Wallace Beery

Wallace Fitzgerald Beery (April 1, 1885 – April 15, 1949) was an American film and stage actor. He is best known for his portrayal of Bill in Min and Bill (1930) opposite Marie Dressler, as General Director Preysing in Grand Hotel (1932), as the pirate Long John Silver in Treasure Island (1934), as Pancho Villa in Viva Villa! (1934) for which he won the Volpi Cup for Best Actor, and his title role in The Champ (1931), for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor. Beery appeared in some 250 films during a 36-year career. His contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer stipulated in 1932 that he would be paid $1 more than any other contract player at the studio. This made Beery the highest-paid film actor in the world during the early 1930s. He was the brother of actor Noah Beery and uncle of actor Noah Beery Jr.

For his contributions to the film industry, Beery was posthumously inducted into the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1960.

Early life

Beery was born the youngest of three boys on April 1, 1885, in Clay County, Missouri, near Smithville. The Beery family left the farm in the 1890s and moved to nearby Kansas City, Missouri, where his father was a police officer. A fourth brother, Charles, was born in 1880 but survived only a day after his birth. There might have been an older sister but information is faint.

Beery attended the Chase School in Kansas City and took piano lessons as well, but showed little love for academic matters. He ran away from home twice, the first time returning after a short time, quitting school and working in the Kansas City train yards as an engine wiper.

Comedy film star – Essanay Studios

In 1913, he moved to Chicago to work for Essanay Studios. His first movie was likely a comedy short, His Athletic Wife (1913).

Beery was then cast as Sweedie, a Swedish maid character he played in drag in a series of short comedy films from 1914 to 1916. Sweedie Learns to Swim (1914) co-starred Ben Turpin. Sweedie Goes to College (1915) starred Gloria Swanson, whom Beery married the following year.

Beery was in The Drums of Jeopardy (1923) and had a supporting role in The Sea Hawk (1924) for director Frank Lloyd. He also appeared in a supporting role for Clarence Brown's The Signal Tower (1925) starring Virginia Valli and Rockliffe Fellowes.

Paramount

right|thumb|As [[Professor Challenger|Challenger in Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World (1925)]]

Beery signed a contract with Paramount Pictures. He had a support role in Adventure (1925) directed by Victor Fleming.

At First National, he was given the star role of Professor Challenger in Arthur Conan Doyle's dinosaur epic The Lost World (1925), arguably his silent performance most frequently screened in the modern era. Beery was top billed in Paramount's The Devil's Cargo (1925) for Victor Fleming, and supported in The Night Club (1925), The Pony Express (1925) for James Cruze, and The Wanderer (1925) for Raoul Walsh.

Beery starred in a comedy with Raymond Hatton, Behind the Front (1926), and he was a villain in Volcano! (1926). He was a bos'n in Old Ironsides (1926) for director James Cruze, with Charles Farrell in the romantic lead.

Beery had the title role in the baseball movie Casey at the Bat (1927). He was reunited with Hatton in Fireman, Save My Child (1927) and Now We're in the Air (1927). The latter also featured Louise Brooks, who was Beery's costar in Beggars of Life (1928), directed by William Wellman, which was Paramount's first part-talkie movie.

He made a fourth comedy with Hatton, Wife Savers (1929), then Beery starred in Chinatown Nights (1929) for Wellman, produced by a young David O. Selznick. This film was shot silent with the voices dubbed in by the actors afterward, which worked spectacularly well with Beery's resonant voice, although the technique was not used again during the silent era for another full-length feature. Beery then played in Stairs of Sand (1929), a Western also starring Jean Arthur, before being fired by Paramount.

MGM

thumb|[[Chester Morris and Wallace Beery in The Big House (1930)]]

right|thumb|With [[Marie Dressler in Min and Bill (1930)]]

thumb|right|[[Jackie Cooper, Edward Brophy, and Wallace Beery in The Champ (1931)]]

thumb|Dressler again co-starred opposite Beery in the highly popular [[Tugboat Annie (1933).]]

