Biography for
Wallace Beery More at IMDbPro »

Date of Birth

1 April 1885, Kansas City, Missouri, USA

Date of Death

15 April 1949, Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA (heart attack)

Birth Name

Wallace Fitzgerald Beery

Height

6' 1" (1.85 m)

Mini Biography

In 1902, 16-year-old Wallace Beery joined the Ringling Brothers Circus as an assistant to the elephant trainer. He left two years later after a leopard clawed his arm. Beery next went to New York, where he found work in musical variety shows. He became a leading man in musicals and appeared on Broadway and in traveling stock companies. In 1913 he headed for Hollywood, where he would get his start as the hulking Swedish maid in the Sweedie comedy series for Essanay. In 1915 he would work with young ingénue Gloria Swanson in Sweedie Goes to College (1915). A year later they would marry and be wildly unhappy together. The marriage dissolved when Beery could not control his drinking and Gloria got tired of his abuse. Beery finished with the Sweedie series and worked as the heavy in a number of films. Starting with Patria (1917), he would play the beastly Hun in a number of films. In the 1920s he would be seen in a number of adventures, including The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1921), Robin Hood (1922), The Sea Hawk (1924) and The Pony Express (1925). He would also play the part of Poole in So Big (1924), which was based on the best-selling book of the same name by Edna Ferber. Paramount began to move Beery back into comedies with Behind the Front (1926). When sound came, Beery was one of the victims of the wholesale studio purge. He had a voice that would record well, but his speech was slow and his tone was a deep, folksy, down home-type. While not the handsome hero image, MGM executive Irving Thalberg saw something in Beery and hired him for the studio. Thalberg cast Beery in The Big House (1930), which was a big hit and got Beery an Academy Award nomination. However, Beery would become almost a household word with the release of the sentimental Min and Bill (1930), which would be one of 1930's top money makers. The next year Beery would win the Oscar for Best Actor in The Champ (1931/I). He would be forever remembered as Long John Silver in Treasure Island (1934) (who says never work with kids?). Beery became one of the top ten stars in Hollywood, as he was cast as the tough, dim-witted, easy-going type (which, in real life, he was anything but). In Flesh (1932) he would be the dim-witted wrestler who did not figure that his wife was unfaithful. In Dinner at Eight (1933) he played a businessman trying to get into society while having trouble with his wife, Jean Harlow. After Marie Dressler died in 1934, he would not find another partner in the same vein as his early talkies until he teamed with Marjorie Main in the 1940s. He would appear opposite her in such films as Wyoming (1940) and Barnacle Bill (1941). By that time his career was slowing as he was getting up in age. He continued to work, appearing in only one or two pictures a year, until he died from a heart attack in 1949.

IMDb Mini Biography By: Tony Fontana <tony.fontana@spacebbs.com>

Spouse

Rita Gilman	(4 August 1924 - 1 May 1939) (divorced) 1 child
Gloria Swanson	(27 March 1916 - 1919) (divorced)

Trivia

Brother of actor William Beery and Noah Beery. Uncle of actor Noah Beery Jr.. Reports that Wallace and Noah were half-brothers are false; all three brothers were born to Noah W. Beery and Marguerite Fitzgerald Beery, according to U.S. census records.

Born at 2:47pm-CST

Ex-wife Rita Gilman, their daughter Carol Ann, his nephew Noah Beery Jr., and brother William Beery were all with him at the time of his death.

At the time of his death, he was involved in a paternity suit. Actress Gloria Schumm claimed that he had fathered her then 13-month old son.

Interred at Forest Lawn (Glendale), Glendale, California, USA, in the Vale of Memory section, lot #2157-9808.

An avid fisherman, for 35 years he held the world's record for the largest black sea bass, which he caught off California's Santa Catalina Island in 1916.

Almost played the title role in MGM's The Wizard of Oz (1939) but due to other film roles at MGM, he was forced to turn down the role. The part of The Wizard/Prof. Marvel was given to MGM's resident character actor, Frank Morgan.

In the summer of 1941, he was billed by MGM as the "champion movie location commuter," the studio estimating that he had journeyed more than 100,000 miles to make pictures. According to studio records, Beery covered 15,000 miles in Mexico alone while filming Viva Villa! (1934).

He took up flying in 1925, and from then until 1941 he accumulated 14,000 hours of flight time as a pilot. While making Treasure Island (1934) on Santa Catalina Island, he commuted daily by plane from his Beverly Hills home.

Reportedly extremely difficult to get along with and completely lacking in any sort of manners or refinement. Beery's ex-wife, Gloria Swanson, once remarked that he had been invited to every fashionable home in Beverly Hills - once!.

At MGM his public image was carefully crafted by studio publicity chief Howard Strickling as that of a big lovable slob with a heart of gold. In reality, however, Beery was anything but that. Co-star Jackie Cooper said that Beery treated him like an unwanted dog the second the cameras stopped.

Turned down the role of Captain William Bligh in Mutiny on the Bounty (1935) because he was unwilling to work with Clark Gable.

When the Academy Awards were first presented, the winners were announced ahead of the ceremony, partly with the hope the recipients would show up to collect their award. When it was announced that the winner of the 1931 prize for best actor went to Fredric March, Beery reportedly stormed into the office of MGM studio chief Louis B. Mayer, demanding he be given the award instead. The result was a "tie" for Best Actor that year. From then on the Oscar votes were tabulated by Price Waterhouse, and the winners announced at the ceremony.

In December of 1939, right after divorcing his second wife, Beery adopted a seven-month-old girl, Phyllis Anne, as a single father. There was never any mention of the baby after that, including in his obituary.

His marriage to Gloria Swanson lasted three weeks.

Had a cabin on a very small island at Silver Lake, in June Lake, California. The cabin was destroyed by an avalanche. Some of the foundation can still be seen. Island became known as Beery Island.

Before entering films, Beery was a stage actor and before that he worked as an actor in circuses.

Personal Quotes

I never let anyone sucker me, not even for a nickel.

Like my dear old friend Marie Dressler, my ugly mug has been my fortune.

Salary

That Night (1917)

$50/week