
J.M. Kerrigan
Biography
Joseph Michael Kerrigan (16 December 1884 – 29 April 1964), better known as J.M. Kerrigan, was an Irish character actor. Kerrigan was born in Dublin, Ireland. He worked as a newspaper reporter until 1907 when he joined the famous Abbey Players. There he became a stalwart, appearing in plays by Lady Gregory, William Butler Yeats and John Millington Synge (for whom he played the role of Shawn Keogh in The Playboy of the Western World. His first screen appearance was in the silent film Food of Love in 1916. By the 1920s he was appearing on Broadway, often in plays by Shakespeare, Ibsen, and Sheridan. He settled permanently in Hollywood in 1935, having been recruited along with several other Abbey performers, to appear in John Ford's The Informer. In that film and in Ford's The Long Voyage Home, he plays similar roles, that of a leech who attaches himself to men until they run out of money. Perhaps his best known role was in The General Died at Dawn, where he plays a character actually named Leach, in which he steals scenes from Gary Cooper, Madeleine Carroll and William Frawley. In it he plays a sinister little petty thief who, holding a gun on Cooper, says, "I may be fat, but I'm agile." He had little screen time in films which he starred as minor roles, such as the "First Drayman" in Merely Mary Ann (1931) with Janet Gaynor. One of his most recognizable minor roles was in Gone with the Wind (1939), in which he played John Gallegher, the seemly jovial mill owner who whips his convict labour in to "co-operation". He appeared in Walt Disney's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954), the famous film version of Jules Verne's Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea in a minor role at the beginning of the film. In 1946, he tried breaking into Broadway shows, playing the discombobulated leprechaun Jackeen J. O'Malley in the show "Barnaby and Mr. O'Malley", based on the Crockett Johnson comic strip. J. M. Kerrigan died in Hollywood on 29 April 1964, aged 79. Kerrigan has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6621 Hollywood Blvd.
Personal Info
Gender
Male
Birthday
1884-12-16
Place of Birth
Dublin, Ireland
Images

Cast
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
19547.0 / 10
Gone with the Wind
19397.9 / 10
Call Northside 777
19486.6 / 10
The Fighting Seabees
19446.2 / 10
Park Row
19526.7 / 10
The Fastest Gun Alive
19566.9 / 10
Captains of the Clouds
19426.4 / 10
Werewolf of London
19356.0 / 10
The Wolf Man
19417.0 / 10
The Informer
19356.7 / 10
The Black Camel
19316.0 / 10
A Study in Scarlet
19335.5 / 10
The Lost Patrol
19346.5 / 10
Congo Maisie
19404.2 / 10
Air Hostess
19335.8 / 10
Lloyd's of London
19367.1 / 10
The Key
19345.0 / 10
The Witness Vanishes
19396.3 / 10
Lone Cowboy
19333.5 / 10
The Prisoner of Shark Island
19366.8 / 10
The Spanish Main
19456.3 / 10
Colleen
19365.3 / 10
The Big Bonanza
19445.5 / 10
One Crowded Night
19404.0 / 10
The Silver Whip
19536.4 / 10
Paddy the Next Best Thing
19331.0 / 10
Timothy's Quest
19363.0 / 10
My Cousin Rachel
19526.7 / 10
Mrs. Mike
19492.0 / 10
Abie's Irish Rose
19460.0 / 10
Black Beauty
19465.9 / 10
Sorority House
19396.8 / 10
Vanessa: Her Love Story
19356.0 / 10
The Fountain
19349.5 / 10
Vanity Street
19326.8 / 10
It's a Dog's Life
19553.0 / 10
The Luck of the Irish
19485.7 / 10
Spring Madness
19383.9 / 10
Little Old New York
19236.4 / 10
Lightnin'
19303.7 / 10
6,000 Enemies
19396.0 / 10
The Zero Hour
19394.5 / 10
The Fighting O'Flynn
19496.0 / 10
She Went to the Races
19455.5 / 10
The Sea Hawk
19407.1 / 10
The Plough and the Stars
19365.8 / 10
Special Investigator
19365.8 / 10
Two Thoroughbreds
19392.0 / 10
Ride a Crooked Mile
19380.0 / 10
The Crime Doctor's Warning
19455.5 / 10
Undercover Agent
19393.9 / 10
The Wild North
19526.9 / 10
A Feather in Her Hat
19356.8 / 10
Hot Tip
19355.0 / 10
The Flying Irishman
19394.6 / 10
Union Pacific
19396.5 / 10
The Kid From Texas
19396.5 / 10
Barbary Coast
19356.6 / 10
A Modern Hero
19347.0 / 10
Don't Bet on Women
19314.2 / 10
Spendthrift
19365.0 / 10
Careless Lady
19325.2 / 10
Appointment for Love
19415.7 / 10
Young Tom Edison
19405.6 / 10
The Great Man Votes
19396.1 / 10
Rockabye
19326.2 / 10
No Time for Comedy
19405.4 / 10
The Great John L.
19455.0 / 10
The Long Voyage Home
19406.6 / 10
Untamed
19404.3 / 10
London by Night
19375.9 / 10
Sabotage
19397.0 / 10
Curtain Call
19407.3 / 10
Sealed Cargo
19516.4 / 10
Song o' My Heart
19304.4 / 10
Lucky In Love
19290.0 / 10
Little Orphan Annie
19380.0 / 10
Tarzan and the Amazons
19456.3 / 10
The General Died at Dawn
19366.2 / 10
The Vanishing Virginian
19426.0 / 10
New Movietone Follies of 1930
19300.0 / 10
Wilson
19445.5 / 10
Action in the North Atlantic
19437.1 / 10
Mr. Lucky
19437.0 / 10
Laughing Irish Eyes
19360.0 / 10
The Rainbow Trail
19320.0 / 10
Merely Mary Ann
19310.0 / 10
Let's Make a Million
19360.0 / 10
Two Bright Boys
19390.0 / 10
Vacation from Love
19380.0 / 10
Under Suspicion
19300.0 / 10
The Mystery of Edwin Drood
19355.5 / 10
Two of a Kind
19516.7 / 10