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IMDbPro

George Bancroft(1882-1956)

  • Actor
IMDbProStarmeterSee rank
George Bancroft in North West Mounted Police (1940)
Watch Vito
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Vito (2011)
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99+ Photos
George Bancroft was raised in Philadelphia and attended high school at Tomes Institute (Philadelphia). He won an impressive appointment to the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis and graduated as a commissioned officer. He served in the Navy for the prescribed period of required service but no more. He decided to turn to show business, first as a theater manager. He worked in the old and fading minstrel show variety format into the 1920s but then decided to try his hand at acting. By 1923, he was good enough for Broadway and spent about a year there doing two plays. But he was already good enough for some early camera work for by 1921, so he had made his first appearance in the silent movie medium. Being a big man with dark features, he was a natural for heavies. And it seemed that early Westerns were an easy fit as well after his first four films. Through 1924 and into 1925, he did four, culminating with pay dirt in his appealing performance as rogue Jack Slade in the James Cruze Western The Pony Express (1925). With him was another up-and-coming character actor, Wallace Beery. Bancroft's acting made Paramount Pictures take a look at him as star material. His roles as tough guy took on more flesh into the later 1920s, especially in association with director Josef von Sternberg and his well-honed gangster films that started with Underworld (1927). Their work culminated with Sternberg's Thunderbolt (1929) for which Bancroft received an Oscar nomination. He was tops at the box office.

Bancroft's various on-screen personas as bigger-than-life strong man was not far from his off-screen character as Hollywood notability got to him. It was recalled that he became more difficult to deal with as his ego grew. At one point, he refused to obey a director's order that he fall down after being shot by the villain. Bancroft declared, "One bullet can't kill Bancroft!" Although he stayed busy through the 1930s, he was older and stouter -- the stuff of featured characters. And Bancroft was also getting a lot of competition from younger character actors. In the early '30s, his roles continued to typecast him as lead heavies, but increasingly, he was cast as second tier -- if with more variety -- in later roles. He was paper editor MacWade in Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936); a doctor in A Doctor's Diary (1937); a few sea captains along the way; and most memorably Marshal Curly Wilcox in the John Ford Western (his first with sound) Stagecoach (1939). Here he is particularly engaging tough lawman but with a big heart. Into the 1940s, he only did a handful of films. But he again had a rogue's spotlight with another name director -- Cecil B. DeMille -- in one of his always epic yarns. This time it was a Texas Ranger chasing a murderer over the Canadian border in North West Mounted Police (1940) with a stellar cast including Gary Cooper, everybody's favorite blond Madeleine Carroll, and Paulette Goddard as fleeing criminal, Jacques Corbeau's (Bancroft) daughter. By 1942, Bancroft had decided to move on, retiring with the intention of becoming a Southern California rancher. He quietly assumed this new role for a long run of 14 years before his passing.
BornSeptember 30, 1882
DiedOctober 2, 1956(74)
BornSeptember 30, 1882
DiedOctober 2, 1956(74)
IMDbProStarmeterSee rank
  • Nominated for 1 Oscar
    • 1 nomination total

Photos126

George Bancroft and Guy Oliver in The Docks of New York (1928)
George Bancroft and Clyde Cook in The Docks of New York (1928)
George Bancroft and Betty Compson in The Docks of New York (1928)
George Bancroft and Clyde Cook in The Docks of New York (1928)
George Bancroft and Betty Compson in The Docks of New York (1928)
George Bancroft in The Docks of New York (1928)
George Bancroft and Betty Compson in The Docks of New York (1928)
George Bancroft and Clyde Cook in The Docks of New York (1928)
George Bancroft and Clyde Cook in The Docks of New York (1928)
George Bancroft and Betty Compson in The Docks of New York (1928)
George Bancroft and Betty Compson in The Docks of New York (1928)
George Bancroft, Betty Compson, and Mitchell Lewis in The Docks of New York (1928)

Known for

Stagecoach (1939)
Stagecoach
7.8
  • Marshal Curley Wilcox
  • 1939
Humphrey Bogart, Pat O'Brien, Gabriel Dell, Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall, Billy Halop, Bobby Jordan, Bernard Punsly, and The Dead End Kids in Angels with Dirty Faces (1938)
Angels with Dirty Faces
7.9
  • Mac Keefer
  • 1938
Gary Cooper and Jean Arthur in Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936)
Mr. Deeds Goes to Town
7.8
  • MacWade
  • 1936
George Bancroft in Thunderbolt (1929)
Thunderbolt
6.5
  • Thunderbolt
  • 1929

