Known for:	Foreign Correspondent, Sullivan's Travels, Ride the High Country
Birth name:	Joel Albert McCrea
Birthday:	5 November 1905, South Pasadena, California, USA
Height:	6' 3" (1.91 m)

Father, with actress Frances Dee, of actor Jody McCrea. Had blue eyes. Inducted into the Hall of Great Western Performers of the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in 1969. A big sight gag in Sullivan's Travels was the juxtaposition of the big McCrea with his leading lady, Veronica Lake, who apparently was 16 inches shorter. For some shots of the film, however, Lake had to stand on a box so their heads could be seen in the same shot. He was infamously modest about his own acting abilities, often bordering on a soft-spoken contempt. Attended high school with future director Jacques Tourneur who would later direct him in Stars in My Crown (one of McCrea's personal favorites) and a pair of 1955 releases, Wichita and Stranger on Horseback. Besides Jody McCrea, he and Frances Dee had two more sons: David and Peter. Katharine Hepburn was a friend of McCrea's and McCrea's wife Frances Dee. Hepburn also felt that McCrea was one of the best actors she had ever worked with and was always disappointed that his career wasn't more successful (she thought he should have been ranking alongside Spencer Tracy or Humphrey Bogart). Very well-respected as a horseman, he was regarded as one of the two best riders in Western films along with Ben Johnson, who had been a real cowboy. In 1930, he lived with his parents at 243 S. Rockingham Avenue, Los Angeles. In 1920, he lived with his parents at 7755 Hollywood Boulevard, Los Angeles. His father, Thomas P. McCrea , was a secretary for the Los Angeles gas and electric company. His mother, Lou Whipple McCrea, was a professional Christian Science practitioner.

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