Irving Thalberg signed Beery to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) as a character actor. The association began well when Beery played the savage convict Butch, a role originally intended for Lon Chaney (who died that same year), in the highly successful 1930 prison film The Big House, directed by George W. Hill; Beery was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor.

Beery's second film for MGM was also a huge success: Billy the Kid (1930), an early widescreen picture in which he played Pat Garrett. He supported John Gilbert in Way for a Sailor (1930) and Grace Moore in A Lady's Morals (1930), portraying P. T. Barnum in the latter.

Stardom

Beery was well known as a leading man and character actor. The picture that established him as one of cinema's foremost stars was Min and Bill (1930) opposite Marie Dressler and directed by George W. Hill, a sensational success.

Beery made a third film with Hill, The Secret Six (1931), a gangster movie with Jean Harlow and Clark Gable in key supporting roles. The picture was popular, but was surpassed at the box office by The Champ, which Beery made with Jackie Cooper for director King Vidor. The film, especially written for Beery, was another box-office sensation. Beery shared the Best Actor Oscar with Fredric March. Though March received one vote more than Beery, Academy rules at the time—since rescinded—defined results within one vote of each other as "ties." (An alternate account has MGM head Louis B. Mayer storming backstage at the Oscars and demanding that March and Beery share that year's Academy Award for Best Actor since the vote was so close.)

Beery's career went from strength to strength. Hell Divers (1932), a naval airplane epic also starring a young Clark Gable billed under Beery, was a big hit. So, too, was the all-star Grand Hotel (1932), in which Beery was billed fourth, under Greta Garbo, John Barrymore, and Joan Crawford, one of the very few times he would not be top billed for the rest of his career. In 1932, his contract with MGM stipulated that he be paid a dollar more than any other contract player at the studio, making him the world's highest-paid actor.

Beery was a German wrestler in Flesh (1932), a hit directed by John Ford, but Ford removed his directorial credit before the film opened, so the picture screened with no director listed despite being labeled "A John Ford Production" in the opening title card. Next Beery was in another all-star ensemble blockbuster, Dinner at Eight (1933), with Jean Harlow holding her own as Beery's comically bickering wife. This time, Beery was billed third, under Marie Dressler and John Barrymore.

Beery was lent to the new 20th Century Pictures for the boisterously fast-paced comedy/drama The Bowery (1933), also starring George Raft, Jackie Cooper, and Fay Wray, and featuring Pert Kelton, under the direction of Raoul Walsh. The picture was a smash hit.

Back at MGM, he played the title role of Pancho Villa in Viva Villa! (1933) and was reunited with Dressler in Tugboat Annie (1933), a massive hit. He was Long John Silver in Treasure Island (1934), MGM's third-largest hit of the season, and remains currently viewed as featuring one of Beery's iconic performances.

Beery returned to 20th Century Productions for The Mighty Barnum (1934), in which he played P. T. Barnum again. Back at MGM, he was a kindly sergeant in West Point of the Air (1935) and was in an all-star spectacular, China Seas (1935), this time billed beneath Clark Gable.

O'Shaughnessy's Boy (1935) reunited Beery and Jackie Cooper. He had the lead as the drunken uncle in MGM's adaptation of Ah, Wilderness! (1936) and went back to 20th Century – now 20th Century Fox – for A Message to Garcia (1936) with Barbara Stanwyck.

At MGM, he was in Old Hutch (1936) and The Good Old Soak (1937), then he was back at Fox for Slave Ship (1937), taking second billing under Warner Baxter, a rarity for Beery after Min and Bill catapulted his career into the stratosphere in 1931, during which he received top billing in all but six films (Min and Bill, Grand Hotel, Tugboat Annie, Dinner at Eight, China Seas with Gable and Harlow, and Slave Ship).

