Wallace Ford

"Sam Grundy" redirects here. For the character, see Love on the Dole.

Wallace Ford
Ford in The Beast of the City (1932)
Born	Samuel Grundy Jones (1898-02-12)12 February 1898 Bolton, Lancashire, England
Died	11 June 1966(1966-06-11) (aged 68) Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Resting place	Holy Cross Cemetery, Culver City
Occupations	Actor stage performer vaudevillian
Years active	1918–1965
Spouse	Martha Haworth ​ (m. 1922)​
Children	1

Wallace Ford (born Samuel Grundy Jones; 12 February 1898 – 11 June 1966) was an English-born naturalized American vaudevillian, stage performer and screen actor. Usually playing wise-cracking characters, he combined a tough but friendly-faced demeanor with a small but powerful, stocky physique.

Early life

He was born Samuel Grundy Jones^[1] in Bolton, Lancashire, England, into a working-class family of limited means. At the age of three, he was placed by his uncle and aunt, in whose care he had been, into a Barnardo's orphanage home, since they were unable to maintain his upkeep along with their own several children. When he was seven, he and other children from similar backgrounds were shipped to Canada to be found new homes with farming foster families as a part of the British Empire's ongoing programme to populate the territory.

Samuel was adopted by a family in Manitoba. He was ill-treated and became a serial runaway, being resettled several times with different families by the Canadian authorities. According to his own account, at the age of 11 he ran away for the last time and joined a vaudeville traveling troupe touring Canada called the Winnipeg Kiddies, from which he acquired his initial training as a performer.^[2]

In 1914, 16-year-old Samuel and another youth named Wallace Ford decided to head south to the United States to seek their fortunes, riding a freight train illicitly. During the trip, Ford was killed beneath the wheels of a train. Later, Samuel adopted as his stage name the name of his dead traveling companion.^[3]

Acting career

Ford (left) and Broderick Crawford in the original Broadway production of Of Mice and Men (1938)

Following his service as a trooper in the army at Fort Riley, Kansas, with the United States Cavalry during World War I,^[2] he became a vaudeville stage actor in an American stock company. In 1919, he performed in an adaptation of Booth Tarkington's Seventeen, which played to full houses in Chicago for several months, before transferring to a successful run on Broadway in New York City.^[4] Ford became a successful Broadway performer through the Roaring Twenties, appearing in multiple productions, including the lead role in the Broadway smash hit Abie's Irish Rose.^[2][5]

In motion pictures, he made his credited debut with Possessed in 1931, appearing with Clark Gable and Joan Crawford, and the next year he was given the lead in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's Freaks, directed by Tod Browning. Ford went on to have an extensive career over 30 years, appearing in more than 150 films, with lead roles in the 1930s and '40s in Hollywood B movies such as The Rogues' Tavern (1936), Murder by Invitation (1941), and Roar of the Press (1941) and supporting roles in larger feature films such as The Lost Patrol (1934), The Informer (1935), Shadow of a Doubt (1943), Spellbound (1945), and Dead Reckoning (1947).

In 1938, he returned to the Broadway stage to play the role of George in the original production of Of Mice and Men.^[5]

In 1945, Ford appeared in the film Blood on the Sun alongside Jimmy Cagney, whose physique and acting style resembled his own. In the late 1940s and early 1950s, he transitioned into a character actor, appearing as a regular performer in the newly fashionable Western genre, and in multiple John Ford productions as one of his preferred support players.

In the latter stage of his career, during the 1950s and early 1960s, Ford performed increasingly on television. He had a recurring role in the Western series The Deputy starring Henry Fonda and his final appearance on the "small screen" was on The Andy Griffith Show in 1964, playing Roger Hanover, Aunt Bee's old flame. The next year, he appeared in his last film, A Patch of Blue, for which he received a Golden Laurel nomination. Ford's performance as Ole Pa in A Patch of Blue proved to be the final role of his extensive acting career.

