
American character actor whose career lasted nearly half a century. James Wilson Flavin Jr. was the son of a hotel waiter of Canadian-English extraction and a mother, Katherine, whose father was an Irish immigrant. (Thus Flavin, well-known in Hollywood as an "Irish" type, was only one-quarter Irish.) Flavin was born and raised in Portland, Maine (a fact that may have enrichened his later working relationship with director John Ford, also a Portland native). He attended the United States Military Academy at West Point, but (contrary to some sources) did not graduate. Instead he dropped out and returned to Portland where he drove a taxi. Then as now, summer stock companies flocked to Maine each year, and in 1929 he was asked to fill in for an actor. He did well with the part and the company manager offered him $150 per week to go with the troupe back to New York. Flavin accepted and by the spring of 1930 was living in a rooming house at 108 W. 87th Street in Manhattan. Flavin didn't manage to crack Broadway at this time (his Broadway debut would not occur for another thirty-nine years, in the 1971 revival of "The Front Page," in which Flavin played Murphy and briefly took over the lead role of Walter Burns from star Robert Ryan). He worked his way across the country in stock productions and tours, arriving in Los Angeles around 1932. He quickly made the transition to movies, landing the lead in his very first film, a Universal serial, The Airmail Mystery (1932). He also landed his leading lady, marrying the serial's female star Lucile Browne that same year. However, the serial marked virtually the last time that Flavin would play the lead in a film. Thereafter, he was restricted almost exclusively to supporting characters, many of them without so much as a name. He specialized in uniformed cops and hard-bitten detectives, but played chauffeurs, cabbies, and even a 16th-century palace guard with aplomb. Flavin appeared in nearly four hundred films between 1932 and 1971, and in almost a hundred television episodes before his final appearance, as President Dwight D. Eisenhower in Francis Gary Powers: The True Story of the U-2 Spy Incident (1976). Flavin died of a heart ailment at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles on April 23, 1976. His widow Lucile died seventeen days later. They were survived by their son, William James Flavin, subsequently a professor at the United States Army War College. James and Lucile Brown Flavin were buried at Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City, California.

New York Town

Hallmark Hall of Fame

トワイライト・ゾーン

The Addams Family

I Love Lucy

怒りの葡萄

Alfred Hitchcock Presents

ローラ殺人事件

ミルドレッド・ピアース

キング・コング

My Man Godfrey

彼奴は顔役だ!