Decline

thumb|right|

The status of Beery's films went into a decline. After an abrupt European vacation, Beery died of a heart attack three days after the picture's release.

Working relationship with peers

thumb|Brother [[Noah Beery in 1925]]

Many of Beery's colleagues considered him to be misanthropic and difficult to work with. Robert Young described Beery as a "shitty person". On set, he often never bothered to learn his lines and instead chose to take from other actors' characters and then resent it when his theft was pointed out. When prompting for another actor's close-up, Beery would read the wrong lines, making it harder for his co-stars to meet their marks. Beery was "loathed by everybody, and happily oblivious."

Mickey Rooney was one of Beery's few co-stars at MGM to consistently speak highly of him in subsequent decades. In his memoir, Rooney described Beery as "... a lovable, shambling kind of guy who never seemed to know that his shirttail belonged inside his pants, but always knew when a little kid actor needed a smile and a wink or a word of encouragement." He did concede that "not everyone loved [Beery] as much as I did." Rooney noted that Howard Strickling, MGM's head of publicity, once went to Louis B. Mayer to complain that Beery was stealing props from the studio's sets. "And that wasn't all", Rooney continued. "He went on for some minutes about the trouble that Beery was always causing him ... Mayer sighed and said, 'Yes, Howard, Beery's a son of a bitch. But he's our son of a bitch.' Strickling got the point. A family has to be tolerant of its black sheep, particularly if they brought a lot of money into the family fold, which Beery certainly did."

Several of MGM's child actors recalled unpleasant encounters with Beery. Jackie Cooper, who made several films with him early in his career, called him "a big disappointment." Cooper accused Beery of upstaging and other attempts to undermine his performances out of what Cooper presumed was jealousy. He recalled impulsively throwing his arms around Beery after one especially heartfelt scene, only to be gruffly pushed away. Margaret O'Brien who co-starred with Beery in Bad Bascomb (1946), stated that she got along with the actor but claimed that crew members had to protect her from Beery's insistence on constantly pinching her.

Personal life

Marriages and children

First marriage

On March 27, 1916, at the age of 30, Beery married 17-year-old actress Gloria Swanson in Los Angeles. The two had co-starred in Sweedie Goes to College. Swanson filed for divorce in 1917 and it was finalized in 1918. The couple adopted Carol Ann Priester (1930–2013), daughter of Rita Beery's mother's half-sister, Juanita Priester (née Caplinger; 1899–1931) and her husband, Erwin William Priester (1897–1969). After years of marriage, Rita filed for divorce on May 1, 1939, in Carson City, Ormsby County, Nevada. Within 20 minutes of filing, she won the decree. Rita remarried 15 days later, on May 16, 1939, to Jessen Albert D. Foyt (1907–1945), filing her marriage license with the same county clerk in Carson City.

Second adoption

Around December 1939, Beery, recently divorced, adopted a seven-month-old girl, Phyllis Ann Beery. Phyllis appeared in MGM publicity photos when adopted, but was never mentioned again. Beery told the press he had taken the girl in from a single mother, recently divorced, but he had filed no official adoption papers.

Paternity suit

On February 13, 1948, Gloria Schumm (or Gloria Smith Beery, née Florence W. Smith; 1916–1989) filed a paternity suit against Beery. Beery, through his lawyer, Norman Ronald Tyre (1910–2002), initially offered $6,000 as a settlement, but denied being the father of her child. Gloria had given birth on February 7, 1948, to Johan Richard Wallace Schumm, while married to Stuttgart-born Hollywood actor Hans Schumm (né Johann Josef Eugen Schumm; 1896–1990). In the early stages of pregnancy, Gloria had met with Beery at his home, where he gave her the name and address of a physician to submit to an examination. Broccoli admitted that he was indeed involved in a fistfight with Healy at the Trocadero. The official autopsy names Healy's cause of death as acute toxic nephritis secondary to acute and chronic alcoholism.

