J.M. Kerrigan
Acting • Born 1884-12-16 – Died 1964-04-29
Biography
Joseph Michael Kerrigan (16 December 1884 – 29 April 1964), better known as J.M. Kerrigan, was an Irish character actor. Kerrigan was born in Dublin, Ireland. He worked as a newspaper reporter until 1907 when he joined the famous Abbey Players. There he became a stalwart, appearing in plays by Lady Gregory, William Butler Yeats and John Millington Synge (for whom he played the role of Shawn Keogh in The Playboy of the Western World. His first screen appearance was in the silent film Food of Love in 1916. By the 1920s he was appearing on Broadway, often in plays by Shakespeare, Ibsen, and Sheridan. He settled permanently in Hollywood in 1935, having been recruited along with several other Abbey performers, to appear in John Ford's The Informer. In that film and in Ford's The Long Voyage Home, he plays similar roles, that of a leech who attaches himself to men until they run out of money. Perhaps his best known role was in The General Died at Dawn, where he plays a character actually named Leach, in which he steals scenes from Gary Cooper, Madeleine Carroll and William Frawley. In it he plays a sinister little petty thief who, holding a gun on Cooper, says, "I may be fat, but I'm agile." He had little screen time in films which he starred as minor roles, such as the "First Drayman" in Merely Mary Ann (1931) with Janet Gaynor. One of his most recognizable minor roles was in Gone with the Wind (1939), in which he played John Gallegher, the seemly jovial mill owner who whips his convict labour in to "co-operation". He appeared in Walt Disney's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954), the famous film version of Jules Verne's Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea in a minor role at the beginning of the film. In 1946, he tried breaking into Broadway shows, playing the discombobulated leprechaun Jackeen J. O'Malley in the show "Barnaby and Mr. O'Malley", based on the Crockett Johnson comic strip. J. M. Kerrigan died in Hollywood on 29 April 1964, aged 79. Kerrigan has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6621 Hollywood Blvd.
Filmography
102 credits
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
Movie • 1954
Billy
Gone with the Wind
Movie • 1939
Johnny Gallagher
Call Northside 777
Movie • 1948
Sullivan - Court Bailiff (uncredited)
The Fighting Seabees
Movie • 1944
Sawyer Collins
Park Row
Movie • 1952
Dan O'Rourke
The Fastest Gun Alive
Movie • 1956
Kevin McGovern
Captains of the Clouds
Movie • 1942
Foster
Werewolf of London
Movie • 1935
Hawkins
The Wolf Man
Movie • 1941
Charles Conliffe
The Informer
Movie • 1935
Terry
The Black Camel
Movie • 1931
Thomas MacMasters
A Study in Scarlet
Movie • 1933
Jabez Wilson
The Lost Patrol
Movie • 1934
Quincannon
Congo Maisie
Movie • 1940
Captain Finch
Air Hostess
Movie • 1933
Pop Kearny
Lloyd's of London
Movie • 1936
Brook Watson
The Key
Movie • 1934
O'Duffy
The Witness Vanishes
Movie • 1939
Flinters
Lone Cowboy
Movie • 1933
Mr. Curran
The Prisoner of Shark Island
Movie • 1936
Judge Maiben
The Spanish Main
Movie • 1945
Pillery Gow
Colleen
Movie • 1936
Pop Reilly
The Big Bonanza
Movie • 1944
'Judge' Jasper Kincaid
One Crowded Night
Movie • 1940
Brother 'Doc' Joseph
The Silver Whip
Movie • 1953
