James Flavin

Acting · 1.2 popularity

Age

120

Movies

278

Born: May 14, 1906 – April 23, 1976
From: Portland, Maine, USA

Biography

American character actor whose career lasted nearly half a century. James Wilson Flavin Jr. was the son of a hotel waiter of Canadian-English extraction and a mother, Katherine, whose father was an Irish immigrant. (Thus Flavin, well-known in Hollywood as an "Irish" type, was only one-quarter Irish.) Flavin was born and raised in Portland, Maine (a fact that may have enrichened his later working relationship with director John Ford, also a Portland native). He attended the United States Military Academy at West Point, but (contrary to some sources) did not graduate. Instead he dropped out and returned to Portland where he drove a taxi. Then as now, summer stock companies flocked to Maine each year, and in 1929 he was asked to fill in for an actor. He did well with the part and the company manager offered him $150 per week to go with the troupe back to New York. Flavin accepted and by the spring of 1930 was living in a rooming house at 108 W. 87th Street in Manhattan. Flavin didn't manage to crack Broadway at this time (his Broadway debut would not occur for another thirty-nine years, in the 1971 revival of "The Front Page," in which Flavin played Murphy and briefly took over the lead role of Walter Burns from star Robert Ryan). He worked his way across the country in stock productions and tours, arriving in Los Angeles around 1932. He quickly made the transition to movies, landing the lead in his very first film, a Universal serial, The Airmail Mystery (1932). He also landed his leading lady, marrying the serial's female star Lucile Browne that same year. However, the serial marked virtually the last time that Flavin would play the lead in a film. Thereafter, he was restricted almost exclusively to supporting characters, many of them without so much as a name. He specialized in uniformed cops and hard-bitten detectives, but played chauffeurs, cabbies, and even a 16th-century palace guard with aplomb. Flavin appeared in nearly four hundred films between 1932 and 1971, and in almost a hundred television episodes before his final appearance, as President Dwight D. Eisenhower in Francis Gary Powers: The True Story of the U-2 Spy Incident (1976). Flavin died of a heart ailment at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles on April 23, 1976. His widow Lucile died seventeen days later. They were survived by their son, William James Flavin, subsequently a professor at the United States Army War College. James and Lucile Brown Flavin were buried at Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City, California.

Works

278 films

King Kong

19337.6

It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World

19637.0

Mildred Pierce

19457.6

The Grapes of Wrath

19407.8

In Cold Blood

19677.5

Unconquered

19476.5

Mighty Joe Young

19496.4

You Can't Take It with You

19387.5

The Ghost Breakers

19406.5

Laura

19447.6

Nightmare Alley

19477.2

Cheyenne Autumn

19646.7

Sleep, My Love

19486.3

Start Cheering

19386.9

The Most Dangerous Game

19326.9

Saboteur

19426.9

Knute Rockne All American

19406.2

Western Union

19416.0

Jesse James

19396.5

Union Pacific

19396.7

So Proudly We Hail

19435.9

Mister Roberts

19557.0

The Roaring Twenties

19397.5

Buck Privates

19416.7

Remember the Night

19407.3

The Strange Love of Martha Ivers

19467.1

Blondie

19387.0

The Last Hurrah

19587.2

Air Force

19436.5

Belle Starr

19415.9

The Wings of Eagles

19576.3

O. Henry's Full House

19526.9

Thru Different Eyes

19428.0

Night Passage

19576.5

Anchors Aweigh

19456.8

Special Agent

19356.2

Action in the North Atlantic

19437.1

It Happened on Fifth Avenue

19477.1

You Only Live Once

19377.1

Heaven Can Wait

19436.9

'G' Men

19356.6

Hello, Sister!

