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(April 1, 1885 – April 15, 1949) was
an Academy Award-winning American actor of more than 200 other movie
roles over a 36-year span.
 Wallace
Fitzgerald Beery joined the Ringling Brothers circus at the age of
sixteen as an assistant elephant trainer. He left two years later
after being clawed by a leopard. He found work in New York City in
musical variety and began to appear on Broadway. In 1913, he moved
to Chicago to work for Essanay Studios, cast as "Sweedie, The
Swedish Maid," a manly character in drag. Later he would move to
California, to the Essanay Studios location in Niles, CA. In 1915,
Beery starred with his wife Gloria Swanson in Sweedie Goes to
College.
His notable silent films include Arthur Conan Doyle's dinosaur epic
The Lost World (1925; as Professor Challenger), Robin Hood with
Douglas Fairbanks (1922; Beery played King Richard the Lionheart in
this film and a sequel the following year called Richard the
Lion-Hearted), Last of the Mohicans (1920), The Round-Up (1920; with
Roscoe Arbuckle), Old Ironsides (1926), Now We're in the Air (1927),
The Usual Way (1913), and Beggars of Life (1928; with Louise
Brooks).
With the transition to sound film Beery appeared in the
highly-successful 1930 prison film The Big House (for which he was
nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor). He followed that up
with The Champ in 1931, this time winning the Best Actor Oscar, and
the role of Long John Silver in Treasure Island (1934). He received
a gold medal from the Venice Film Festival for his performance as
Pancho Villa in Viva Villa! (1934) with Fay Wray. Other notable
Beery films include Min and Bill (1930) with Marie Dressler, Billy
the Kid (1930) with Johnny Mack Brown, The Secret Six (1931) with
Jean Harlow and Clark Gable, Hell Divers (1931) with Gable, Grand
Hotel (1932) with Joan Crawford, Tugboat Annie (1933) with Dressler,
Dinner at Eight (1933) opposite Jean Harlow, The Bowery with George
Raft and Pert Kelton that same year, China Seas (1935) with Gable
and Harlow, and Eugene O'Neill's Ah, Wilderness! (1935) in the role
of a drunken uncle later played on Broadway by Jackie Gleason in a
musical comedy version. During the 1930s Beery was regularly one of
Hollywood's Top 10 box office stars, and at one point his contract
with MGM stipulated that he be paid $1 more than any other contract
player at the studio, making him the highest paid actor in the
world.
He made several comedies with Marie Dressler (Min and Bill and
Tugboat Annie, both wildly successful) and Marjorie Main, but his
career began to slow down in his last decade. |
