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James Flavin
Known for: ActingAmerican character actor whose career lasted nearly half a century. James Wilson Flavin Jr. was the son of a hotel waiter of Canadian-English extraction and a mother, Katherine, whose father was an Irish immigrant. (Thus Flavin, well-known in Hollywood as an "Irish" type, was only one-quarter Irish.) Flavin was born and raised in Portland, Maine (a fact that may have enrichened his later working relationship with director John Ford, also a Portland native). He attended the United States Military Academy at West Point, but (contrary to some sources) did not graduate. Instead he dropped out and returned to Portland where he drove a taxi. Then as now, summer stock companies flocked to Maine each year, and in 1929 he was asked to fill in for an actor. He did well with the part and the company manager offered him $150 per week to go with the troupe back to New York. Flavin accepted and by the spring of 1930 was living in a rooming house at 108 W. 87th Street in Manhattan. Flavin didn't manage to crack Broadway at this time (his Broadway debut would not occur for another thirty-nine years, in the 1971 revival of "The Front Page," in which Flavin played Murphy and briefly took over the lead role of Walter Burns from star Robert Ryan). He worked his way across the country in stock productions and tours, arriving in Los Angeles around 1932. He quickly made the transition to movies, landing the lead in his very first film, a Universal serial, The Airmail Mystery (1932). He also landed his leading lady, marrying the serial's female star Lucile Browne that same year. However, the serial marked virtually the last time that Flavin would play the lead in a film. Thereafter, he was restricted almost exclusively to supporting characters, many of them without so much as a name. He specialized in uniformed cops and hard-bitten detectives, but played chauffeurs, cabbies, and even a 16th-century palace guard with aplomb. Flavin appeared in nearly four hundred films between 1932 and 1971, and in almost a hundred television episodes before his final appearance, as President Dwight D. Eisenhower in Francis Gary Powers: The True Story of the U-2 Spy Incident (1976). Flavin died of a heart ailment at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles on April 23, 1976. His widow Lucile died seventeen days later. They were survived by their son, William James Flavin, subsequently a professor at the United States Army War College. James and Lucile Brown Flavin were buried at Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City, California.
Filmography 66
King Kong
+3
as Mate Briggs 
The Living Christ
+4
as Longinus 
Laura
+5
as Det. McEveety (uncredited) 
In Cold Blood
+3
as Clarence Duntz 
Anchors Aweigh
+6
as Radio Cop 
The Most Dangerous Game
+30
as First Mate on Yacht (uncredited) 
Mighty Joe Young
+2
as Schultz 
The Strange Love of Martha Ivers
+32
as Police Detective #1 
Air Force
+7
as Maj. A.M. Bagley 
The Long Voyage Home
as Dock Policeman 
Desert Fury
+2
as Pat Johnson 
Million Dollar Mermaid
as Conductor 
Operation Pacific
+5
as SP Commander 
You Only Live Once
+8
as State Trooper (uncredited) 
Night Passage
+2
as Tim Riley 
Broadway Melody of 1940
+2
as Clancy (uncredited) 
Cloak and Dagger
as Col. Walsh 
Nobody Lives Forever
+1
as Shake Thomas 
Bud Abbott and Lou Costello Meet the Killer, Boris Karloff
+2
as Insp. Wellman 
One Touch of Venus
as Kerrigan 
The Ghost Breakers
+3
as Hotel Porter (uncredited) 
Sleep, My Love
as Lieutenant Mitchell 
Trouble Along the Way
+5
as Coach Buck Holman 
I Am the Law
as George - Witness (uncredited) 
Nora Prentiss
as District Attorney 
It Happened on Fifth Avenue
+5
as First Policeman (uncredited) 
The Noose Hangs High
+1
as Traffic Cop (uncredited) 
Angel on My Shoulder
+20
as Dan Bellamy 
Never Say Goodbye
as Timmy 
Armored Car Robbery
+2
as Lt. Phillips 
A Stolen Life
+3
as Investigator (uncredited) 
Man on the Flying Trapeze
as Chauffeur (uncredited) 
The Naked Street
+1
as Attorney Michael X. Flanders 
Once Upon a Time
+6
as Man in Subway (uncredited) 
The Velvet Touch
as Sgt. Oliphant 
The Restless Breed
+10
as Secret Service Chief 
Belle Starr
+1
as Sergeant 
Charlie Chan at the Race Track
as Detective 
Francis in the Haunted House
as Police Chief Martin 
Confidentially Connie
as Harry (uncredited) 
Easy to Wed
+5
as Joe 
The Ice Follies of 1939
+2
as Doorman (uncredited) 
Four Mothers
as Demolition Man (uncredited) 
Fingers at the Window
as Police Lieutenant Schaeffer 
Here Come the Marines
as Lieutenant-Colonel at End 
The Plunderers
+2
as Sergeant Major 
The Affairs of Cellini
+2
as Palace Guard (uncredited) 
Pot o' Gold
+17
as Sheriff Bud Connolly 
Mr. Wong in Chinatown
+4
as Police Sgt. Jerry 
Murder on the Waterfront
as Cmdr. Kalin 
The Shanghai Cobra
+2
as H.R. Jarvis 
Hello, Sister!
+3
as Fireman 
Robin Hood Of Texas
+7
as Captain Danforth 
Blondie Hits the Jackpot
as Brophy 
It All Came True
+2
as Roaring 90's Club Doorman (uncredited) 
Tough as They Come
as Process Server 
I Beheld His Glory
+7
as Longinus 
The Brand of Hate
as Holt Larkins 
Mannequin
+1
as Burly Man (Uncredited) 
The Missing Lady
as Police Insp. Cardona 
Lightning Carson Rides Again
as Justice Department Agent 
Wives Under Suspicion
+2
as Jenks (uncredited) 
Hold That Hypnotist
as Jake Morgan 
Over 21
+3
as Captain (uncredited) 
South Sea Sinner
as Andrews