Personal life

The actor became a naturalized United States citizen on May 8, 1942; by this act, he also legally changed his name from Samuel Grundy to Wallace Ford. He met his future wife, Martha Haworth, in 1922 while they were performing together on Broadway in Abie's Irish Rose, she being a chorus girl at the time. They had one child, a daughter named Patricia (1927–2005).^[2]

After the death of his wife in February 1966, Ford moved into the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital at Woodland Hills, California, and died in the hospital there of heart failure four months later.^[2] His body was buried in an unmarked grave at Culver City's Holy Cross Cemetery.^[6]

Broadway credits

Date	Title	Role	Notes
29 August – September 1921	The Poppy God	Higgins	Hudson Theatre, New York[7]
6 March–?, 1922	Broken Branches	Arthur Weldon	39th Street Theatre, New York[8]
22 October – November 1923	Nobody's Business	Oliver Pratt	Klaw Theatre, New York[9]
14 January – February 1924	Gypsy Jim	Tom Blake	49th Street Theatre, New York[10]
31 March – May 1924	Nancy Ann	Dan Dennis	49th Street Theatre, New York[11]
1 September 1924 – June 1925	Pigs	Thomas Atkins Jr.	Little Theatre, New York[12]
14 January – March 1929	Gypsy	Mac	Klaw Theatre, New York[13]
14 October – November 1929	The Nut Farm	Willie Barton	Klaw Theatre, New York[14]
23 November 1937 – May 1938	Of Mice and Men	George	Music Box Theatre, New York[15]
26 December 1939 – 6 January 1940	Kindred	Dermot O'Regan (Prologue)	Maxine Elliott Theatre, New York[16]

Filmography

Lobby card for The Beast of the City (1932) featuring Walter Huston, Jean Harlow and Wallace Ford

Lobby card for Employees' Entrance (1933) featuring Wallace Ford and Loretta Young

Ford recreated his 1929 Broadway role in the 1935 film The Nut Farm

Wallace Ford in The Informer (1935)

Poster for The Rogue's Tavern (1936)

Poster for Murder by Invitation (1941)

Poster for The Ape Man (1943)

Poster for Thunder Over Arizona (1956)

Poster for The Last Hurrah (1958)

