Bruce Cabot (born Étienne de Pelissier Bujac Jr.; April 20, 1904 – May 3, 1972) was an American film actor, best remembered as Jack Driscoll in King Kong (1933) and for his roles in films such as The Last of the Mohicans (1936), Fritz Lang's Fury (1936), and the Western Dodge City (1939). He was also known as one of "Wayne's Regulars", appearing in a number of John Wayne films beginning with Angel and the Badman (1947), and concluding with Big Jake (1971).[1]
Early life
Cabot was born in Carlsbad, New Mexico, to a prominent local lawyer, Major Étienne de Pelissier Bujac Sr. and Julia Armandine Graves, who died shortly after giving birth to her son. Étienne Sr. was the son of John James Bujac, a lawyer and mining expert in Catonsville, Maryland. Cabot's father graduated from Cumberland School of Law near Nashville, Tennessee, and served in the U.S. Army during the Spanish–American War and the Philippine–American War before settling in Carlsbad.[2][3]
He worked at many jobs, including as a sailor, an insurance salesman, oil worker, surveyor, and prize fighter; he also sold cars, managed real estate, and worked at a slaughterhouse. A meeting with David O. Selznick at a Hollywood party led to his acting career.[5] He claimed that he auditioned by acting out a scene from the play Chicago. The audition went "rather awful" in his opinion, but it did lead to him being cast in The Roadhouse Murder (1932).[1]
Acting career
Early roles
Cabot appeared in nearly 100 feature films. He made his debut in an uncreditedbit part in an episode of the serialHeroes of the Flames (1931). In Ann Vickers (1933), he portrays a soldier who seduces a naive woman (Irene Dunne), and gets her pregnant before he leaves for the war.[6] He then appeared in King Kong (also 1933), which became an enormous success and established Cabot as a star.[5]
He also portrays villains in several productions, appearing as a gangster boss in Let 'Em Have It (1935) and as the Huron warrior Magua opposite Randolph Scott in The Last of the Mohicans (1936). He co-stars with Spencer Tracy in Fritz Lang's first Hollywood film, Fury (1936), playing the leader of a lynch mob. He also appears with Errol Flynn in Michael Curtiz's epic WesternDodge City, which in 1939 was one of Warner Bros.'s biggest hits.
He tested for the lead role of the Ringo Kid in John Ford's Stagecoach (1939), but John Wayne was cast in the part.[7] A consistent box-office draw, Cabot appeared in many movies at many studios before leaving Hollywood to serve in World War II.[1]
He also appeared on other television series, such as:
Burke's Law - "Who Killed Holly Howard?" - Thomas Matherson (1963)
Bonanza - "A Dime's Worth of Glory" - Sheriff Reed Larrimore (1964)
Daniel Boone - "The Devil's Four" - Simon Bullard (1965)
Personal life
On New Year's Eve 1926, Cabot married Grace Mary Mather-Smith at the Cathedral Church of St. Luke in Orlando.[10][11] They divorced in 1930, prior to Cabot's move to Hollywood.
On Halloween 1933, Cabot married actress Adrienne Ames at his mother's home in Carlsbad.[12] They divorced on July 24, 1935.[13]
On September 17, 1950, Cabot married bit part actress Francesca De Scaffa in Santa Barbara.[14] They divorced in February 1957.
He was one of Errol Flynn's social pack for several years, but they fell out during the production of the unfinished The Story of William Tell in the mid-1950s. Flynn was producing the film and asked Cabot, whom he described as "an old, old pal," to appear in it, knowing that Cabot was having difficulty finding work in Hollywood at that time. When Flynn's production partners went broke, though, production on the film halted, leaving Flynn stranded in Rome facing financial ruin. Cabot, in an attempt to get paid when other cast members were working for no money, had court officials seize Flynn's and co-producer Barry Mahon's personal cars and their wives' clothing from their hotel rooms.[15]
In 1955, Bruce Cabot sued Flynn in a London court for unpaid salary of £17,357 ($48,599.60) saying he had been promised four weeks' work on the film but did not get it.[16] Flynn wrote angrily in his autobiography of what he termed Cabot's "betrayal", adding the passage: " I never went looking for Cabot. I was afraid I might kill him."[17]
^"Bruce Cabot, Actor, Is Alumnus"(PDF). Sewanee Alumni News. Vol. VII, no. IV. Associated Alumni of the University of the South. August 1941. p. 4. Retrieved May 21, 2017.
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