冷血

How to Behave

La Conga Nights

The Luckiest Girl in the World

我が家の楽園

Remember the Night

Hollywood Canteen

The Last Hurrah

Schlitz Playhouse of Stars

凸凹劇場 アボット・コステロ

Nightmare Alley

Charlie Chan at the Race Track

Gentleman Jim

Action in the North Atlantic

You Only Live Once

ザ・ルーシー・ショー

呪いの血

The Rifleman

ミスタア・ロバーツ

Blondie

Born to Be Wild

五番街の出来事

Flamingo Road

Start Cheering

Code of the Streets

Come Fill the Cup

The New Breed

City Detective

おかしなおかしなおかしな世界

猟奇島

The Strawberry Blonde

I Wake Up Screaming

The Murder Man

God Is My Co-Pilot

逃走迷路

天国は待ってくれる

Johnny Apollo

I Am the Law

Anchors Aweigh

Murder, He Says

O. Henry's Full House

When Willie Comes Marching Home

Castle on the Hudson

Rhythm on the River

Only Yesterday

The Noose Hangs High

Mister Ed

Each Dawn I Die

Alexander's Ragtime Band

Song of the Thin Man

Uncertain Glory

Manpower

Cheyenne Autumn

Broadway Melody of 1940

Hold Back the Dawn

One Touch of Venus

Buck Privates

The Brady Bunch

The Lost Spider Pit Sequence

My Favorite Brunette

Union Pacific

'G' Men

The Long Voyage Home

Wild Is the Wind

Brother Orchid

Ziegfeld Girl

Test Pilot

Armored Car Robbery

Blondie Hits the Jackpot

Boys' Ranch

Life Begins at Eight-Thirty

The Wild Man of Borneo

Air Force

Gateway

Angel on My Shoulder

Texas

Shipmates Forever

Fighting Coast Guard

凸凹殺人ホテル

Swing Shift Maisie

Mr. Novak

Letter to Loretta

Alcoa Theatre

地獄への道

The Ghost Breakers

Night Passage

Cloak and Dagger

Reap the Wild Wind

Never Say Goodbye

黄昏

Rose of Washington Square

Christmas Holiday

Sentimental Journey

Million Dollar Mermaid

It Ain't Hay

General Electric Theater

Death Valley Days

Mighty Joe Young

A Stolen Life

North West Mounted Police

Unconquered

Sleep, My Love

Woman Wanted

The Great Profile

Shockproof

Nobody Lives Forever

Follow the Sun

We Go Fast

They Shall Have Music

And One Was Beautiful

Easy to Wed

Four Mothers

Strange Affair

Special Agent

Richard Diamond, Private Detective

Sailor Beware

Nora Prentiss

The Velvet Touch

Step by Step

Kid Glove Killer

Public Hero Number 1

Thank Your Lucky Stars

My Dear Miss Aldrich

Corvette K-225

The Naked Street

Back Street

Man on the Flying Trapeze

When the Daltons Rode

Knute Rockne All American

Operation Pacific

Here Come the Marines

The Devil's Henchmen

Desert Fury

Dragonfly Squadron

Abroad with Two Yanks

The Devil's Pipeline

Sergeant Madden

Rock Island Trail

Chinatown Squad

西部魂

Big Town Girl

Rendezvous with Annie

Over 21

Joe Palooka in the Knockout

Secret Service Investigator

Hold That Blonde!

Burke's Law

December Bride

Sam Benedict

Pete and Gladys

Racket Squad

Coronado 9

Trouble Along the Way

Apache Ambush

Ride 'Em Cowboy

Johnny Angel

It All Came True

Mannequin

Too Hot to Handle

The Savage Horde

Irish Luck

Hello, Sister!

Ten Gentlemen from West Point

Something to Shout About

The Shanghai Cobra

Belle Starr

So Proudly We Hail

Dishonored Lady

Public Defender

The Fighting 69th

Once Upon a Time

They All Come Out

The Ice Follies of 1939

The Gracie Allen Murder Case

Lucky Cisco Kid

Miracle Money

Baby Take a Bow

The Plunderers

Mission to Moscow

Critic's Choice

Pot o' Gold

Fingers at the Window

They Met in a Taxi

Bedtime Story

Angel's Holiday

I Promise to Pay

Broadway

Dr. Kildare

Footsteps in the Night

Girl in 313

凸凹火星探検

Confidentially Connie

Homicide

The Golden Fleecing

The Spider

Rhubarb

Okay, America!

The Pruitts of Southampton

Mr. Wong in Chinatown

Queen of the Mob

Johnny Rocco

The Restless Breed

When Tomorrow Comes

Destination Murder

Francis in the Haunted House

Hold That Hypnotist

Live, Love and Learn

Good Times

Tin Pan Alley

One Way Ticket

Hot News

Kathleen

Wild Gold

Murder on the Waterfront

Wives Under Suspicion

Mississippi Rhythm

Massacre Canyon

The Eddie Cantor Story

Oh! Susanna

Midnight Taxi

According to Mrs. Hoyle

Dakota Lil

The Night of January 16th

Hot Water

The All-American

Hot Steel

South Sea Sinner

Return of the Dead

Air Mail

Surfside 6

The Millionaire

Matinee Theater

The Living Christ

The Affairs of Cellini

The Cisco Kid and the Lady

Lightning Carson Rides Again

South of Pago Pago

Circumstantial Evidence

The Brand of Hate

Fast and Furious

Tars and Spars

Cain's Hundred

The Missing Lady

Tell No Tales

Man with a Camera

Young Widow

Girls Can Play

Everybody's Doing It

Secrets of Chinatown

Captain Hurricane

Riding High

Fighter Attack

Dangerous Number

Rendezvous

Dangerously Yours

I Dood It

Ride on Vaquero

The Way of All Flesh

Women Without Names

Convicts at Large

A Yank on the Burma Road

Double Alibi

Affectionately Yours

The Duke of West Point

Three Loves Has Nancy

Night Spot

Night in New Orleans

Cavalcade of America

Dangerous Assignment

Riot Squad

Climax!

Joe and Ethel Turp Call on the President

Ship of Wanted Men

Youth Will Be Served

Prison Warden

Bungalow 13

Florian

My Girl Tisa

McKenna of the Mounted

The Further Adventures of Gallegher

Law and Order

While New York Sleeps

The Airmail Mystery

Manhattan Heartbeat

The Daring Young Man

Everybody's Baby

Thru Different Eyes

Francis Gary Powers: The True Story of the U-2 Spy Incident

Robin Hood Of Texas

I Beheld His Glory

Tough as They Come

Star of Texas

Big Town Czar

The Big Race

Private Affairs

Beloved

Mickey the Kid

Straight from the Heart

The Roaring 20's

Johnny Midnight