Brian Donlevy is an Irish American character actor best known for his roles in Hollywood films of the 1930s and 1950s.
Biography
Donlevy was born in Portadown, Northern Ireland, UK (according to some sources, he was born in Ohio or Cleveland, Ohio) on February 9, 1901, to a whiskey producer. When he was 10 months old, the family moved to the United States and settled in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, where his father, after changing several professions, eventually went into the wool business. Eight years later, the Donlevy family moved from Wisconsin to Cleveland, Ohio.
In 1916, at the age of 14, Donlevy ran away from home, hoping to join General Pershing's army, which was heading towards the Mexican border to destroy the Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa and his army. After crediting himself with several years, he was recruited and sent to Mexico as part of the expeditionary force. Nine months later, Donlevy returned home, after which his parents enrolled him at St. John's Northwest Military School in Delafield, Wisconsin, but Donlevy fled again, presumably to go to World War I. Having finally completed his secondary education in Cleveland, Donlevy then studied for two years at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, where he became interested in amateur theater. He also loved to write poetry, and this hobby remained with him for the rest of his life. In the end, after two years of study, he left the Academy and moved to New York, "hoping to find fame and fortune on the stage," but at first he could hardly make ends meet, trying to sell his poems and other works, and also posed for a magazine advertising.
Career
Brian's acting career started in the early 1920s in New York, where he appeared very actively on the stages of several theaters, and even managed to get into several silent films. In 1934, after the success in the Broadway play Milky Way, Donlevy was invited to Hollywood to reprise his role in the film version of this play, but when he arrived in Hollywood, it turned out that the production of the film had been postponed indefinitely. After all, the film was made in 1936 with William Gargan in the role that Donlevy was to play.
In 1936, Donlevy signed a contract with Twentieth Century Fox, "playing over the next several years the roles of both the main characters in category B films and villains in category A films." In the captivating comedy High Voltage (1936), Donlevy played the role of a deep-sea diver who falls in love with a writer, and in the detective comedy Half Angel (1936), starring Francis Dee, he played a reporter trying to investigate to prove the protagonist's innocence. In the musical crime comedy "Wow" (1936), he played a tough guy opposing the main character, an unlucky employee of an amusement park, played by Eddie Cantor. In the crime comedy Human Cargo (1936), Donlevy and Claire Trevor played a pair of competing journalists investigating a criminal organization that smuggles illegal immigrants into North America. The crime melodrama “36 Hours to Kill” (1936) told about the hunt for the mafia boss, which is led on the train by a government agent (Donlevy) and an attractive journalist (Gloria Stewart), in the course of the story falling in love with each other.
In the second half of the 1930s, Donlevy played a lot, but, as a rule, in rather strong, but standard films. Finally, in 1939, Donlevy starred in four films at once, which had a resounding success - “Jesse James. A Timeless Hero”,“Union Pacific”,“Destri Back in the Saddle”and“Handsome Gesture”. In the hugely successful biographical western Jesse James. A Timeless Hero (1939) with Tyrone Power in the title role Donlevy played a supporting role, as well as in another significant western - Cecil de Mille's epic drama Union Pacific (1939), which was awarded the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. He also played the role of the unscrupulous saloon owner in another hugely successful western with elements of action, romance and suspense, Destry Back in the Saddle (1939), starring Marlene Dietrich and James Stewart. Finally, Donlevy's most significant work in 1939 was the role of the ruthless, brutal and brave Sergeant Markoff in Paramount's action adventure Pretty Boy Gesture (1939), a remake of the popular silent 1926 film set in the ranks of the French Foreign Legion.
After signing a deal with Paramount Studios, Donlevy played one of his most memorable roles - the role of McGinty in Preston Sturges' political satirical comedy The Great McGinty (1940). In 1944, Donlevy reprized the role of the main character of this film in the military comedy Miracle at Morgan's Creek (1944). In the 1950s, Donlevy also starred in three noir films - Gangster Empire (1952), The Big Ensemble (1955) and Scream in the Night (1956). In "Gangster Empire" (1952) Donlevy created the image of a senator and a firm associate of Senator Estes Kefauver, who is investigating the activities of organized crime. Director Joseph H. Lewis's The Big Ensemble (1955) was one of the more interesting examples of the film noir genre. In 1969, Donlevy starred in the low-budget sports car racing action Pit Stop (1969), which became his last film.
Personal life
Donlevy has been married three times. In 1928 he married Yvonne Gray, whom he divorced in 1936. In 1935, Donlevy got engaged to a young actress and nightclub singer, Marjorie Lane, and they got married the following year. In the marriage they had a daughter, Judith Ann, but they divorced in 1947. The next time Donlevy married 19 years later, in 1966, the widow of the famous horror film actor Bela Lugosi - Lillian, whose marriage lasted until his death in 1972.
In 1971, Donlevy was diagnosed with throat cancer. In the same year, he underwent throat surgery, and on March 10, 1972, he was admitted to the Woodland Hills Film Hospital. Less than a month later, on April 5, 1972, he died of cancer.
