Character Actor James Gleason Best Known For Here Comes Mr Jordan

Nov 14, 2010
Barry M. Grey

The jaunty, dapper James Gleason - Image courtesy Findagrave.com

Staged-trained James Gleason, the gifted character actor who enlivened many a vintage Hollywood film, was also a witty playwright and screenwriter.

Gleason is best remembered for an Oscar-nominated role in the fantasy Here Comes Mr. Jordan. The part was pure Gleason – that of a rough-around-the-edges fight trainer who can’t mask his warm, heart-of-gold humanity.

James Gleason Born in a Trunk to Show Biz Parents

A keen intelligence and wiseguy attitude informed much of Gleason’s work as one of Hollywood’s more reliable supporting players in 150 roles over 30-plus years. If he didn’t actually wink at the audience, the knowing sparkle in his eye cued everyone he was having a blast.

The versatile Gleason won over audiences playing everything from milk cart drivers and police inspectors to gamblers, tough guys and political cronies. He seemed to bring a kinetic energy to nearly every role.

Wiry, bald, craggy-voiced James Austin “Jimmie” Gleason was born in New York City in May, 1882 (some sources say 1886) to stage troupers William and Mina Gleason. He once told the Los Angeles Times his stage debut came at age two months when he was carried onstage in the play Clouds.

Jimmie Gleason Fights in Both Spanish-American War and World War I

The teenaged Gleason fought in the Spanish-American War, later joining his parents, who were running Oakland’s Liberty Theatre. In 1906, the 24-year-old actor married actress Lucile Webster, whom he met at the Liberty. Two years later, their only child, Russell, was born.

Jimmie and Lucile Gleason eventually toured in road shows before moving to New York in 1914 so Jimmie could make his Broadway debut in Pretty Mrs. Smith. But the box office wasn’t so pretty; the show closed in less than six weeks.

Gleason continued on the New York stage, but his career was interrupted by another war. He enlisted in the army for World War I, returning afterward to Broadway.

Gleason and Wife Deeply Involved in Strike, Union Organizing

In 1919, the Gleasons joined Actors’ Equity while appearing in The Five Million. Days later, they walked off the play when Equity joined forces with the American Federation of Labor and called a strike to demand producers recognize the association as a union.

After the strike, Jimmie's career gained traction with roles including that of a pretend-millionaire in Like a King (1921) and, two years later, the disillusioned playwright in The Deep Tangled Wildwood.

(Lucile remained active in labor issues, eventually serving as the first treasurer of the newly-formed Screen Actors Guild in 1933.)

James Gleason made his movie debut in the 1922 silent romantic comedy Polly of the Follies. But Polly was a floppy and Jimmie wouldn’t make another movie for six years.

James Gleason Writes Broadway Hits Is Zat So? and The Shannons of Broadway

Meantime, the ambitious actor turned to play writing, scoring big with 1925’s Is Zat So? Gleason co-starred in the hit he co-wrote with veteran Broadway scribe Richard Taber. Two years later, Gleason wrote The Shannons of Broadway for himself and Lucile. The comedy, about a pair of vaudevillians stranded in a small town, ran for 288 performances, through mid-1928.

In 1929, Jimmie and Lucile Gleason came west to make the movie version of Shannons for Universal. In L.A., Gleason also found quick success writing for the movies. At MGM, he collaborated on The Broadway Melody – which won just the Best Picture Oscar at the second Academy Awards. In the next two years, he co-wrote five scripts, performed with Lucile in several short films and acted non-stop.

Gleason Memorable in Hollywood Classics Meet John Doe and Here Comes Mr. Jordan

But by the late ‘30s, Jimmie Gleason put down his pen in favor of playing character roles, including a B-picture detective series from RKO. In the half-dozen comic crime thrillers, Gleason played a put-upon police inspector opposite spinster schoolteacher-sleuth Hildegard Withers, played variously by Edna Mae Oliver, Helen Broderick and Zasu Pitts.

The 1940s belonged to Gleason. In ‘41, he was the memorably conflicted newspaper editor in Frank Capra’s Meet John Doe. That same year brought the supporting actor Oscar nomination for a role that defined the best sides of his screen persona.

In Here Comes Mr. Jordan, Gleason tiptoed through a farcical mine field as Max “Pop” Corkle, the trainer for prizefighter Joe Pendleton (Robert Montgomery). Joe is mistakenly sent to the afterlife, but gets a second chance on earth to continue his quest for the title.

James Gleason Hilarious, Touching as Max "Pop" Corkle

For help, Joe must convince the lovably befuddled Max it’s really him. No small feat, since Joe is now in someone else’s body.

As Max, Gleason must navigate confusion, disbelief and astonishment before accepting the reality of Joe’s predicament and helping him prepare to fight. Gleason brought fun and unexpected sensitivity to the role, although he lost the Oscar to Donald Crisp for How Green Was My Valley.

Through the 1940s, James Gleason enjoyed an enviable run in A-pictures including A Guy Named Joe, Arsenic and Old Lace, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Down to Earth (in which he reprised the role of Max Corkle) and The Bishop’s Wife, among others.

Dual Tragedies Strike Gleason Family

Life dealt Gleason twin tragedies in the '40s. The first involved son Russell, who had followed two generations of Gleasons into show business. Drafted near the end of World War 2, the 37-year-old movie actor fell from a Manhattan hotel window the day after Christmas, 1945 – just before he was to be deployed to Europe. Despite questions, the death was ruled an accident.

Seventeen months later, Lucile Gleason died suddenly of a heart attack at age 59.

Jimmie Gleason kept working. Through the 1950s, he turned up in diverse fare including What Price Glory?, Suddenly, The Night of the Hunter and The Last Hurrah. He also worked extensively in television, everything from Alfred Hitchcock Presents to Leave it to Beaver.

James Gleason was five weeks shy of his 77th birthday when he died in the spring of 1959. The Gleasons are buried at Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City, California.