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1929	Married in Hollywood	Mitzi's Fan	Uncredited
1931	Possessed	Al Manning	[17]
1931	X Marks the Spot	Ted Lloyd	[17]
1932	Freaks	Phroso	[17]
1932	The Beast of the City	Ed Fitzpatrick	[17]
1932	The Wet Parade	Jerry Tyler	[17]
1932	Are You Listening?	Larry Barnes	[17]
1932	Skyscraper Souls	Slim	[17]
1932	Central Park	Rick	[17]
1932	Hypnotized	Bill Bogard	[17]
1933	Employees' Entrance	Martin West	[17]
1933	Night of Terror	Tom Hartley	[17]
1933	The Big Cage	Russ Penny	[17]
1933	Headline Shooter	Mike	[17]
1933	Three-Cornered Moon	Kenneth Rimplegar	[17]
1933	Goodbye Again	Arthur Westlake	[17]
1933	My Woman	Chick Rollins	[17]
1933	East of Fifth Avenue	Vic Howard	[17]
1934	Money Means Nothing	Joe Flynn	[17]
1934	The Lost Patrol	Morelli	[17]
1934	Men in White	Shorty	[17]
1934	I Hate Women	Scoop McGuire	[17]
1934	Money Means Nothing	Kenneth 'Kenny' McKay	[18]
1934	The Mysterious Mr. Wong	Jason H. Barton	[17]
1934	The Man Who Reclaimed His Head	Curly	[17]
1935	The Whole Town's Talking	Healy	[17]
1935	In Spite of Danger	Bob Crane	[17]
1935	The Nut Farm	Willie Barton	[17]
1935	One Frightened Night	Joe Luvalie	[17]
1935	Swell-Head	Terry McCall	[17]
1935	Men of the Hour	Andy Blane	[17]
1935	The Informer	Frankie McPhillip	[17]
1935	Get That Man	Jack Kirkland / John Prescott	[17]
1935	She Couldn't Take It	Fingers Boston	[17]
1935	Mary Burns, Fugitive	Harper	[17]
1935	Another Face	Joe Haynes	[17]
1936	Two in the Dark	Harry Hillyer	[17]
1936	Absolute Quiet	Jack	[17]
1936	The Rogues' Tavern	Jimmy Kelly	[17]
1936	A Son Comes Home	Steve	[17]
1937	You're in the Army Now	Jimmy Tracy	[17]
1937	Jericho	Mike Clancy	[19][20]
1937	Exiled to Shanghai	Ted Young	[17]
1938	Swing It, Sailor!	Pete Kelly	[17]
1938	Stardust	Peter Jackson
1938	The Marines Come Thru	Pvt. 'Singapore' Stebbins	re-released in 1943 as Fight On, Marines[21]
1939	Back Door to Heaven	Frankie Rogers	[17]
1940	Isle of Destiny	Millard Barnes	[17]
1940	Two Girls on Broadway	Jed Marlowe	[17]
1940	Love, Honor, and Oh Baby!	Joe Redmond	[17]
1940	Scatterbrain	Sam Maxwell	[17]
1940	The Mummy's Hand	Babe Jenson	[17]
1940	Give Us Wings	Mr. York	[22]
1941	A Man Betrayed	Casey	[17]
1941	Roar of the Press	Wally Williams	[17]
1941	Murder by Invitation	Bob White	[17]
1941	Blues in the Night	Brad Ames	[17]
1942	All Through the Night	Spats Hunter	[17]
1942	Inside the Law	Billy	[17]
1942	Scattergood Survives a Murder	Wally Collins	[17]
1942	The Mummy's Tomb	Babe Hanson	[17]
1942	Seven Days' Leave	Sergeant Mead	[17]
1943	Shadow of a Doubt	Fred Saunders	[17]
1943	The Ape Man	Jeff Carter	[17]
1943	The Cross of Lorraine	Pierre Flandeau	[17]
1944	Secret Command	Miller	[17]
1944	Machine Gun Mama	Johnny O'Reilly	[17]
1945	Blood on the Sun	Ollie Miller	[17]
1945	The Great John L.	McManus	[17]
1945	On Stage Everybody	Emmett Rogers	[17]
1945	Spellbound	Stranger in hotel lobby	[17]
1946	A Guy Could Change	Bill Conley	[17]
1946	The Green Years	Jamie Nigg	[17]
1946	Lover Come Back	Tubbs	[17]
1946	Rendezvous with Annie	Al Morgan	[17]
1946	Black Angel	Joe	[17]
1946	Crack-Up	Lieutenant Cochrane	[17]
1947	Dead Reckoning	McGee	[17]
1947	Magic Town	Lou Dicketts	[17]
1947	T-Men	The schemer	[17]
1948	The Man from Texas	Jed	[17]
1948	Shed No Tears	Sam Grover	[17]
1948	Embraceable You	Police Lt. Ferria	[17]
1948	Coroner Creek	Andy West	[17]
1948	Belle Starr's Daughter	Lafe Bailey	[17]
1949	The Set-Up	Gus	[17]
1949	Red Stallion in the Rockies	Talky Carson	[17]
1950	Dakota Lil	Carter	[17]
1950	The Furies	Scotty Hyslip	[17]
1950	The Breaking Point	F.R. Duncan	[17]
1950	Harvey	Ellis Logfren, The Taxi Driver	[17]
1951	He Ran All the Way	Mr. Dobbs	[17]
1951	Warpath	Private Potts	[17]
1951	Painting the Clouds with Sunshine	Sam Parks	[17]
1952	She Couldn't Say No	Joe Wheelen	[17]
1952	Rodeo	Barbecue Jones	[17]
1952	Flesh and Fury	Jack "Pop" Richardson	[17]
1953	The Great Jesse James Raid	Elias Hobbs	[17]
1953	The Nebraskan	Mac McBride	[17]
1954	The Boy from Oklahoma	Wally Higgins	[17]
1954	Destry	Doc Curtis	[17]
1954	3 Ring Circus	Sam Morley	[17]
1955	The Man from Laramie	Charley O'Leary	[17]
1955	Wichita	Arthur Whiteside	[17]
1955	Lucy Gallant	Gus Basserman	[17]
1955	A Lawless Street	Dr. Amos Wynn	[17]
1955	The Spoilers	Flapjack Simms	[17]
1956	The Maverick Queen	Jamie	[17]
1956	The First Texan	Henry Delaney	[17]
1956	Johnny Concho	Albert Dark	[17]
1956	Thunder Over Arizona	Hal Stiles	[17]
1956	Stagecoach to Fury	Judge Lester Farrell	[17]
1956	The Rainmaker	Sheriff Howard Thomas	[17]
1958	Twilight for the Gods	Old Brown	[17]
1958	The Matchmaker	Malachi Stack	[17]
1958	The Last Hurrah	Charles J. Hennessey	[17]
1959	Warlock	Judge Holloway	[17]
1960	Tess of the Storm Country	Fred Thorson	[17]
1965	A Patch of Blue	Ole Pa	[17]

