
J. Farrell MacDonald
Biography
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
John Farrell MacDonald (June 6, 1875 – August 2, 1952) was an American character actor and director. He played supporting roles and occasional leads. He appeared in over 325 films over a 41-year career from 1911 to 1951, and directed forty-four silent films from 1912 to 1917.
MacDonald was the principal director of L. Frank Baum's Oz Film Manufacturing Company, and he can frequently be seen in the films of Frank Capra, Preston Sturges and, especially, John Ford.
Early in his career, MacDonald was a singer in minstrel shows, and he toured the United States extensively for two years with stage productions. He made his first silent film in 1911, a dramatic short entitled The Scarlett Letter made by Carl Laemmle's Independent Moving Pictures Company (IMP), the forerunner of Universal Pictures,. He continued to act in numerous films each year from that time on, and by 1912 he was directing them as well. The first film he directed was The Worth of a Man, another dramatic short, again for IMP, and he was to direct 43 more films until his last in 1917, Over the Fence, which he co-directed with Harold Lloyd. MacDonald had crossed paths with Lloyd several years earlier, when Lloyd was an extra and MacDonald had given him much-needed work – and he did the same with Hal Roach, both of whom appearing in small roles in The Patchwork Girl of Oz, which MacDonald directed in 1914. When Roach set up his own studio, with Lloyd as his principal attraction, he hired MacDonald to direct.
By 1918, MacDonald, who was to become one of the most beloved character men in Hollywood, had given up directing and was acting full-time, predominantly in Westerns and Irish comedies. He first worked under director John Ford in 1919's A Fight for Love. In all, Ford would use MacDonald on twenty-five films between 1919 and 1950.
With a voice that matched his personality, MacDonald made the transition to sound films easily, with no noticeable drop in his acting output – if anything, it went up. In 1931, for instance, MacDonald appeared in 14 films – among them the first version of The Maltese Falcon, in which he played "Detective Tom Polhaus" – and in 22 of them in 1932. Although he played laborers, policemen, military men and priests, among many other characters, his roles were usually a cut above a "bit part". His characters usually had names, and he was most often credited for his performances. A highlight of this period was his performance as the hobo "Mr. Tramp" in Our Little Girl with Shirley Temple (1935).
In the 1940s, MacDonald was part of Preston Sturges' unofficial "stock company" of character actors, appearing in seven films written and directed by Sturges. MacDonald appeared in Sullivan's Travels, The Palm Beach Story, The Miracle of Morgan's Creek, The Great Moment, The Sin of Harold Diddlebock, Unfaithfully Yours and The Beautiful Blonde from Bashful Bend, Sturges' last American film. Earlier, MacDonald had also appeared in The Power and the Glory, which Sturges wrote. His work on Sturges' films was generally uncredited. He was notable in 1946 in John Ford's My Darling Clementine in which he played "Mac," the bartender in the town saloon. MacDonald also had uncredited roles in It's a Wonderful Life and Here Comes The Groom.
Acting (261 movies)

Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans
1927

It's a Wonderful Life
1946

My Darling Clementine
1946

The Sin of Harold Diddlebock
1947

Topper
1937

Stormy
1935

The Wallop
1921

The Vanishing Frontier
1933

The Palm Beach Story
1942

Panhandle
1948

3 Bad Men
1926

Captains of the Clouds
1942

This Sporting Age
1932

The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer
1947

The Freeze-Out
1921

The Maltese Falcon
1931

Woman on the Run
1950

The Living Ghost
1942

No Man of Her Own
1932

Johnny Angel
1945

Bullet Proof
1920

Over the Border
1922

Superman and the Mole Men
1951

$5,000 Reward
1918

Thunder in the Valley
1947

The Ape Man
1943

Drifting
1923

Steady Company
1932

Quicksands
1923

Racing Hearts
1923

Bowery at Midnight
1942

Mr. Belvedere Rings the Bell
1951

Reap the Wild Wind
1942

Let Women Alone
1925

A Trip to Chinatown
1926

Barefoot Boy
1938

The Crime Doctor
1934

Riding with Death
1921

Hostile Country
1950

Riders of the Timberline
1941

The Whole Town's Talking
1935

The Iron Horse
1925

The Stolen Jools
1931

Bertha the Sewing Machine Girl
1926

The Walls of Jericho
1948

Desperate Youth
1921

Harrigan's Kid
1943

You're My Everything
1949

The Thirteenth Guest
1932

The Working Man
1933

The Power and the Glory
1933

The Phantom Express
1932

Under Eighteen
1932

Riffraff
1936

Manslaughter
1922

In Old Cheyenne
1941

Full Confession
1939

I Loved a Woman
1933

Paid to Love
1927

Masquerade
1929

Sky High
1922

Zenobia
1939

The Last Alarm
1940

Fury at Furnace Creek
1948

The Easiest Way
1931

Come On, Rangers
1938

Swellhead
1935

Heritage of the Desert
1932

Hotel Continental
1932

Phantom Killer
1942

Scandal for Sale
1932

Discarded Lovers
1932

Peg o' My Heart
1933

The Brass Bowl
1924

Hearts of Humanity
1932

Exclusive Story
1936

Murder on the Campus
1933

The Healer
1935

East Side, West Side
1927

Danger Ahead
1935

Shadows of the Orient
1935

Lightnin'
1925

4 Devils
1928

The Squaw Man
1931

Waterfront Lady
1935

The Truth About Youth
1930

Romance in Manhattan
1935

Riley the Cop
1928

Cradle Snatchers
1927

The Millionaire
1931

The Pride of the Legion
1932

Probation
1932

I Take This Oath
1940

The Best Man Wins
1935

Man of Two Worlds
1934

The Hit Parade
1937

Flying Fists
1937

The Signal Tower
1924

Sporting Blood
1931

Keeper of the Bees
1947
Directing (8 movies)
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