James Howard Dunn (November 2, 1901September 1, 1967), billed as Jimmy Dunn in his early career, was an American actor and vaudeville performer. The son of a New York stockbroker, he initially worked in his father's firm but was more interested in theater. He landed jobs as an extra in short films produced by Paramount Pictures in its Long Island studio, and also performed with several stock theater companies, culminating with playing the male lead in the 1929 Broadway musical Sweet Adeline. This performance attracted the attention of film studio executives, and in 1931, Fox Film signed him to a Hollywood contract.
His screen debut in the 1931 film Bad Girl made him an overnight box-office star and he was cast as the lead in a succession of romantic drama and comedy films. In 1934, he co-starred with Shirley Temple in her first three films. In 1935, at the height of his popularity, he broke his studio contract two years before it expired and became a free agent. With musicals on the wane in the late 1930s, he was cast in a series of B movies and struggled with alcoholism in his personal life. In 1945, having not worked for a major studio for five years, he was selected by director Elia Kazan for the role of Johnny Nolan, the dreamy alcoholic father in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1945), which earned him the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.
The Oscar did not advance his film career, however, and while he still found roles in Broadway productions, he became a character actor on television. He had a regular role in the hit sitcom It's a Great Life from 1954 to 1956, and guest-starred in dozens of episodes of popular television series from the 1950s through mid-1960s. In 1960, his contributions to film and television were recognized with two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Early life
James Howard Dunn was born on November 2, 1901, in Manhattan. His parents, Ralph H. Dunn (c. 1875–1943), a member of the New York Stock Exchange, and mother Jessie L. Archer (c. 1871–1946) had married in January 1901. He was their only child. Dunn grew up in New Rochelle, New York, and attended school there. He worked for three years in his father's brokerage firm. He also sought out jobs as an extra in short films at Paramount Pictures' Long Island studios. With the latter troupe, he was said to be "highly popular" among theatre-goers for his "pleasing, breezy personality". Upon his return to New York, he landed the male lead in the touring company of the musical Sweet Adeline, opposite Helen Morgan.
Success in Hollywood
right|225px|thumb|Dunn and [[Sally Eilers in Bad Girl]]
Dunn's Broadway performance attracted the attention of film studio executives. Dunn signed a film contract with Fox a few days later and relocated to Hollywood; which catapulted him and co-star Sally Eilers to "overnight fame". The Los Angeles Times called Dunn's star turn "triumphant", asserting that "no performance has lately equaled the impression made by this rather plain young man, who, aside from having a likable personality, scores a major hit by his ability as an actor".
Fox immediately re-teamed Dunn and Eilers in Over the Hill (1931), followed by Dance Team (1932), Sailor's Luck (1933), and Hold Me Tight (1933). Dunn also played the lead in Sob Sister (1931), Society Girl (1932), and Hello, Sister! (1933). By the end of 1933, he was being referred to as "America's boy friend".
Shirley Temple co-star
175px|left|thumb|Dunn and [[Shirley Temple in a publicity photo for Bright Eyes (1934)]]
In 1934, Dunn appeared in seven films for Fox. Three of them were also the first three film appearances of six-year-old Shirley Temple. In Stand Up and Cheer!, Dunn and Temple play a father and daughter who perform in one song-and-dance sequence. Rather than have the young girl learn a new routine, the producers had Temple teach Dunn the steps to a tap-dance routine she had learned in her dancing school. Their memorable performance prompted studio executives to immediately cast them in a follow-up film, Baby Take a Bow, a remake of the 1928 silent film Square Crooks. Temple again plays Dunn's daughter in this film, whose title was the name of Dunn and Temple's song in Stand Up and Cheer! Their third film pairing was in Bright Eyes, a vehicle specifically written for Temple and co-starring Dunn as a bachelor pilot and friend of Temple's character's deceased father who seeks to adopt her. Temple sings "On the Good Ship Lollipop" aboard Dunn's character's airplane in this film. She also appreciated the fact that Dunn treated her as a peer. Temple received top billing in each of their films, and her career soon eclipsed his.
Career decline
During his five years as a contract player with Fox, Dunn appeared in 30 films.
In 1936, Dunn signed a two-picture deal with Republic Pictures, with Hearts in Bondage being his first starring turn for the studio. With musicals on the wane in the late 1930s, Dunn's career slumped as he found roles in a series of "mediocre comedies and melodramas". According to Dorothy Lee, who worked alongside him on Take a Chance (1933), Dunn and co-star Lillian Roth took turns getting drunk during the production. Lee said: "They were both darling people ... when they were sober. When they began drinking heavily, they couldn't work at all. As soon as Jimmy sobered up, Lillian would go on a bender. They shot around them as much as they could, but they had scenes together and it was difficult to get them on the set at the same time. So I wound up staying in New York longer than I expected". During the filming of George White's 1935 Scandals, shooting started in the late morning to accommodate Dunn and other members of the cast who frequently imbibed. As drinking affected Dunn's performances in the late 1930s and early 1940s, he was regarded as "unemployable" by the major film studios.
In 1940, Dunn returned to Broadway for an 87-week run in the hit musical Panama Hattie with Ethel Merman, to positive reviews. Dunn had returned to Hollywood in 1944 to seek film roles but had not applied for this part for fear of another rejection. Bosley Crowther of The New York Times commended the strong screen chemistry achieved by Dunn and Peggy Ann Garner, who played his daughter Francie:
<blockquote>Little Miss Garner, with her plain face and lank hair, is Francie Nolan to the life. And James Dunn plays her father, Johnny Nolan, with deep and sympathetic tenderness. In the radiant performance by these two actors of a dreamy adoration between father and child is achieved a pictorial demonstration of emotion that is sublimely eloquent.</blockquote>
At the 18th Academy Awards ceremony, Dunn won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance.