19336.0

The Long Voyage Home

19406.6

Texas

19416.7

North West Mounted Police

19406.4

Operation Pacific

19516.1

The Wild Man of Borneo

19416.7

Never Say Goodbye

19566.4

Cloak and Dagger

19466.5

My Man Godfrey

19367.6

Flamingo Road

19497.0

My Favorite Brunette

19476.6

Fighting Coast Guard

19516.7

A Stolen Life

19466.4

Nora Prentiss

19476.2

Sailor Beware

19526.3

Desert Fury

19475.9

Too Hot to Handle

19386.0

Reap the Wild Wind

19426.4

Ziegfeld Girl

19416.7

Francis in the Haunted House

19565.8

Captain Hurricane

19356.0

I Am the Law

19387.1

When Willie Comes Marching Home

19506.9

God Is My Co-Pilot

19457.1

I Wake Up Screaming

19416.9

Test Pilot

19386.1

Only Yesterday

19337.1

The Fighting 69th

19405.8

Each Dawn I Die

19396.8

Boys' Ranch

19467.0

Shockproof

19496.4

The Shanghai Cobra

19456.0

Fingers at the Window

19425.7

Carrie

19526.4

Hollywood Canteen

19447.3

Gentleman Jim

19427.2

One Touch of Venus

19486.7

Angel on My Shoulder

19466.5

A Yank on the Burma Road

19425.7

Baby Take a Bow

19345.7

Step by Step

19466.2

Corvette K-225

19436.2

The Strawberry Blonde

19417.0

Manpower

19416.5

Abbott and Costello Go to Mars

19535.4

Critic's Choice

19635.6

Confidentially Connie

19535.8

Florian

19404.5

They Met in a Taxi

19366.8

Trouble Along the Way

19536.1

The All-American

19326.5

Bud Abbott and Lou Costello Meet the Killer, Boris Karloff

19496.6

Million Dollar Mermaid

19526.5

Affectionately Yours

19414.5

Prison Warden

19494.0

Wives Under Suspicion

19385.3

Rose of Washington Square

19396.7

Ten Gentlemen from West Point

19426.4

The Murder Man

19357.1

Broadway Melody of 1940

19406.8

When Tomorrow Comes

19395.4

South of Pago Pago

19405.5

The Affairs of Cellini

19345.2

The Missing Lady

19464.8

My Dear Miss Aldrich

19376.3

Song of the Thin Man

19476.7

Hold That Blonde!

