Acting
J.M. Kerrigan
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.
Filmography
Shirley Temple's Storybook
Series · 1958
The Fastest Gun Alive
Film · 1956
It's a Dog's Life
Film · 1955
Matinee Theater
Series · 1955
Frontier
Series · 1955
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
Film · 1954
The Silver Whip
Film · 1953
General Electric Theater
Series · 1953
Letter to Loretta
Series · 1953
General Electric Theater
Series · 1953
Park Row
Film · 1952
My Cousin Rachel
Film · 1952
The Wild North
Film · 1952
Sealed Cargo
Film · 1951
Two of a Kind
Film · 1951
Lux Video Theatre
Series · 1950
Mrs. Mike
Film · 1949
The Fighting O'Flynn
Film · 1949
Call Northside 777
Film · 1948
The Luck of the Irish
Film · 1948
Studio One
Series · 1948
Black Beauty
Film · 1946
Abie's Irish Rose
Film · 1946
The Spanish Main
Film · 1945
The Great John L.
Film · 1945
The Crime Doctor's Warning
Film · 1945
She Went to the Races
Film · 1945
Tarzan and the Amazons
Film · 1945
The Fighting Seabees
Film · 1944
The Big Bonanza
Film · 1944
Wilson
Film · 1944
Action in the North Atlantic
Film · 1943
Mr. Lucky
Film · 1943
Captains of the Clouds
Film · 1942
The Vanishing Virginian
Film · 1942
The Wolf Man
Film · 1941
Appointment for Love
Film · 1941
Congo Maisie
Film · 1940
One Crowded Night
Film · 1940
Untamed
Film · 1940
The Long Voyage Home
Film · 1940
The Sea Hawk
Film · 1940
Young Tom Edison
Film · 1940
No Time for Comedy
Film · 1940
Curtain Call
Film · 1940
Gone with the Wind
Film · 1939
The Witness Vanishes
Film · 1939
Sorority House
Film · 1939
Union Pacific
Film · 1939
The Kid From Texas
Film · 1939
Undercover Agent
Film · 1939
The Great Man Votes
Film · 1939
The Zero Hour
Film · 1939
6,000 Enemies
Film · 1939
Two Thoroughbreds
Film · 1939
The Flying Irishman
Film · 1939
Sabotage
Film · 1939
Two Bright Boys
Film · 1939
Ride a Crooked Mile
Film · 1938
Spring Madness
Film · 1938
Little Orphan Annie
Film · 1938
Vacation from Love
Film · 1938
London by Night
Film · 1937
Motor Madness
Film · 1937
The Barrier
Film · 1937
Lloyd's of London
Film · 1936
The Prisoner of Shark Island
Film · 1936
Colleen
Film · 1936
Timothy's Quest
Film · 1936
The Plough and the Stars
Film · 1936
Spendthrift
Film · 1936
Special Investigator
Film · 1936
The General Died at Dawn
Film · 1936
Laughing Irish Eyes
Film · 1936
Let's Make a Million
Film · 1936
Werewolf of London
Film · 1935
The Informer
Film · 1935
Barbary Coast
Film · 1935
A Feather in Her Hat
Film · 1935
Vanessa: Her Love Story
Film · 1935
Hot Tip
Film · 1935
The Mystery of Edwin Drood
Film · 1935
The Lost Patrol
Film · 1934
The Key
Film · 1934
A Modern Hero
Film · 1934
The Fountain
Film · 1934
A Study in Scarlet
Film · 1933
Air Hostess
Film · 1933
Lone Cowboy
Film · 1933
Paddy the Next Best Thing
Film · 1933
Vanity Street
Film · 1932
Rockabye
Film · 1932
Careless Lady
Film · 1932
The Rainbow Trail
Film · 1932
The Black Camel
Film · 1931
Don't Bet on Women
Film · 1931
Merely Mary Ann
Film · 1931
Lightnin'
Film · 1930
Song o' My Heart
Film · 1930
New Movietone Follies of 1930
Film · 1930
Under Suspicion
Film · 1930
Lucky In Love
Film · 1929
Little Old New York
Film · 1923