Hobbies

Beery owned and flew his own planes, including a Howard DGA-11. On April 15, 1933, he was commissioned a lieutenant commander in the United States Navy Reserve at NRAB Long Beach. One of his proudest achievements was catching the largest giant black sea bass in the world — — off Santa Catalina Island in 1916, a record that stood for 35 years.

Politics and activism

In 1943, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed an executive order creating Jackson Hole National Monument to protect the land adjoining the Grand Tetons in Wyoming. Local ranchers, outraged at the loss of grazing lands, compared FDR's action to Hitler's taking of Austria. Led by an aging Beery, they protested by herding 500 cattle across the monument lands without a permit.

Beery supported Thomas Dewey in the 1944 United States presidential election.

Death

thumb|150px|Beery's grave at Forest Lawn, Glendale

Beery died of a heart attack on April 15, 1949, at age 64, collapsing while reading a newspaper at his Beverly Hills home. His body was interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California. The inscription on his grave reads, "No man is indispensable, but some are irreplaceable."

Beery died intestate. In the paternity suit, Gloria Schumm's attorneys demanded $104,135 against Beery's $2,220,000 estate. In February 1952, Judge Newcomb Condee approved a $26,750 settlement from the estate. Gloria Schumm accepted the settlement, and Beery's paternity of Johan Schumm was not acknowledged.

When Mickey Rooney's father died less than a year later, Rooney arranged to have him buried next to his old friend. "I thought it was fitting that these two comedians should rest in peace, side by side," he wrote.

Legacy

For his contributions to the film industry, Wallace Beery posthumously received a motion-picture star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1960, located at 7001 Hollywood Boulevard. Another Coen brothers film, Hail, Caesar!, features a mockingly named "Wallace Beery Conference Room" scene within a Hollywood studio.

Beery is also mentioned in an episode of the 1980s sitcom classic “The Golden Girls.” Estelle Getty (Sofia) uses an analogy pairing Beery with Adolphe Menjou, a rival film star of the bygone era.

In the Sopranos episode "House Arrest" (S2 EP11), Richie Aprile makes a disparaging comment about Tony Soprano to Uncle Junior by saying that he saw him at the Garbagemen's Ball and that "You should see him in the golf outfit, he looked like Wallace Beery".

