Joel McCrea
Spanish postcard in the Estrellas del cine series by Editorial Grafica, Barcelona, no. 108. Photo: Fox Film.
Joel Albert McCrea (born November 5, 1905 in South Pasadena, California, USA - died October 20, 1990 in Woodland Hills, California, USA) was an American actor.
Joel McCrea was the son of a businessman, studied acting at Pomona College and began working as an extra and stuntman in 1928. He got his first major role in 1929 in The Jazz Age, which earned him a contract with the MGM film studio. There he made friends with Marion Davies and Greta Garbo, among others. In 1930 he went to the newly founded RKO. His relationship with Constance Bennett, the studio's biggest star, brought him media attention and numerous roles alongside Bennett in romantic love films such as Born to Love, The Common Law and Rockabye. In 1932 David O. Selznick gave him the lead role in Bird of Paradise. Directed by King Vidor, the film was intended as a response to the success of Tarzan, the ape-man who generated record revenues for MGM. Dolores del Río played a native princess who had a stormy love affair with an American. Both actors were seen almost naked for the majority of the film, which was partly shot in Hawaii, which was possible due to the censorship regulations that were still generous at the time. This role advanced McCrea's career. In the same year he acted alongside Fay Wray in The Most Dangerous Game (1932), which tells the flight of castaways from a manhunter in the truest sense of the word. This film, too, was made before the strict Production Code came into effect and, in terms of depicting sex and violence, went to the limits of what was customary at the time. After appearing alongside Richard Dix and Erich von Stroheim in the long-forgotten drama The Lost Squadron (1932), he was given the male lead alongside Irene Dunne in the film adaptation of Sidney Howard's eponymous play The Silver Cord in 1933. During the filming, he also met his future wife Frances Dee, whom he married that same year and with whom he lived until his death.
After he left RKO, Joel McCrea worked on the basis of non-exclusive contracts, including for film producer Samuel Goldwyn, which brought him increasingly demanding roles. This was also the case in the 1936 drama These Three, which showed him alongside Miriam Hopkins and Merle Oberon in a defused version of Lillian Hellman's play The Children's Hour. His collaboration with Barbara Stanwyck in Interns Can't Take Money from 1937 was interesting in that McCrea portrayed the character of Dr. Kildare, afterward played from 1939 by Lew Ayres in a series of several films at MGM. Another significant film for McCrea was Dead End, the film adaptation of the stage success of Lillian Hellman. With the western Union Pacific from 1939, directed by Cecil B. DeMille, McCrea began to become one of the top male stars of the war years. In the following years he shot the film Foreign Correspondent (1940) with Alfred Hitchcock, among others, as well as several films with Preston Sturges, including Sullivan's Travels (1941), which showed him at the side of Veronica Lake, and The Palm Beach Story (1942) with Claudette Colbert as a partner. His personal favorite films of the time included Primrose Path from 1940, a love story between a seedy young woman and an upright young man, and The More, The Merrier, from 1943. The latter comedy, directed by George Stevens, addressed war-induced housing shortage in Washington, and featured McCrea as partner of Jean Arthur. Arthur played a patriotic young woman who rents half of her house to Charles Coburn, who, without warning her, sublets half of his house to a young officer. The film was nominated for an Oscar for Best Picture.
Since his role as Buffalo Bill, directed by William A. Wellman in the eponymous 1944 film, McCrea worked primarily in westerns and became one of the most acclaimed actors in the genre. In contrast, he now mostly turned down roles in other film genres because he found making western films more exciting. Between 1959 and 1960, he starred alongside his son Jody McCrea in the television series Wichita Town. In 1962 he was seen alongside Randolph Scott in the western Sacramento, directed by Sam Peckinpah, and then announced his retirement from the film business. In later years he returned to the big screen for a few character roles, most recently in the 1976 film Mustang Country. Thanks to good investments, McCrea was one of the wealthiest actors in Hollywood (along with Corinne Griffith, Paulette Goddard, Bing Crosby and Bob Hope), whose net worth was well over $ 200 million. In the book People Will Talk by John Kobal, McCrea gave the author a very frank interview in which, in addition to his numerous affairs, he also gave information about his long-standing friendship with the director Gregory La Cava.
Sources: German and English Wikipedia, IMDB.
