Makery
- 1955 Matinee Theater ( 1 episode )
- 1955 Frontier ( 1 episode )
- 1953 Letter to Loretta ( 1 episode ) as Mr. Thomas J. Flaherty
- 1953 General Electric Theater ( 1 episode ) as Dennis Malloy
- 1958 Shirley Temple's Storybook ( 1 episode ) as Mr Pickles