Selected filmography

His Athletic Wife (1913, Short) as Mr. Strong (film debut)
A series of at least 29 Sweedie comedy films starting with Sweedie the Swatter, released 13 July 1914
In and Out (1914, Short) as Hans
The Ups and Downs (1914, Short)
Cheering a Husband (1914, Short)
Madame Double X (1914, Short) as Madame Double X
Two Hearts That Beat as Ten (1915, Short) (with Ben Turpin) as Fred
Ain't It the Truth (1915, Short) as Harold Wallington
The Slim Princess (1915) with Francis X. Bushman) as Popova
The Broken Pledge (1915, Short) (with Gloria Swanson) as Percy
The Fable of the Roistering Blades (1915, Short) as Milt
A Dash of Courage (1916, Short) (with Gloria Swanson) as The Police Chief
The Janitor's Vacation (1916)
Patria (1917, Serial) as Pancho Villa
Teddy at the Throttle (1917, Short) as Henry Black – Gloria's Rascally Guardian
Cactus Nell (1917)
The Little American (1917) (with Mary Pickford) as German Soldier (uncredited)
Maggie's First False Step (1917, Short) as The Villain
Are Waitresses Safe? (1917) uncredited
Johanna Enlists (1918) as Col. Fanner
The Unpardonable Sin (1919) as Col. Klemm
The Love Burglar (1919) (with Wallace Reid and Anna Q. Nilsson) as Coast-to-Coast Taylor
The Life Line (1919) (with Jack Holt) as Bos
Soldiers of Fortune (1919) as Mendoza
Victory (1919) (with Jack Holt and Lon Chaney Sr.) as August Schomberg
Behind the Door (1919) (with Hobart Bosworth and Jane Novak) as Lt. Brandt
The Lone Wolf's Daughter (1919) as Minor Role (uncredited)
The Virgin of Stamboul (1920, directed by Tod Browning) as Sheik Achmet Hamid
The Mollycoddle (1920) (with Douglas Fairbanks) as Henry von Holkar
The Round-Up (1920) (with Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle) as Buck McKee
The Last of the Mohicans (1920) as Magua
813 (1920) as Maj. Parbury / Ribeira
The Rookie's Return (1920) as François Dupont
Patsy (1921) as Gustave Ludermann
The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1921) (with Rudolph Valentino) as Lieut. Col. von Richthosen
A Tale of Two Worlds (1921 Goldwyn)(*extant; Library of Congress) as Ling Jo
The Golden Snare (1921) as Bram Johnson
The Policeman and the Baby (1921, Short) (with William Desmond and Elinor Fair) as The Crook
The Last Trail (1921) as William Kirk
Sleeping Acres (1921, Short)
The Rosary (1922) as Kenwood Wright
Wild Honey (1922) (with Priscilla Dean and Noah Beery Sr.) as Buck Roper
The Sagebrush Trail (1922) as José Fagaro
The Man from Hell's River (1922) (with Rin Tin Tin) as Gaspard, The Wolf
I Am the Law (1922) (with Noah Beery Sr.) as Fu Chang
Hurricane's Gal (1922) as Chris Borg
Trouble (1922) as Ed Lee, the Plumber
Robin Hood (1922) (with Douglas Fairbanks) as Richard the Lion-Hearted
A Blind Bargain (1922) (with Lon Chaney Sr.) as Beast Man (uncredited)
Only a Shop Girl (1922) as Jim Brennan
The Flame of Life (1923) as Don Lowrie
Stormswept (1923) (with Noah Beery Sr.) as William McCabe
Bavu (1923) as Felix Bavu
Three Ages (1923) (with Buster Keaton) as The Villain
Ashes of Vengeance (1923) (with Norma Talmadge) as Duc de Tours
Drifting (1923) (with Priscilla Dean and Anna May Wong) as Jules Repin
The Spanish Dancer (1923) (with Pola Negri) as King Philip IV
The Eternal Struggle (1923) as Barode Dukane
Richard the Lion-Hearted (1923; sequel to 1922's Robin Hood) as King Richard the Lion-Hearted
The Drums of Jeopardy (1923) as Gregor Karlov
White Tiger (1923, directed by Tod Browning) as Count Donelli / Hawkes
Unseen Hands (1924) as Jean Scholast
The Sea Hawk (1924) as Captain Jasper Leigh
The Signal Tower (1924) as Joe Standish
Another Man's Wife (1924) as Captain Wolf
The Red Lily (1924) as Bo-Bo
Dynamite Smith (1924) as 'Slugger' Rourke
Madonna of the Streets (1924) as Bill Smythe
So Big (1924) as Klaus Poole
Let Women Alone (1925) as Cap Bullwinkle
Adventure (1925) as Morgan
The Night Club (1925) (with Raymond Griffith and Vera Reynolds) as José
The Lost World (1925; Arthur Conan Doyle dinosaur epic in which Beery portrayed Professor Challenger) with Lewis Stone as Sir John Roxton (and Doyle himself in a frontispiece)
The Devil's Cargo (1925) as Ben
The Great Divide (1925) as Dutch
Coming Through (1925) as Joe Lawler
In the Name of Love (1925) as Glavis
Rugged Water (1925) as Capt. Bartlett
The Wanderer (1925) (with Greta Nissen and Tyrone Power Sr.) as Pharis
Pony Express (1925) (with Betty Compson and George Bancroft) as Rhode Island Red
Behind the Front (1926) (with Raymond Hatton) as Riff Swanson
Volcano! (1926) as Quembo
We're in the Navy Now (1926) as 'Knockout' Hansen
Old Ironsides (1926) (with Charles Farrell and George Bancroft) as Bos'n
