Wallace Ford


Wallace Ford was an English-born naturalized American vaudevillian, stage, film, and television 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 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 on-going 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, where he acquired his initial training as a performer.
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.

Acting career

Following military service as a trooper at Fort Riley, Kansas, with the United States Army Cavalry during World War I, 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. 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.
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, Murder by Invitation, and Roar of the Press, and supporting roles in larger feature films such as The Lost Patrol, Shadow of a Doubt, Spellbound, and Dead Reckoning.
In 1937, he returned to the Broadway stage to play the role of George in the original production of Of Mice and Men.
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. 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 also 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.
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. His body was buried in an unmarked grave at Culver City's Holy Cross Cemetery.

Broadway credits

Filmography

YearTitleRoleNotes
1929Married in HollywoodMitzi's FanUncredited
1931PossessedAl Manning
1931X Marks the SpotTed Lloyd
1932Freaks Phroso
1932'Ed Fitzpatrick
1932'Jerry Tyler
1932Are You Listening?Larry Barnes
1932Skyscraper SoulsSlim
1932Central ParkRick
1932HypnotizedBill Bogard
1933Employees' EntranceMartin West
1933Night of TerrorTom Hartley
1933'Russ Penny
1933Headline ShooterMike
1933Three-Cornered MoonKenneth Rimplegar
1933Goodbye AgainArthur Westlake
1933My WomanChick Rollins
1933East of Fifth AvenueVic Howard
1934Money Means NothingJoe Flynn
1934'Morelli
1934Men in WhiteShorty
1934I Hate WomenScoop McGuire
1934Money Means NothingKenneth 'Kenny' McKay
1934'Jason H. Barton
1934'Curly
1935'Healy
1935In Spite of DangerBob Crane
1935'Willie Barton
1935One Frightened NightJoe Luvalie
1935Swell-HeadTerry McCall
1935Men of the HourAndy Blane
1935'Frankie McPhillip
1935Get That ManJack Kirkland / John Prescott
1935She Couldn't Take ItFingers Boston
1935Mary Burns, FugitiveHarper
1935Another FaceJoe Haynes
1936Two in the DarkHarry Hillyer
1936Absolute QuietJack
1936'Jimmy Kelly
1936'Steve
1937You're in the Army NowJimmy Tracy
1937JerichoMike Clancy
1937Exiled to ShanghaiTed Young
1938Swing It, Sailor!Pete Kelly
1938StardustPeter Jackson
1938The Marines Come ThruPvt. 'Singapore' Stebbins
1939Back Door to HeavenFrankie Rogers
1940Isle of DestinyMillard Barnes
1940Two Girls on BroadwayJed Marlowe
1940Love, Honor, and Oh Baby!Joe Redmond
1940ScatterbrainSam Maxwell
1940'Babe Jenson
1940Give Us WingsMr. York
1941'Casey
1941Roar of the PressWally Williams
1941Murder by InvitationBob White
1941Blues in the NightBrad Ames
1942All Through the NightSpats Hunter
1942Inside the LawBilly
1942Scattergood Survives a MurderWally Collins
1942'Babe Hanson
1942Seven Days' LeaveSergeant Mead
1942'Singapore
1943Shadow of a DoubtFred Saunders
1943'Jeff Carter
1943'Pierre Flandeau
1944Secret CommandMiller
1944Machine Gun MamaJohnny O'Reilly
1945Blood on the SunOllie Miller
1945'McManus
1945On Stage EverybodyEmmett Rogers
1945SpellboundStranger in hotel lobby
1946'Bill Conley
1946'Jamie Nigg
1946Lover Come BackTubbs
1946Rendezvous with AnnieAl Morgan
1946Black AngelJoe
1946Crack-UpLieutenant Cochrane
1947Dead ReckoningMcGee
1947Magic TownLou Dicketts
1947T-MenThe schemer
1948Man from TexasJed
1948Shed No TearsSam Grover
1948Embraceable YouPolice Lt. Ferria
1948Coroner CreekAndy West
1948Belle Starr's DaughterLafe Bailey
1949'Gus
1949Red Stallion in the RockiesTalky Carson
1950Dakota LilCarter
1950'Scotty Hyslip
1950'F.R. Duncan
1950HarveyEllis Logfren, The Taxi Driver
1951He Ran All the WayMr. Dobbs
1951WarpathPrivate Potts
1951Painting the Clouds with SunshineSam Parks
1952She Couldn't Say NoJoe Wheelen
1952RodeoBarbecue Jones
1952Flesh and FuryJack "Pop" Richardson
1953'Elias Hobbs
1953'Mac McBride
1954'Wally Higgins
1954DestryDoc Curtis
19543 Ring CircusSam Morley
1955'Charley O'Leary
1955WichitaArthur Whiteside
1955Lucy GallantGus Basserman
1955'Dr. Amos Wynn
1955'Flapjack Simms
1956'Jamie
1956'Henry Delaney
1956Johnny ConchoAlbert Dark
1956Thunder Over ArizonaHal Stiles
1956Stagecoach to FuryJudge Lester Farrell
1956'Sheriff Howard Thomas
1958Twilight for the GodsOld Brown
1958'Malachi Stack
1958'Charles J. Hennessey
1959WarlockJudge Holloway
1960Tess of the Storm CountryFred Thorson
1965Ole Pa

Select television credits

YearTitleRoleNotes
1953'"Outlaw's Reckoning"
1953Goodyear Television Playhouse"The Happy Rest"
1953Armstrong Circle Theatre"The Marshal of Misery Gulch"
1954Inner SanctumPhotographer"Dark of the Night"
1955Ford TheatreTalker"Sunday Mourn"
1955Damon Runyon TheatreLt. Harrigan"Tobias the Terrible"
1957'William Markham"The Jim Thompson Case"
1958Playhouse 90Mule Rogers"The Last Man"
1959–61Marshal Herk Lamson
1964The Andy Griffith ShowRoger Hanover