J. M. Kerrigan


Joseph Michael Kerrigan, better known as J. M. Kerrigan, was an Irish character actor.

Life

Kerrigan was born in Dublin, Ireland. He worked as a newspaper reporter until 1907 when he joined the famous Abbey Players. There he became a stalwart, appearing in plays by Lady Gregory, William Butler Yeats and John Millington Synge with Janet Gaynor. One of his most recognizable minor roles was in Gone with the Wind, in which he played John Gallegher, the seemly jovial mill owner who whips his convict labour in to "co-operation". He appeared in Walt Disney's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, the famous film version of Jules Verne's Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea in a minor role at the beginning of the film.
In 1946, he tried breaking into Broadway shows, playing the discombobulated leprechaun Jackeen J. O'Malley in the show "Barnaby and Mr. O'Malley", based on the Crockett Johnson comic strip.
J.M. Kerrigan died in Hollywood on 29 April 1964, aged 79.
Kerrigan has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6621 Hollywood Blvd.

Partial filmography