James Cagney
James Cagney
James Francis Cagney, Jr. was an American actor and dancer, both on stage and in film, though he had his greatest impact in film. Known for his consistently energetic performances, distinctive vocal style, and deadpan comic timing, he won acclaim and major awards for a wide variety of performances. He is best remembered for playing multifaceted tough guys in movies such as The Public Enemy, Taxi!, Angels with Dirty Faces, and White Heatand was even typecast or limited by this...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionMovie Actor
Date of Birth17 July 1899
CityNew York City, NY
CountryUnited States of America
The Postman Always RingsTwice.
One thing that troubles me is that they say that my portrayals of gangsters and hoodlums led to a tolerance of the criminal element by society. Well, I certainly hope they didn't, because I'm firmly opposed to crime.
The 1920s were essentially the time when I learned the business of performing. It was my initiation into the world of show business.
If the American family has seemed in danger of disintegration, I believe and hope it will survive, and I think America will return to old values.
Outside of my family, the prime concern of my life has been nature and its order, and how we have been savagely altering that order.
I never had the slightest difficulty with a fellow actor. Not until One, Two, Three. In that picture, Horst Buchholz tried all sorts of scene-stealing didoes. I came close to knocking him on his ass.
I got a part as a chorus girl in a show called Every Sailor and I had fun doing it. Mother didn't really approve of it, through.
You know, the period of World War I and the Roaring Twenties were really just about the same as today. You worked, and you made a living if you could, and you tired to make the best of things. For an actor or a dancer, it was no different then than today. It was a struggle.
Once a song and dance man, always a song and dance man. Those few words tell as much about me professionally as there is to tell.
There's not much to say about acting but this. Never settle back on your heels. Never relax. If you relax, the audience relaxes. And always mean everything you say.
You dirty, double-crossing rat.
New Orleans is 5 feet below sea level, which means that holes dug in the ground immediately fill with water. Coffins were punctured and sunk with weights, which didn't stop them from floating up out of the cemeteries and down the streets of the French Quarter on stormy nights. The solution was to bury people above ground, in what are called vaults.
You don't psych yourself up for these things, you do them... I'm acting for the audience, not for myself, and I do it as directly as I can.
Learn your lines… plant your feet… look the other actor in the eye… say the words… mean them.