JAMES DUNN: Irish Charmer

Dunn and little phenom Shirley Temple made three pictures together and helped save Fox Studios during the Depression. Their most endearing relationship was in BRIGHT EYES (1934)
James Dunn won an Oscar for his touching, highly sympathetic role as the absent, alcoholic father of Peggy Ann Garner in the classic drama A TREE GROWS IN BROOKLYN (1945)

Classic Images,
Issue Number 557,
January 2022

“It was all just a mistake. I had started at the top and couldn’t possibly work my way in any other direction than down.”

A gregarious song-and-dance man and light leading film star of pre-Code Hollywood, JAMES DUNN (1901-1967) found Depression-era popularity as the cheerful co-star of brisk comedies/smooth dramas opposite Sally Eilers (notably BAD GIRL, 1931)) and splashy Fox Film musicals alongside Alice Faye. The height of his early fame perhaps came as little Shirley Temple’s loyal guardian in several films (notably, BRIGHT EYES, 1934). Sadly, chronic alcoholism put a damper on his reliability as a star and, aside from one brilliant, Oscar-winning moment as a sad but charming dipsomaniac in A TREE GROWS IN BROOKLYN (1945), his career slid into obscurity with low-budget fare.

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