Credits

Edit
IMDbPro

Actor

  • Ann Rutherford and Red Skelton in Whistling in Dixie (1942)
    Whistling in Dixie
    • Sheriff Claude Stagg
    • 1942
  • Charlie Barnet, Connee Boswell, Jackie Cooper, Benny Goodman, Bonita Granville, Harry James, Jack Jenney, Gene Krupa, Adolphe Menjou, Alvino Rey, and Joe Venuti in Syncopation (1942)
    Syncopation
    • Steve Porter
    • 1942
  • Wallace Beery, George Bancroft, Marjorie Main, and Lewis Stone in The Bugle Sounds (1942)
    The Bugle Sounds
    • Russell
    • 1942
  • William Holden, Glenn Ford, George Bancroft, Edgar Buchanan, and Claire Trevor in Texas (1941)
    Texas
    • Windy Miller
    • 1941
  • Little Men (1940)
    Little Men
    • Maj. Burdle
    • 1940
  • Gary Cooper, Paulette Goddard, and Madeleine Carroll in North West Mounted Police (1940)
    North West Mounted Police
    • Jacques Corbeau
    • 1940
  • When the Daltons Rode (1940)
    When the Daltons Rode
    • Caleb Winters
    • 1940
  • Mickey Rooney in Young Tom Edison (1940)
    Young Tom Edison
    • Samuel 'Sam' Edison
    • 1940
  • Joan Bennett, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Vincent Price, George Sanders, Alan Hale, George Bancroft, and John Howard in Green Hell (1940)
    Green Hell
    • 'Tex' Morgan
    • 1940
  • Douglas Fairbanks Jr. and Margaret Lockwood in Rulers of the Sea (1939)
    Rulers of the Sea
    • Captain Oliver
    • 1939
  • Jeffrey Lynn, Brenda Marshall, and Joel McCrea in Espionage Agent (1939)
    Espionage Agent
    • Dudley Garrett
    • 1939
  • James Cagney and George Raft in Each Dawn I Die (1939)
    Each Dawn I Die
    • John Armstrong
    • 1939
  • Stagecoach (1939)
    Stagecoach
    • Marshal Curley Wilcox
    • 1939
  • Humphrey Bogart, Pat O'Brien, Gabriel Dell, Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall, Billy Halop, Bobby Jordan, Bernard Punsly, and The Dead End Kids in Angels with Dirty Faces (1938)
    Angels with Dirty Faces
    • Mac Keefer
    • 1938
  • Elisha Cook Jr., Preston Foster, Douglas Fowley, Richard Greene, Dick Hogan, Nancy Kelly, and Slim Summerville in Submarine Patrol (1938)
    Submarine Patrol
    • Capt. Leeds
    • 1938

Videos9

Trailer
Trailer 3:05
Trailer
Trailer
Trailer 1:48
Trailer
Official Trailer
Trailer 1:40
Official Trailer
Trailer
Trailer 2:56
Trailer
Mr. Deeds Goes to Town
Trailer 1:29
Mr. Deeds Goes to Town
Syncopation
Trailer 1:32
Syncopation
Each Dawn I Die
Trailer 1:43
Each Dawn I Die
Angels With Dirty Faces
Trailer 3:19
Angels With Dirty Faces
Vito
Trailer 2:25
Vito

Personal details

Edit
  • Height
    • 6′ 2″ (1.88 m)
  • Born
    • September 30, 1882
    • Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
  • Died
    • October 2, 1956
    • Santa Monica, California, USA(undisclosed)
  • Spouses
      Edna Brothers(divorced)
  • Other works
    Active on Broadway in the following productions:
  • Publicity listings
    • 8 Articles
    • 1 Magazine Cover Photo

Did you know

Edit
  • Trivia
    Grandson is composer Hial Bancroft King, by way of daughter, Georgette Bancroft.
  • Trademarks
      Burly, beefy and tall frame
  • Salary
    • Stagecoach
      (1939)
      $8,000

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