J. Farrell MacDonald
Personal Info
Known For Actor
Gender Male
Birthday 1875-06-05
Deathday 1952-08-02 (77 years old)
Place of Birth Waterbury, Connecticut, USA
Also Known As Joseph Farrell MacDonald, John Farrell MacDonald, Farrell Macdonald, J. Farrell McDonald, J.F. McDonald
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.
Known For
Actor
as Self (archive footage)
as Pop Shannon
as Husband on Airplane
as Mr. Kroeger
as Cap, the Retired Ferryboat Captain
as Mr. Lane (uncredited)
as Alvin
as Gilby - Pharmacist (uncredited)
as Ellis
as Judge Price
as Doorman (uncredited)
as Pop Lockhart
as Apartment House Manager (uncredited)
as Bill Baggs
as Sheriff Cap Weatherby
as Bailiff (uncredited)
as Doc Benson
as Pops Murphy (uncredited)
as Cop (uncredited)
as Doc Cooper
as Police Sergeant (uncredited)
as McPherson - Innkeeper
as Policeman (uncredited)
as Mac, Bailiff (uncredited)
as Postmaster
as Scotty MacKronish - Bus Driver
as Desk Sergeant (uncredited)
as Man Whose Grandfather Planted Tree (uncredited)
as Gardener
as Mac the barman
as Jim, the Cook
as Long-Count Bowman
as Bank Guard (uncredited)
as Capt. Angel
as Jury Foreman
as Mr. Carney The Junkman (uncredited)
as Street Vendor (uncredited)
as O'Shea, policeman
as The Priest
as John Martindale
as Man (uncredited)
as Sheriff (uncredited)
as Geoffrey MacCardle
as Captain O'Brien
as Frank (uncredited)
as Cop
as Capt. Mitchell
as Police Captain
as Officer O'Donnell (uncredited)
as Police Lt. 'Pete' Peterson
as Police Sergeant Haggerty
as Port Captain
as Dr. Neville (from Churchtown)
as Henry Hathaway
as Gen. Rosewater
as Adams
as Jim Kerrigan
as Mulcahey
as Dr. Ferguson
as Tim Casey
as 'Sourpuss'
as Sheiff Potts
as Dr. Billar
as Nevada Jim
as Jeff Chapman
as Jim Hadley
as Sheriff Jim Austin
as Insp. Tim Ryan
as Bill Stillwell
as Dave
as Cappy
as Wild Bill Coburn
as Captain
as Joe, Police Sergeant (uncredited)
as Police Chief (uncredited)
as Capt. Hansen (uncredited)
as Captain of the Falcon
as Sheriff J.J. Willoughby
as Pat O'Hannegan
as Judge
as Doorman (uncredited)
as Craig Dolan
as 'Pop' Corrigan
as CWO 'Sails' Quincannon
as Colonel Forbes
as Chief Reardon
as William Barton (Detective Agency Head)
as Officer
as Father Patrick Ryan
as Warden
as Dr. Thompson
as Capt. Ryan
as Coach Pearson
as Charlie Wheeler
as Mayor Jim Hopkins
as Buck Saunders
as Calvin Williams
as Joe Holland
as 'Doc' Howe
as Policeman
as Andrew MacKinley
as Bill 'One-Punch' Fagin
as Pop
as Proprietor
as Irish Laborer (uncredited)
as Sgt. O'Hara
as Captain of Ship
as Major Rogers
as Police Chief Bullock
as Windy MacLaine
as Captain Timothy Harrigan
as Michael Devlin
as 'Brains'
as Judge Hale
as Coach Parker
as Trinidad Dorn
as Capt. O'Brien
as Harry Cromwell
as Capt. Jackson
as Hallohan
as Inspector Sullivan
as Marshal Andy Jordan
as Applejack
as Mr. Keefer
as Umpire
as Inspector Doremus
as Prison Warden (uncredited)
as Inspector
as Sheriff
as Captain--Harbor Patrol
as The Cop
as Murphy
as Hobo
as Pop Malloy
as John Flannigan
as Kemp
as The Doorman--Mike Costello
as Michael
as Police Capt. Ed Kyne
as John Burke
as Grady
as Mulligan
as Shuster
as Himself
as Prison Warden
as Patrick Shamus 'Pat' O'Connell
as Henry 'Hank' Davis
as Waco
as J.C. Stillman
as 'Dickie' Collins
as Mr. Martin
as Pop Riley
as Prison Warden Randolph
as Chief Scott
as Adam Naab
as Jerry O'Day
as State Coach
as Tom O'Hara
as D.J. 'Smokey' Nolan
as Captain Ryan
as Jim Baker
as John Adams
as Mr. Davis
as Police Sgt. J.B. Antrim (uncredited)
as Treadway
as George Holman
as Hogan
as Detective Martin
as Sommers
as Pop Evans
as Pop Stewart
as The Coach
as Timson, the butler
as MacGuire
as Scout
as Big Bill
as Det. Sgt. Tom Polhaus
as Rev. Stump
as Dan Lewis
as Policeman
as Buzzard
as Ben Murdock
as Jeff Cameron
as Peg-Leg
as Colonel Graham
as O'Toole
as Sonora Slim
as Rafferty
as Costello
as Hackett
as Pa Hudler
as Train Conductor
as Joe Hickey
as Will Whitten
as Angus McGregor
as Stage Passenger (uncredited)
as James 'Aloysius' Riley
as The Clown
as John Craig
as Patrick Murphy
as Jiggs
as Patrick Kelly
as The Photographer
as Pug Malone
as Peter Roberts
as George Martin
as McGuire
as Sloan
as Sgt. Cassidy
as Joe Heller
as Mike Costigan
as Benjamin Strong
as Con O'Shea
as Jean Paul Fippany
as Mr. Barstow
as Jerry
as Andy
as Donavan
as Mack
as Lemuel Townsend
as Commodore John Gordon
as Hickey
as Corporal Casey
as Pete
as 'Chuck' Campbell
as Duc de Moing (Prologue)
as Murphy
as Silas Martin
as Col. Patterson
as Amhad Beg - Prime Minister
as (uncredited)
as Sam Marcum
as Captain Gaskell
as Peter Galbraith
as Michael Morahan
as Jim Frazer (as J. Farrel MacDonald)
as Joseph Piotto
as Sheriff Pat Garrity
as Mormon Peters
as Neuces River
as Bobtail McGuire
as Joe Alabam (as J. Farrell McDonald)
as Father
as Jim Boone
as Tom Placer McGraw
as Luther Ripley aka Kennedy
as Buell
as The Priest
as Butler
as Norcross
as Paul Ferguson (as Joseph Farrell MacDonald)
as Louis Nordell
as Farmer Howard
as The Lighthouse Keeper
as Secondary Role (uncredited)
Director
as Director
as Director
as Director
as Director
as Director
as Director
as Director