Casey at the Bat (1927) (with Ford Sterling and ZaSu Pitts) as 'Home Run' Casey
Fireman, Save My Child (1927) (with Raymond Hatton) as Elmer
Now We're in the Air (1927) (with Louise Brooks) (only twenty minutes survive) as Wally
Two Flaming Youths (1927) as Beery – of Beery and Hatton (uncredited)
Wife Savers (1928, lost film) (with Raymond Hatton and ZaSu Pitts) as Louis Hosenozzle
Partners in Crime (1928) as Detective Mike Doolan
The Big Killing (1928) as Powderhorn Pete
Beggars of Life (1928) (with Louise Brooks and Richard Arlen) as Oklahoma Red
Chinatown Nights (1929) (with Warner Oland and Jack Oakie) as Chuck Riley
Stairs of Sand (1929) as Lacey
River of Romance (1929) as General Orlando Jackson
The Big House (1930) (with Chester Morris, Lewis Stone, and Robert Montgomery) as Machine Gun 'Butch' Schmidt
Billy the Kid (1930; widescreen) (with Johnny Mack Brown billed as "John Mack Brown") as Pat Garrett
Way for a Sailor (1930) (with John Gilbert) as Tripod
A Lady's Morals (1930) as P.T. Barnum
Min and Bill (1930) (with Marie Dressler) as Bill
The Stolen Jools (1931; 20-minute ensemble short) (with Edward G. Robinson and Buster Keaton) as Police Sergeant
The Secret Six (1931) (with Jean Harlow and Clark Gable) as "Slaughterhouse" Scorpio
The Champ (1931) (with Jackie Cooper) as Andy "Champ" Purcell (Oscar-winning performance)
Hell Divers (1932; early military planes) (with Clark Gable) as C.P.O. H.W. "Windy" Riker
Grand Hotel (1932) (with Greta Garbo, John Barrymore, Lionel Barrymore, and Joan Crawford) as General Director Preysing
Flesh (1932, directed by an uncredited John Ford) as Polakai
Tugboat Annie (1933) (with Marie Dressler, Robert Young and Maureen O'Sullivan) as Terry Brennan
Dinner at Eight (1933) (with Marie Dressler, Lionel Barrymore, and Jean Harlow) as Dan Packard
The Bowery (1933) (with George Raft, Jackie Cooper, Fay Wray and Pert Kelton) as Chuck Connors
Viva Villa! (1934) (with Leo Carrillo, Stu Erwin and Fay Wray) as Pancho Villa
Treasure Island (1934) (with Jackie Cooper, Lionel Barrymore and Lewis Stone) as Long John Silver
The Mighty Barnum (1934) (with Adolphe Menjou) as P.T. Barnum
West Point of the Air (1935) (with Robert Young, Maureen O'Sullivan, Rosalind Russell, and Robert Taylor) as Big Mike Stone
China Seas (1935) (with Clark Gable, Jean Harlow, Lewis Stone, and Robert Benchley) as Jamesy McArdle
O'Shaughnessy's Boy (1935) (with Jackie Cooper) as Captain Michael 'Windy' O'Shaughnessy
Ah, Wilderness! (1935) (with Lionel Barrymore, Aline MacMahon, and Mickey Rooney) as Sid Miller
A Message to Garcia (1936) (with Barbara Stanwyck and Alan Hale Sr.) as Sergeant Dory
Old Hutch (1936) as 'Hutch' Hutchins
The Good Old Soak (1937) (with Betty Furness and Ted Healy) as Clem Hawley
Slave Ship (1937) (with Warner Baxter (first-billed) and Mickey Rooney) as Jack Thompson
The Bad Man of Brimstone (1937) (with Noah Beery Sr.) as 'Trigger' Bill
Port of Seven Seas (1938; written by Preston Sturges and directed by James Whale) (with Maureen O'Sullivan) as Cesar
Stablemates (1938) (with Mickey Rooney) as Doc Thomas 'Tom' Terry
Stand Up and Fight (1939) (with Robert Taylor and Charles Bickford) as Capt. Boss Starkey
Sergeant Madden (1939, directed by Josef von Sternberg) (with Laraine Day) as Sgt. Shaun Madden
Thunder Afloat (1939) (with Chester Morris) as John Thorson
The Man from Dakota (1940) (with Dolores del Río) as Sgt. 'Bar' Barstow
20 Mule Team (1940) (with Anne Baxter and Noah Beery Jr.) as Skinner Bill Bragg, an Alias of Ambrose Murphy
Wyoming (1940) (with Ann Rutherford) as 'Reb' Harkness
The Bad Man (1941) (with Lionel Barrymore, Laraine Day, and Ronald Reagan) as Pancho Lopez
Barnacle Bill (1941) (with Marjorie Main) as Bill Johansen
The Bugle Sounds (1942) (with Marjorie Main, Lewis Stone, and George Bancroft) as Sgt. Patrick Aloysius 'Hap' Doan
Jackass Mail (1942) (with Marjorie Main) as Marmaduke 'Just' Baggot
Salute to the Marines (1943, in color) (with Noah Beery Sr.) as Sgt. Maj. William Bailey
Rationing (1944) (with Marjorie Main) as Ben Barton
Barbary Coast Gent (1944) (with Chill Wills and Noah Beery Sr.) as Honest Plush Brannon
This Man's Navy (1945) (with Noah Beery Sr.) as Ned Trumpet
Bad Bascomb (1946) (with Margaret O'Brien and Marjorie Main) as Zeb Bascomb
The Mighty McGurk (1947) (with Dean Stockwell and Edward Arnold) as Roy 'Slag' McGurk
Alias a Gentleman (1948) (with Gladys George and Sheldon Leonard) as Jim Breedin
A Date with Judy (1948) (with Jane Powell, Elizabeth Taylor and Carmen Miranda) as Melvin Colner Foster
Big Jack (1949) (with Richard Conte, Marjorie Main, and Edward Arnold) as Big Jack Horner (final film role)

