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Cagney
Author(s): John McCabe (Author)
- Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf
- Publication Date: 18 Nov. 1997
- Language: English
- Print length: 439 pages
- ISBN-10: 0679446079
- ISBN-13: 9780679446071
Book Description
Illustrated with one hundred photographs, a biography draws on many hours of interviews with the film star that were not used in his autobiography to profile the quiet, private, artistic man behind Hollywood’s greatest tough guy. 25,000 first printing.
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From the Inside Flap
s participation in the writing of James Cagney’s autobiography, the many years of friendship that followed, and an intense period of interview and discussion in preparation for a musical comedy based on Cagney’s life–a show that never saw the light of day–make him Cagney’s ideal biographer. And, indeed, he has written a searching chronicle of this major actor’s life and career, packed with history and anecdote, and profusely illustrated.
Cagney came from a poor Irish-American New York family but once he found his métier as an actor, it was not long before he was recognized as a brilliantly energetic and powerful phenomenon. After the tremendous impact of
Public Enemy–in which he notoriously pushed half a grapefruit into Mae Clarke’s face–he was typecast as a gangster because of the terrifying violence that seemed to be pent up within him. Years of pitched battle with Warner Brothers finally liberated him from those roles, and he went on to star in such triumphs as thAbout the Author
John McCabe was a professional actor from the age of seven, first appearing with various stock companies in his native Detroit. He blended the acting profession with his schooling for decades, finally receiving a doctorate from the Shakespeare Institute, Stratford-upon-Avon, England, in 1954. While at Stratford he met Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, who were then touring British music halls. From this encounter came a deep friendship with Laurel and the authorized biography, Mr. Laurel and Mr. Hardy (1962), which firmly established John McCabe as the world authority on this great comedy team. Other show business biographies followed, and in 1973 he was selected to ghostwrite James Cagney’s autobiography, Cagney by Cagney.
In addition to his many years as a professional actor, John McCabe has
John McCabe has taught acting at Detroit’s Wayne State University, the City College of New York, Interlochen Arts Academy, and New York University, where as professor of dramatic art, he headed the Educational Theater Department.
