Rambunctious British leading man (contrary to popular belief, he wasn't Irish) and later character actor primarily in American films, Victor McLaglen was a vital presence in a number of great motion pictures, especially those of director John Ford. McLaglen (pronounced Muh-clog-len, not Mack-loff-len) was the son of the Right Reverend Andrew McLaglen, a Protestant clergyman who was at one time Bishop of Claremont in South Africa. The young McLaglen, eldest of eight brothers, attempted to serve in the Boer War by joining the Life Guards, though his father secured his release. The adventuresome young man traveled to Canada where he did farm labor and then directed his pugnacious nature into professional prizefighting. He toured in circuses, vaudeville shows, and Wild West shows, often as a fighter challenging all comers. His tours took him to the US, Australia (where he joined in the gold rush) and South Africa. In 1909 he was the first fighter to box newly-crowned heavyweight champion Jack Johnson, whom he fought in a six-round exhibition match in Vancouver (as an exhibition fight, it had no decision). When the First World War broke out, McLaglen joined the Irish Fusiliers and soldiered in the Middle East, eventually serving as Provost Marshal (head of Military Police) for the city of Baghdad. After the war he attempted to resume a boxing career, but was given a substantial acting role in The Call of the Road and was well received. He became a popular leading man in British silent films, and within a few years was offered the lead in an American film, The Beloved Brute. He quickly became a most popular star of dramas as well as action films, playing tough or suave with equal ease. With the coming of sound, his ability to be persuasively debonair diminished by reason of his native speech patterns, but his popularity increased, particularly when cast by Ford as the tragic Gypo Nolan in The Informer, for which McLaglen won the Best Actor Oscar. He continued to play heroes, villains and simple-minded thugs into the 1940s, when Ford gave his career a new impetus with a number of lovably roguish Irish parts in such films as She Wore a Yellow Ribbon and The Quiet Man. The latter film won McLaglen another Oscar nomination, the first time a Best Actor winner had been nominated subsequently in the Supporting category. McLaglen formed a semi-militaristic riding and polo club, the Light Horse Brigade, and a similarly arrayed precision motorcycle team, the Victor McLaglen Motorcycle Corps, both of which led to apparently erroneous conclusions that he had fascist sympathies and was forming his own private army. The facts prove otherwise, and despite rumors to the contrary, McLaglen did not espouse the far right-wing sentiments often attributed to him. He continued to act in films into his 70s and died, from heart failure, not long after appearing in a film directed by his son, Andrew V. McLaglen.


The Call of the Road (1920): £ 180

Father of film director Andrew V. McLaglen. Brother of actor Cyril McLaglen. Brother of actor and sculptor Arthur McLaglen. Daughter Sheila McLaglen born 1920. Grandfather of Mary McLaglen. Before becoming an actor, he worked as a carnival boxer. If anyone could stay in the ring with him for one round and not be knocked down, they won a box of cigars. Was nearly fifty before he became a bankable actor in films like The Lost Patrol (1934) and The Informer (1935). Boxed and wrestled under the nickname 'Sharkey' McLaglen, as well as under his real name, prior to his movie career. His lifetime boxing record (as far as is known) was 11-6-1, with 9 KOs. His 1909 bout with legendary champion Jack Johnson in Vancouver was a six-round exhibition bout. Under the pseudonym Paul Romano, McLaglen boxed future heavyweight champion Jess Willard in a four-round exhibition match in Springfield, Missouri, on 26 September 1911. Is portrayed by Ron Kamien in Child Star: The Shirley Temple Story (2001) (TV). Born an Englishman, McLaglen became a U.S. citizen in January, 1933. In 1932, while still a British citizen, McLaglen captained a band called the Hollywood Light Horse, described as "a military organization formed to promote Americanism and combat Communism and radicalism subversive to Constitutional government." For the most part, McLaglen and his troopers marched around in their specially tailored military uniforms to their favorite restaurants and bars. When that bid for social attention began to wane, Hollywood Light Horse members began drifting over to a parallel organization known as the Hollywood Hussars. The more serious purpose of the Hussars was to invade the Soviet Republic of Georgia to secure drilling rights for an American oil millionaire who was bankrolling their enterprise. At one point, McLaglen was a member along with George Brent, the sheriff of Los Angeles County and the city police chief. Gary Cooper was described as one of the sponsors, but that assertion was withdrawn following protests by Cooper's representatives. In any event the Hussars never got to invade Georgia - their most conspicuous public outing was a march one afternoon down to the Los Angeles newspaper offices of William Randolph Hearst, where they serenaded the publisher from the sidewalk in a group song, in gratitude for his anti-Communist editorials. When he was nominated for the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for The Quiet Man (1952), he became the first male actor to be nominated for a supporting role after having already won an Oscar for a leading role, having won the Best Actor Oscar for The Informer (1935) seventeen years earlier. The first performer to do this was Jennifer Jones who won lead actress in 1943 for The Song of Bernadette and was a supporting nominee in 1944 for Since You Went Away. Grandfather of Assistant Director and Executive Producer Josh McLaglen.