Box office ranking

1932 – 7th
1933 – 5th
1934 – 4th
1935 – 8th
1936 – 15th, 8th (UK)
1937 – 15th
1938 – 12th
1939 – 15th
1940 – 8th
1941 – 19th
1942 – 18th
1943 – 18th
1944 – 11th
1946 – 11th

File:Behind the Door 1919.jpg|Behind the Door (1919) with Hobart Bosworth

File:The Mollycoddle 1920 - Lobby Card.jpg|The Mollycoddle (1920) with Douglas Fairbanks

File:The Mollycoddle (1920) - 1.jpg|The Mollycoddle (1920) with Douglas Fairbanks

File:Wallace Beery - Jul 1921 EH.jpg|Wallace Beery in 1921

File:The Policeman and the Baby (1921) - 1.jpg|The Policeman and the Baby (1921)

File:The Golden Snare (1921) - 4.jpg|The Golden Snare (1921)

File:The Golden Snare - 1921.jpg|The Golden Snare (1921) with Lewis Stone

File:The Last Trail (1921) - 8.jpg|The Last Trail (1921)

File:Last Trail lobby card 2.jpg|The Last Trail (1921) with Eva Novak

File:Blindbargain.jpg|A Blind Bargain (1922) with Lon Chaney

File:Stormswept (1923) - 2.jpg|Stormswept (1923) with Noah Beery

File:Stormswept (1923) - 1.jpg|Stormswept (1923) with Noah Beery

File:Stormswept.jpg| Stormswept (1923) with Noah Beery Sr.