19456.3

Dishonored Lady

19475.8

Girls Can Play

19375.2

Broadway

19426.4

Circumstantial Evidence

19455.2

Dangerously Yours

19375.8

It Ain't Hay

19436.5

The Velvet Touch

19486.3

Follow the Sun

19516.3

Oh! Susanna

19517.0

Johnny Angel

19456.0

Ride 'Em Cowboy

19416.0

Midnight Taxi

19376.2

Man on the Flying Trapeze

19356.2

Women Without Names

19404.7

Come Fill the Cup

19517.0

Destination Murder

19505.2

Pot o' Gold

19415.7

Alexander's Ragtime Band

19386.8

It All Came True

19405.8

Rock Island Trail

19506.3

New York Town

19418.5

Brother Orchid

19406.6

The Savage Horde

19506.2

Young Widow

19464.8

When the Daltons Rode

19406.2

Queen of the Mob

19406.2

Thank Your Lucky Stars

19436.2

Rendezvous

19354.9

Hold Back the Dawn

19416.7

Back Street

19326.4

Good Times

19675.2

Kid Glove Killer

19426.4

The Restless Breed

19575.5

Air Mail

19325.5

The Naked Street

19556.2

Nobody Lives Forever

19466.4

Hold That Hypnotist

19575.8

Johnny Apollo

19406.8

The Devil's Henchmen

19497.5

Three Loves Has Nancy

19384.2

Mission to Moscow

19435.7

Wild Is the Wind

19576.8

Sentimental Journey

19466.4

Castle on the Hudson

19407.0

The Lost Spider Pit Sequence

20056.7

Charlie Chan at the Race Track

19367.1

The Luckiest Girl in the World

19367.3

The Ice Follies of 1939

19395.7

Hot Steel

19407.5

I Dood It

19435.0

The Duke of West Point

19384.5

Rhubarb

19515.8

My Girl Tisa

19489.0

Swing Shift Maisie

19436.8

Rhythm on the River

19406.9

Armored Car Robbery

19506.5

The Golden Fleecing

19405.9

Mr. Winkle Goes to War

19447.1

Easy to Wed

19466.4

Sergeant Madden

19397.5

The Cisco Kid and the Lady

19395.4

The Further Adventures of Gallegher

1965

The Great Profile

19406.8

Once Upon a Time

19445.8

Beloved

19349.0

Lucky Cisco Kid

19406.0

The Night of January 16th

19415.8

Apache Ambush

19556.3

Murder, He Says

19456.8

Christmas Holiday

19446.5

Dragonfly Squadron

19546.5

Johnny Rocco

19585.6

Mannequin

19386.0

Girl in 313

19405.6

The Plunderers

19486.1

Uncertain Glory

19446.7

Tell No Tales

19395.4

Something to Shout About

19436.5

The Noose Hangs High

19486.9

Big Town Girl

19377.0

Law and Order

19768.0

According to Mrs. Hoyle

19515.7

They All Come Out

19395.9

Fast and Furious

19395.2

Everybody's Doing It

19386.0

The Daring Young Man

193510.0

Night in New Orleans

19424.2

Dangerous Number

19374.9

Angel's Holiday

19376.0

Joe and Ethel Turp Call on the President

19395.0

Massacre Canyon

19546.7

Woman Wanted

19356.8

Riding High

19435.6

Dakota Lil

19505.4

Joe Palooka in the Knockout

19478.0

The Way of All Flesh

19404.6

Secret Service Investigator

19487.5

They Shall Have Music

19396.5

Strange Affair

19446.2

Code of the Streets

19397.7

Footsteps in the Night

19575.6

Gateway

19387.4

I Promise to Pay

19376.0

Big Town Czar

19397.0

Four Mothers

19416.8

Wild Gold

19346.5

Over 21

19456.7

Born to Be Wild

19387.5

The Big Race

19349.0

Homicide

19495.7

Life Begins at Eight-Thirty

19426.8

Lightning Carson Rides Again

19385.3

The Gracie Allen Murder Case

19396.3

La Conga Nights

19407.7

Tin Pan Alley

19405.4

Okay, America!

19325.8

Manhattan Heartbeat

19408.0

Francis Gary Powers: The True Story of the U-2 Spy Incident

19767.0

Fighter Attack

19534.5

Murder on the Waterfront

19437.0

South Sea Sinner

19507.5

Live, Love and Learn

19375.6

Youth Will Be Served

19404.0

Hot News

19536.5

Here Come the Marines

19527.3

Rendezvous with Annie

19467.0

The Brand of Hate

19345.8

The Airmail Mystery

193210.0

The Eddie Cantor Story

19537.5

Night Spot

19384.6

Shipmates Forever

19356.6

Kathleen

19416.0

Hot Water

19376.5

I Beheld His Glory

1953

Abroad with Two Yanks

19446.7

Private Affairs

19407.0

Ride on Vaquero

19415.2

Mr. Wong in Chinatown

19395.4

There's Something About a Soldier

19435.4

Mississippi Rhythm

19497.0

Chinatown Squad

19357.5

Treat 'Em Rough

19428.0

McKenna of the Mounted

193210.0

We Go Fast

19416.7

Straight from the Heart

19359.0

While New York Sleeps

19387.0

Public Hero Number 1

19356.3

And One Was Beautiful

19406.7

Bedtime Story

19415.8

Blondie Hits the Jackpot

19497.0

Tars and Spars

19465.8

Robin Hood Of Texas

19477.0

Double Alibi

19405.3

Irish Luck

19396.4

Star of Texas

19537.0

Tough as They Come

19429.0

The Devil's Pipeline

19407.0

The Spider

19455.6

One Way Ticket

19356.0

Ship of Wanted Men

19333.8

Secrets of Chinatown

19355.3

Everybody's Baby

19398.0

Miracle Money

19386.0

Mickey the Kid

19399.0

Return of the Dead

19545.0

How to Behave

19367.8

Bungalow 13

19483.0

Riot Squad

19335.0

As We Forgive

1952

Convicts at Large

19387.0