Select television credits

Wallace Ford with Betty Lou Keim in NBC-TV's The Deputy (1959–61)

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1953	The Motorola Television Hour		"Outlaw's Reckoning" (series debut)
1953	Goodyear Television Playhouse		"The Happy Rest"
1953	Armstrong Circle Theatre		"The Marshal of Misery Gulch"
1954	Father Knows Best	Nick	"The Christmas Story”
1954	Inner Sanctum	Photographer	"Dark of the Night"
1955	Ford Theatre	Talker	"Sunday Mourn"
1955	Damon Runyon Theatre	Lt. Harrigan	"Tobias the Terrible"
1957	The Court of Last Resort	William Markham	"The Jim Thompson Case"
1958	Playhouse 90	Mule Rogers	"The Last Man"
1959–61	The Deputy	Marshal Herk Lamson
1960	Tales of Wells Fargo	"Dead Man's Street"	F. X. Murphy, Marshal
1964	The Andy Griffith Show	Roger Hanover

References

1. England and Wales Civil Registration Birth Index, January to March, 1898, Bolton, Lancashire
2. Boyd Magers. "Characters and Heavies: Wallace Ford". Retrieved 6 April 2017.
3. Lest We Forget
4. Hal Erickson, Allmovie biography on Wallace Ford
5. Wallace Ford at the Internet Broadway Database
6. Celebrities in Los Angeles Cemeteries
7. "The Poppy God". Internet Broadway Database. Retrieved 14 July 2017.
8. "Broken Branches". Internet Broadway Database. Retrieved 14 July 2017.
9. "Nobody's Business". Internet Broadway Database. Retrieved 14 July 2017.
10. "Gypsy Jim". Internet Broadway Database. Retrieved 14 July 2017.
11. "Nancy Ann". Internet Broadway Database. Retrieved 14 July 2017.
12. "Pigs". Internet Broadway Database. Retrieved 14 July 2017.
13. "Gypsy". Internet Broadway Database. Retrieved 14 July 2017.
14. "The Nut Farm". Internet Broadway Database. Retrieved 14 July 2017.
15. "Of Mice and Men". Internet Broadway Database. Retrieved 14 July 2017.
16. "Kindred". Internet Broadway Database. Retrieved 14 July 2017.
17. "Wallace Ford". AFI Catalog of Feature Films. American Film Institute. Retrieved 10 July 2017.
18. Goble, Alan (8 September 2011). The Complete Index to Literary Sources in Film. Walter de Gruyter. p. 319. ISBN 978-3-11-095194-3.
19. Lubasch, Arnold H. (18 October 2012). Robeson: An American Ballad. Scarecrow Press. p. 92. ISBN 978-0-8108-8523-3.
20. Nollen, Scott Allen (10 January 2014). Paul Robeson: Film Pioneer. McFarland. p. 110. ISBN 978-0-7864-5747-2.
21. Pitts, Michael R. (19 April 2019). Astor Pictures: A Filmography and History of the Reissue King, 1933-1965. McFarland. p. 229. ISBN 978-1-4766-3628-3.
22. Getz, Leonard (7 May 2015). From Broadway to the Bowery: A History and Filmography of the Dead End Kids, Little Tough Guys, East Side Kids and Bowery Boys Films, with Cast Biographies. McFarland. p. 80. ISBN 978-0-7864-8742-4.

External links

• Wallace Ford at IMDb
• Wallace Ford at the Internet Broadway Database
• Literature on Wallace Ford