Consider today’s blog an introductory preview of what’s to come. That is, we’d like to present our subject today face first.
A longer — and very appreciative — blog is to come in about Wallace Ford short order.
Yes, you’ve probably gave seen him in a bunch of classic films. Bit parts, sometimes character parts. Occasionally our man came dangerously close to getting semi-star billing. Much deserved.
Here are some looks at Ford in action in a broad variety of movies.
There he is (above) wielding a pistol in John Ford’s 1935 drama The Informer, set in the Irish revolution of the 1920’s. By the way, did you know that Wallace (not John) was born in England in 1898? (He died in 1966 at the relatively early age of 66.)
Here (above) is Ford in the midst of one of his grislier roles in 1947’s T-Men, a superb film noir costarring Dennis O’Keefe and Charles McGraw. Ford pays a slippery stoolpidgeon who is dispatched by being fried inside a locked steam room. Yup, that’s McGraw (right) who is sadistically doing the dispatching.
There’s Ford above playing a genial geriatric (‘Ole-Pa’) in the 1965 melodrama, A Patch of Blue. He shares this scene with Shelley Winters and (center) Elizabeth Hartman.
Finally, just to show that Ford got some decent billing in some big pictures, we run the following from 1943’s Shadow Of A Doubt, costarring Teresa Wright and Joseph Cotten. Ford’s name may be last — but at least it’s there. He plays the camera-toting detective sidekick of Macdonald Carey on the lookout for a serial killer.
More on Wallace Ford to come.
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Nice.
One of my very first blog posts was entitled “My guy, Wally Ford”. I think he should be given praise at every turn.
Interesting (to me) that Wallace Ford made the lobby card in a tiny role, and Hume Cronyn, in a quirky and significant role, did not. Of course it was Cronyn’s first film part, and Ford’s umpteenth. Speaks to audience familiarity, and, I imagine, union rules. For Cronyn’s next Hitchcock role in Lifeboat, the following year, he did make the card, between Heather Angel and Canada Lee.
Fun factoid: it appears that Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy were married while he was making Shadow of a Doubt, or very shortly thereafter. 1942 was a big year for Mr. Cronyn.
I know this post is about Wallace Ford, but one thing leads to another…
Wallace Ford was really good in A Patch of Blue.
Samuel Jones Grundy or rather WALLACE FORD… Had one of the most dramatic and inspiring true-life story of any HOLLYWOOD actor.
I’m sure Joe & Frank will detail that later, but it has to be said that we saw this man in so many roles, and each time he gave a memorable fine performance that was always heartfelt and emotional.
When you get to know that he had a very impoverished and brutal childhood as an orphan coming from the north of England, shunted between so many foster homes and finally ending up in an orphanage in Toronto, Canada… Running away from the harsh cruel treatment there, and riding the rails as a young hobo who sees his close friend crushed to death by a railroad car… A friend who he honored by then taking his name WALLACE FORD…
Well, you get to see already what shaped him for the rest of his life. Ford didn’t need drama lessons from acting coaches, he lived it and learnt it for real.
Two great and humble roles of WALLACE FORD come to mind as an example of his incredible life experiences, and both in scenes with James Stewart from the 1950’s…
HARVEY – Where FORD is the friendly cab driver who takes Stewart to the mental home.
THE MAN FROM LARAMIE – Where FORD is Stewart’s fatherly sidekick who helps him find out who’s supplying guns to the Indians.
WALLACE FORD is yet another of the legions of HOLLYWOOD performers who we saw so many, many times and were simply taken for granted by both the industry and the public.
FORD got no big money, just a living wage, no awards, no acclaim or tributes… He went from an orphanage home to finally the Motion Picture Country Home near where I live.
But still, he had an even more INCREDIBLE, and WONDERFUL life than even the likes of James Stewart!