Riley
Paddy the Next Best Thing
Movie • 1933
Collins
Timothy's Quest
Movie • 1936
Dr. Cudd
My Cousin Rachel
Movie • 1952
Reverend Pascoe
Mrs. Mike
Movie • 1949
Uncle John
Abie's Irish Rose
Movie • 1946
Patrick Murphy
Black Beauty
Movie • 1946
John
Sorority House
Movie • 1939
Lew Fisher
Vanessa: Her Love Story
Movie • 1935
Perkins (uncredited)
The Fountain
Movie • 1934
Shordley
Vanity Street
Movie • 1932
Dan - Irish Cop (uncredited)
It's a Dog's Life
Movie • 1955
Paddy Corbin
The Luck of the Irish
Movie • 1948
Tatie the Innkeeper
Spring Madness
Movie • 1938
Mr. Maloney (uncredited)
Little Old New York
Movie • 1923
John O'Day
Lightnin'
Movie • 1930
Judge Lemuel Townsend
6,000 Enemies
Movie • 1939
Dan Barrett
The Zero Hour
Movie • 1939
Timothy
The Fighting O'Flynn
Movie • 1949
Timothy
She Went to the Races
Movie • 1945
Jeff Habbard
The Sea Hawk
Movie • 1940
Eli Matson
The Plough and the Stars
Movie • 1936
Uncle Peter
Special Investigator
Movie • 1936
Judge Plumgate
Two Thoroughbreds
Movie • 1939
Jack Lenihan
Ride a Crooked Mile
Movie • 1938
Sgt. Flynn
The Crime Doctor's Warning
Movie • 1945
Robert MacPherson (uncredited)
Undercover Agent
Movie • 1939
Tom 'Pop' Madison
The Wild North
Movie • 1952
Callahan
A Feather in Her Hat
Movie • 1935
Pobjoy
Hot Tip
Movie • 1935
Matt
The Flying Irishman
Movie • 1939
Mr. Clyde Corrigan Sr.
Union Pacific
Movie • 1939
Monahan
The Kid From Texas
Movie • 1939
Farr
Barbary Coast
Movie • 1935
Judge Harper
A Modern Hero
Movie • 1934
Mr. Ryan
Don't Bet on Women
Movie • 1931
Chipley Duff
Spendthrift
Movie • 1936
Pop O'Connell
Careless Lady
Movie • 1932
Trowbridge
Appointment for Love
Movie • 1941
Timothy
Young Tom Edison
Movie • 1940
Mr. McCarney
The Great Man Votes
Movie • 1939
Hot Shot Gillings
Rockabye
Movie • 1932
Fagin
No Time for Comedy
Movie • 1940
Jim
The Great John L.
Movie • 1945
Father O'Malley
The Long Voyage Home
Movie • 1940
Crimp
Untamed
Movie • 1940
Mr. Angus McGavity
London by Night
Movie • 1937
Tims
Sabotage
Movie • 1939
Mel
Curtain Call
Movie • 1940
Mr. Middleton
Sealed Cargo
Movie • 1951
Skipper Ben
Song o' My Heart
Movie • 1930
Peter
Lucky In Love
Movie • 1929
Connors
Little Orphan Annie
Movie • 1938
Tom Jennings
Tarzan and the Amazons
Movie • 1945
Splivens
The General Died at Dawn
Movie • 1936
Leach
The Vanishing Virginian
Movie • 1942
John Phelps
New Movietone Follies of 1930
Movie • 1930
Gateman in Show
Wilson
Movie • 1944
Edward Sullivan
Action in the North Atlantic
Movie • 1943
Caviar Jinks (uncredited)
Mr. Lucky
Movie • 1943
Mr. McDougal (uncredited)
Laughing Irish Eyes
Movie • 1936
Tim
The Rainbow Trail
Movie • 1932
Paddy Harrigan
Merely Mary Ann
Movie • 1931
First Drayman
Let's Make a Million
Movie • 1936
Sam Smith
Two Bright Boys
Movie • 1939
Mike Casey
Vacation from Love
Movie • 1938
Danny Dolan, Hansom Cabbie
Under Suspicion
Movie • 1930
Doyle
The Mystery of Edwin Drood
Movie • 1935
Chief Verger Tope
Two of a Kind
Movie • 1951
Motor Madness
Movie • 1937
Henry John 'Cap' McNeil
Studio One
TV • 1948
Pether Flynn
General Electric Theater
TV • 1953
Jimmy
Lux Video Theatre
TV • 1950
Dr. Makery
Matinee Theater
TV • 1955
Frontier
TV • 1955
Letter to Loretta
TV • 1953
Mr. Thomas J. Flaherty
General Electric Theater
TV • 1953
Dennis Malloy
Shirley Temple's Storybook
TV • 1958
Mr Pickles