- Born
- Died
- Birth nameVictor Andrew de Bier Everleigh McLaglen
- Nickname
- Vic
- Height6′ 3″ (1.91 m)
- Rambunctious British leading man (contrary to popular belief, he was of Scottish ancestry, not 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 (1920) 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 (1924). 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 (1935), 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 (1949) and The Quiet Man (1952). 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 conclusions that he had fascist sympathies and was forming his own private army. McLaglen denied espousing the far right-wing sentiments that were often attributed to him. He continued to act in films into his 70s and died, from congestive heart failure, not long after appearing in a film directed by his son, Andrew V. McLaglen.- IMDb Mini Biography By: Jim Beaver <jumblejim@prodigy.net>
- SpousesMargaret Pumphrey(December 19, 1948 - November 7, 1959) (his death)Suzanne Marie Brueggeman(November 20, 1943 - December 10, 1948) (divorced)Enid Mary Lamont(November 28, 1919 - April 2, 1942) (her death, 2 children)
- ChildrenSheila McLaglen
- RelativesClifford McLaglen(Sibling)Cyril McLaglen(Sibling)Kenneth McLaglen(Sibling)Arthur McLaglen(Sibling)Leopold McLaglen(Sibling)Josh McLaglen(Grandchild)Mary McLaglen(Grandchild)Gwyneth Horder-Payton(Grandchild)
- He became a bodyguard for an Indian rajah. After one of his employer's guests accidentally shot him in the leg during a hunt, he was promoted to food taster. Luckily for McLaglen he quit the job--before the rajah was poisoned to death.
- In spite of being a powerful hulk his whole life (his huge shoulders making even John Wayne's look small), he was 64 and in declining health by the time he was in The Quiet Man (1952). Even prickly John Ford had to be sensitive to McLaglen's condition while shooting that movie's grueling fight sequence.
- In 1932, while still a British citizen, he 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.
- He and brother Fred did a strongman/boxer vaudeville act in Canada and were billed as "The Romano Brothers." They posed as "living statue", recreated the boxing styles of well-known pugilists and Fred crushed rocks on Victor's chest using a sledgehammer.
- Prospected for gold and silver during strikes in Cobalt, Ontario, Canada, just after the turn of the century.
- [about his early years] Acting never appealed to me, and I was dabbling in it solely as a means of making money. I rather felt that the greasepaint business was somewhat beneath a man who was once a reasonably useful boxer.
- [about his professional bout with boxer Jack Johnson] He never knocked me down . . . but he sure beat the livin' be-Jesus out of me.
- I have no illusions about acting and certainly I have none about myself. Long ago I came to the conclusion that actors are victims of luck and circumstance. If the role you are in fits the size of your head and some inherent quality in yourself, you do it well.
- Every intelligent person resents and dislikes the possibility of war, but there is no denying the fact that those same intelligent people must realize the necessity for defense preparations so that in the event of foreign attack, peace will be much more surely and quickly established because of that very preparedness. This, remember, is the opinion of a soldier. The future is precarious; dictatorships are instituted, over-ruled and overthrown. In the general political turmoil and the unrest that is felt throughout the entire world due to the deplorable political situation, it is preparedness that will prevent many a too impulsive entrance into hostile action. Big nations can prevent bloodshed and the bullying of weaker peoples only by armed watchfulness and the drastic enforcement of law and order.
- Gunga Din (1939) - $62,000
- The Beloved Brute (1924) - $300 per week
- The Call of the Road (1920) - £180
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