Joel McCrea
Spanish postcard in the Estrellas del cine series by Editorial Grafica, Barcelona, no. 108. Photo: Fox Film.
Joel Albert McCrea (born November 5, 1905 in South Pasadena, California, USA - died October 20, 1990 in Woodland Hills, California, USA) was an American actor.
Joel McCrea was the son of a businessman, studied acting at Pomona College and began working as an extra and stuntman in 1928. He got his first major role in 1929 in The Jazz Age, which earned him a contract with the MGM film studio. There he made friends with Marion Davies and Greta Garbo, among others. In 1930 he went to the newly founded RKO. His relationship with Constance Bennett, the studio's biggest star, brought him media attention and numerous roles alongside Bennett in romantic love films such as Born to Love, The Common Law and Rockabye. In 1932 David O. Selznick gave him the lead role in Bird of Paradise. Directed by King Vidor, the film was intended as a response to the success of Tarzan, the ape-man who generated record revenues for MGM. Dolores del Río played a native princess who had a stormy love affair with an American. Both actors were seen almost naked for the majority of the film, which was partly shot in Hawaii, which was possible due to the censorship regulations that were still generous at the time. This role advanced McCrea's career. In the same year he acted alongside Fay Wray in The Most Dangerous Game (1932), which tells the flight of castaways from a manhunter in the truest sense of the word. This film, too, was made before the strict Production Code came into effect and, in terms of depicting sex and violence, went to the limits of what was customary at the time. After appearing alongside Richard Dix and Erich von Stroheim in the long-forgotten drama The Lost Squadron (1932), he was given the male lead alongside Irene Dunne in the film adaptation of Sidney Howard's eponymous play The Silver Cord in 1933. During the filming, he also met his future wife Frances Dee, whom he married that same year and with whom he lived until his death.
After he left RKO, Joel McCrea worked on the basis of non-exclusive contracts, including for film producer Samuel Goldwyn, which brought him increasingly demanding roles. This was also the case in the 1936 drama These Three, which showed him alongside Miriam Hopkins and Merle Oberon in a defused version of Lillian Hellman's play The Children's Hour. His collaboration with Barbara Stanwyck in Interns Can't Take Money from 1937 was interesting in that McCrea portrayed the character of Dr. Kildare, afterward played from 1939 by Lew Ayres in a series of several films at MGM. Another significant film for McCrea was Dead End, the film adaptation of the stage success of Lillian Hellman. With the western Union Pacific from 1939, directed by Cecil B. DeMille, McCrea began to become one of the top male stars of the war years. In the following years he shot the film Foreign Correspondent (1940) with Alfred Hitchcock, among others, as well as several films with Preston Sturges, including Sullivan's Travels (1941), which showed him at the side of Veronica Lake, and The Palm Beach Story (1942) with Claudette Colbert as a partner. His personal favorite films of the time included Primrose Path from 1940, a love story between a seedy young woman and an upright young man, and The More, The Merrier, from 1943. The latter comedy, directed by George Stevens, addressed war-induced housing shortage in Washington, and featured McCrea as partner of Jean Arthur. Arthur played a patriotic young woman who rents half of her house to Charles Coburn, who, without warning her, sublets half of his house to a young officer. The film was nominated for an Oscar for Best Picture.
Since his role as Buffalo Bill, directed by William A. Wellman in the eponymous 1944 film, McCrea worked primarily in westerns and became one of the most acclaimed actors in the genre. In contrast, he now mostly turned down roles in other film genres because he found making western films more exciting. Between 1959 and 1960, he starred alongside his son Jody McCrea in the television series Wichita Town. In 1962 he was seen alongside Randolph Scott in the western Sacramento, directed by Sam Peckinpah, and then announced his retirement from the film business. In later years he returned to the big screen for a few character roles, most recently in the 1976 film Mustang Country. Thanks to good investments, McCrea was one of the wealthiest actors in Hollywood (along with Corinne Griffith, Paulette Goddard, Bing Crosby and Bob Hope), whose net worth was well over $ 200 million. In the book People Will Talk by John Kobal, McCrea gave the author a very frank interview in which, in addition to his numerous affairs, he also gave information about his long-standing friendship with the director Gregory La Cava.
Sources: German and English Wikipedia, IMDB.