File:Bavu (1923) - 7.jpg|Bavu (1923)

File:Bavu (1923) - 2.jpg|Beery as Bavu (1923)

File:Richard the Lion-Hearted FilmPoster.jpeg|Richard the Lion-Hearted (1923)

File:Bessie Love and Wallace Beery in scene from Dynamite Smith (1924).jpg|Dynamite Smith (1924) with Bessie Love

File:Dynamite Smith (1924) - 1.jpg|Dynamite Smith (1924)

File:Devil's Cargo lobby card.jpg|The Devil's Cargo (1925)

File:Adventure lobby card.jpg|Adventure (1925) with Pauline Starke

File:Volcano lobby card.jpg|Volcano! (1926) with Bebe Daniels<br />and Ricardo Cortez

File:Casey at the Bat FilmPoster.jpeg|Casey at the Bat (1927)

File:Now We're in the Air poster.jpg|Now We're in the Air (1927) with Louise Brooks

File:Poster - Now We're in the Air 01.jpg|Now We're in the Air (1927) with Louise Brooks

File:Poster - Now We're in the Air 02.jpg|Now We're in the Air (1927) with Raymond Hatton

File:Poster - Now We're in the Air 03.jpg|Now We're in the Air (1927) with Raymond Hatton

File:Beggars of Life poster.jpg|Beggars of Life (1928) with Louise Brooks

File:Stairs of Sand lobby card.jpg|Stairs of Sand (1929) with Jean Arthur

File:Min and Bill lobby card.jpg|Min and Bill (1930) with Marie Dressler

File:Thesecretsix.jpg|The Secret Six (1931) with Jean Harlow and Clark Gable

File:Hell Divers 1932.jpg|Hell Divers (1931) with Clark Gable

File:Poster - Hell Divers 02.jpg|Hell Divers (1931)

File:Poster - Hell Divers 01.jpg|Hell Divers (1931)

File:Academyawards5.jpg|Lionel Barrymore presents 1931 Oscar

File:GrandHotelFilmPoster.jpg|Grand Hotel (1932)

File:Grand-Hotel-Beery-Crawford-cropped.jpg|Grand Hotel (1932) with Joan Crawford

File:Poster - Tugboat Annie 01.jpg|Tugboat Annie (1933) with Marie Dressler

File:Dinner at Eight lobby card.jpg|Dinner at Eight (1933) with Jean Harlow

File:The Bowery 1933.jpg|The Bowery (1933) with George Raft

File:Viva Villa poster.jpg|Viva Villa! (1934) with Fay Wray

File:Poster - Treasure Island (1934) 01.jpg|Treasure Island (1934) with Jackie Cooper

File:Treasure Island lobby card.jpg|Treasure Island (1934) with Jackie Cooper

File:China Seas lobby card 2.jpg|China Seas (1935)

File:China Seas lobby card 3.JPG|China Seas (1935) with Clark Gable

File:China seas.jpg|China Seas (1935)

File:Ah Wilderness film poster.jpg|Ah Wilderness! (1935)

File:Good Old Soak 1937.JPG|The Good Old Soak (1937) with Ted Healy

File:The Bad Man of Brimstone FilmPoster.jpeg|The Bad Man of Brimstone (1937)

File:Stand Up and Fight lobby card.jpg|Stand Up and Fight (1939) with Robert Taylor

File:The Man from Dakota FilmPoster.jpeg|The Man from Dakota (1940)

File:Man From Dakota poster.jpg|The Man from Dakota (1940)

File:20 mule team poster.jpg|20 Mule Team (1940) with Noah Beery Jr.

File:Wyoming poster.jpg|Wyoming (1940) with Marjorie Main

File:Wallace Beery in Barnacle Bill (1941).png|Barnacle Bill (1941)

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Awards and nominations

Academy Awards

{| class="wikitable" style="font-size: 90%;"

! Year

! Award

! Film

! Result

||1930

|rowspan=2|Best Actor

| The Big House

||1932

| The Champ

Venice Film Festival