Winning the Oscar, however, did not revive his film prospects, and acting jobs were slow in coming. He returned to the role of an alcoholic father in Killer McCoy (1947) opposite Mickey Rooney, to complimentary reviews. His last film performance for nearly a decade was in the short film A Wonderful Life (1951), produced for the Christian film industry. Dunn appeared in four films in the 1960s, including another role as an alcoholic in The Bramble Bush (1960). he left the production before it reached Broadway. In 1951, Dunn played Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman at the Norwich Summer Theater.
Television career
In 1949, Dunn pursued a new direction as a character actor on television.
In 1962, Dunn played a clown in full makeup and costume in an episode of Follow the Sun, and sang "On the Good Ship Lollipop" from his 1934 film Bright Eyes. In 1963 he played the character of P. J. Cunningham, the manager-driver for a music band led by Bobby Rydell, in the unsold Desilu half-hour television pilot Swingin' Together.
Screen persona and recognition
right|150px|thumb|Star on the [[Hollywood Walk of Fame honoring Dunn's contributions to television]]
Dunn's smile, described as "sunny", "whimsical", and "winning", was often singled out as an asset. The Arcadia Tribune claimed Dunn's smile was "patterned after the one the Prince of Wales uses".
In his Hollywood heyday in the 1930s, Dunn was noted for his "clean-cut good looks and boyish charm". The Associated Press characterized Dunn's later screen persona as "a well-meaning type of fellow whom women marry to mother".
Personal life
175px|right|thumb|Dunn at the Lakeside Golf Club in [[Burbank, California|Burbank]]
Even after his rise to stardom, Dunn was described as "unaffected and friendly". Author Pete Haynes, a Malibu, California, resident who played with Dunn's adopted son, Billy Pick, in the 1950s, remembers Dunn as "down to earth and friendly toward every person he came in contact with".
Dunn's sense of humor was often evident. To commemorate the leap year of 1936, he announced a $50 prize to the woman who could send him the best proposal, with a $25 prize for the runner-up. He received a total of 10,000 submissions and awarded first prize to a 20-year-old native of Oklahoma, who wrote him a four-page poem. Dunn awarded the second prize to a woman from Fort Beaufort, South Africa, and sent runner-up gifts to three other American women.
When he was not working, Dunn enjoyed playing golf and flying his airplane. By 1940, Dunn had logged 750 flying hours.
Marriages
175px|left|thumb|Dunn and Gifford in the cockpit of his airplane, 1937
Dunn was married three times. His first marriage ended in divorce in 1922. On Christmas Day 1937, Dunn and his fiancée, 17-year-old actress Frances Gifford, flew in his plane to Yuma, Arizona, to be married in a Presbyterian church there and afterwards returned to Hollywood. The couple later starred together in Mercy Plane (1939) and Hold That Woman! (1940). The marriage failed in 1942 as Dunn's career was in decline and he was struggling with alcoholism; their divorce was finalized in 1943. As a result, after Dunn left Fox and his career slumped, he had financial security. Upon his 1938 marriage, Dunn's mother gave him control of his portfolio. Thereafter Dunn lost a $40,000 option on a play, Cock of the Walk, that failed to reach Broadway,
In October 1951, he filed for bankruptcy. aged 65, from complications following stomach surgery at Santa Monica Hospital. His funeral service in Santa Monica was attended by some 200 people, including fellow actors. His body was cremated and his ashes strewn at sea.
|}
right|thumb|Dunn and [[Mickey Rooney in the television special Mr. Broadway (1957)]]
right|thumb|Dunn with [[David Janssen in The Fugitive (1963)]]
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|+TV
! Year
! Title
! Role
! class="unsortable" | Notes
|-
|1948
|The Chevrolet Tele-Theatre
|Cassidy
|Episode: "No Shoes"
|-
|1951
|The Garry Moore Evening Show
|Guest appearance
|October 24, 1951<br/>Acted out a scene from A Tree Grows in Brooklyn with Margaret O'Brien
|-
|1954–1956
|It's a Great Life
|Earl Morgan
|76 episodes
|-
|1954
|Schlitz Playhouse of Stars
|Bookkeeper
|Episode: "The Treasure of Santo Domingo"
|-
|rowspan=2|1955
|Studio One
|Bookkeeper
|Episode: "A Picture in the Paper"
|-
|Schlitz Playhouse of Stars
|Coach Dan McLain
|Episode: "Nothing to Do Until Next Fall"
|-
|1956
|Climax!
|Eldon Abernathy
|Episode: "The Secret of River Lane"
|-
|rowspan=3|1957
|The Red Skelton Show
|Guest appearance
|January 29, 1957
|-
|Mr. Broadway
|Jerry Cohan
|May 11, 1957
|-
|Climax!
|
|Episode: "Keep Me in Mind"
|-
|rowspan=2|1958
|Wanted Dead or Alive
|Gabe
|1 episode
|-
|The Nine Lives of Elfego Baca
|J. Henry Newman
|Several episodes
|-
| rowspan=2|1959
|Bonanza
|Danny
|1 episode
|-
|Rawhide
|Flood
|1 episode
|-
|1960
|Route 66
|Van Carter
|2 episodes
|-
|1961
|The Investigators
|Chief Reynolds
|Episode: "The Mind's Own Fire"
|-
|rowspan=3|1962
|The Virginian
|Congressman
|1 episode
|-
|Wagon Train
|Winslow
|1 episode
|-
|Follow the Sun
|Clown
|Episode: "Run, Clown, Run"
|}
Notes
References
Bibliography
External links
- James Dunn at Virtual History
- Remembering Jimmy: The Life and Films of James Dunn (fan site)