Wallace Ford

"Sam Grundy" redirects here. For the character, see Love on the Dole.
Wallace Ford

Wallace Ford in Central Park (1932)
Born Samuel Jones Grundy
(1898-02-12)12 February 1898
Bolton, Lancashire, England
Died 11 June 1966(1966-06-11) (aged 68)
Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Other names Wally Ford
Occupation Actor
Years active 1918–1965
Spouse(s) Martha Haworth (m. 1922–66)
Children Patricia (1927-2005)

Wallace Ford (12 February 1898 – 11 June 1966) was an American stage, film and television actor of English origin. Usually playing wise-cracking characters, he combined a tough but friendly demeanor with a small but powerful build.

Early life

Born Samuel Jones Grundy in Bolton, Lancashire, England, into a working-class family of limited means. At the age of three, he was placed by his uncle and aunt, in whose care he had been, into a Dr. Barnardo's orphanage home, as they were unable to maintain his upkeep along with their own several children. When he was seven, he and other children from similar backgrounds were shipped to Canada to be found new homes with farming foster families as a part of the British Empire's on-going programme to populate the territory. Samuel was adopted by a family in Manitoba. He was ill-treated, however, and became a serial runaway, being resettled several times with different families by the Canadian authorities. According to his own account, at the age of 11, he ran away for the last time and joined a vaudeville traveling troupe touring Canada called 'The Winnipeg Kiddies', where he acquired his initial training as a performer.[1]

In 1914, 16-year-old Samuel and another youth named Wallace Ford decided to head south to the United States to seek their fortune, riding a freight train illicitly. During the trip, Ford was killed beneath the wheels of a train. Later, Samuel adopted as his stage name the name of his dead traveling companion.

Acting career

Following military service as a trooper at Fort Riley, in Kansas with the United States Army Cavalry during World War I,[1] he became a vaudeville stage actor in an American stock company. In 1919, he performed in an adaptation of Booth Tarkington's Seventeen, which played to full houses in Chicago for several months, before transferring to a successful run on Broadway in New York City.[2] Ford became a successful Broadway performer through the Roaring Twenties, appearing in multiple productions, including the lead role in the Broadway smash hit of 'Abie's Irish Rose'.[1][3]

He made the move into movies with a debut in Swellhead in 1930. In 1931, he appeared alongside Clark Gable and Joan Crawford in Possessed, and the next year he was given the lead in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's notorious Freaks. Ford went on to have an extensive career over thirty years, appearing in more than one hundred and fifty films, with lead roles in the 1930s and '40s in Hollywood B movies such as The Rogues Tavern (1936), Murder by Invitation (1941) and Roar of the Press (1941); and supporting roles in larger feature films such as The Lost Patrol (1934), Spellbound (1945) and Dead Reckoning (1947).

In 1937, he returned to the Broadway stage to play the role of 'George' in the original production of Of Mice & Men.[3]

In 1945, Ford appeared in the film Blood on the Sun alongside Jimmy Cagney, whose physique and acting style resembled his own. In the late 1940s and into the '50s, he transitioned into a character actor, appearing as a regular performer in the newly fashionable Western genre, and in multiple John Ford productions as one of his preferred support players.

He worked also in television towards the end of his career, including an appearance in an episode of The Andy Griffith Show in the role of 'Roger Hanover', Aunt Bee's old flame, in 1964.

His final performance was in the movie A Patch of Blue in 1965, for which he received a Golden Laurel nomination.

Personal life

Ford met his future wife Martha in 1922 while they were performing together on Broadway in Abie's Irish Rose, she being a chorus girl at the time. They had one child, a daughter named Patricia (1927-2005).[1]

After the death of his wife in February 1966, Ford moved into the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital at Woodland Hills, California, and died in the hospital there of heart failure a few months later.[1] His body was buried in an unmarked grave at Culver City's Holy Cross Cemetery.

Partial Broadway credits

Partial filmography

Partial television credits

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Boyd Magers. "Characters and Heavies: Wallace Ford".
  2. ↑ Hal Erickson, Allmovie biography on Wallace Ford
  3. 1 2 Wallace Ford at the Internet Broadway Database
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