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William Joseph Shields (10 March 1888 – 4 January 1961), known professionally as Barry Fitzgerald, was an Irish stage, film and television actor. In a career spanning almost forty years, he appeared in such notable films as Bringing Up Baby (1938), The Long Voyage Home (1940), How Green Was My Valley (1941), The Sea Wolf (1941), Going My Way (1944), None but the Lonely Heart (1944) and The Quiet Man (1952). For Going My Way, he won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor and was simultaneously nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for the same performance. In 2020, he was listed at number 11 on The Irish Times list of Ireland's greatest film actors.
He attended Skerry's College in Dublin before going on to work in the civil service, starting as a junior clerk at the Dublin Board of Trade in 1911. He later went to work for the unemployment office. "It was an easy job, full of leisure," he later said.
Fitzgerald's early appearances at the Abbey included bit parts in plays such as The Casting Out of Martin Whelan and a four-word part in The Critic.
His breakthrough performance at the Abbey came in 1919, when he was in The Dragon by Lady Gregory."SOME IRISH ARTISTS: XXI.--Mr. Barry Fitzgerald Bruyere". The Irish Times. Dublin. 18 August 1923: 9. However he continued to act part-time until 1929, keeping his job in the civil service during the day. He was in The Bribe, An Imaginary Conversation, John Bull's Other Island and others.
In 1924, Fitzgerald's salary at the Abbey was £2/10 a week.Monks, Michael (28 August 1953). "BARRY FITZGERALD AIDS TOURIST DRIVE". The Irish Times:Dublin. 6. That year he appeared in the world premiere of Juno and the Paycock by famed playwright Seán O'Casey. Fitzgerald played Captain Jack Boyle.
He received much acclaim for his performance in Paul Twyning during 1925. The following year he was in the premiere of O'Casey's The Plough and the Stars, playing Fluther Good. The play was controversial, causing riots and protests. One night in February 1926, three gunmen turned up to Fitzgerald's mother's house intending to kidnap him and prevent the play from being performed, but they were unable to find him."ABBEY KIDNAPPING PLOT FAILS: WENT TO WRONG HOUSE "GUNBOYS" IN SEARCH OF MR. FITZGERALD". The Irish Times. Dublin. 15 February 1926: 5.
In 1926, Fitzgerald was in The Would-Be Gentleman."ABBEY THEATRE". The Irish Times. Dublin. 6 April 1926: 3. Other appearances at the Abbey included The Far Off Hills, Shadow of a Gunman and The Playboy.Comiskey, Ray (10 March 1988). "Barry Fitzgerald: The Abbey to Hollywood". The Irish Times. Dublin. 12.
O'Casey wrote a part, especially for Fitzgerald in the play The Silver Tassie, but it was rejected by the Abbey. The play was picked up for production in London in 1929. Fitzgerald decided to leave his civil service job to join the production and at age 41, he became a full-time actor.
In early 1931, Fitzgerald toured England in a production of Paul Twyning. He returned to Ireland in June of that year to perform the play at the Abbey."'PAUL TWYNING' AT THE ABBEY: MR. BARRY FITZGERALD RETURNS". The Irish Times. Dublin. 23 June 1931: 4. Between 1931 and 1936, he appeared in three plays by Irish playwright Teresa Deevy A Disciple, In Search of Valour and Katie Rochewhich were also Abbey Theatre productions.
In 1932, Fitzgerald travelled to the United States with the Abbey Players to appear in Things That Are Caesar's and The Far-off Hills.
Fitzgerald and the Players returned to the US in 1934 to tour a series of plays in repertory around the country. These included The Plough and the Stars, Drama at Inish, The Far-off Hills, Look at the Heffernans, The Playboy of the Western World, The Shadow of the Glen, Church Street, The Well of the Saints and Juno and the Paycock.
Fitzgerald appeared in a short Irish silent film, Guests of the Nation, released only in Ireland in 1935. The film was not seen or distributed outside of Ireland until 2011.
Fitzgerald made a series of films at RKO: Pacific Liner (1939) with Victor McLaglen, and two directed by John Farrow, The Saint Strikes Back (1939) and Full Confession (1939). In between the two Farrow films, Fitzgerald returned to Broadway in 1939 in The White Steed.
After Full Confession Fitzgerald went back to Broadway with Kindred (1939–40) and a revival of Juno and the Paycock (1940) which went for 105 performances.
Back in Hollywood, Fitzgerald was reunited with John Ford in The Long Voyage Home (1940). He appeared in San Francisco Docks (1940) at Universal and The Sea Wolf (1941) at Warner Bros., before making another film with Ford, How Green Was My Valley (1941), for Fox. He went to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer for Tarzan's Secret Treasure (1941).
Fitzgerald and Shields starred in Tanyard Street (1941) on Broadway, directed by Shields, which only had a short run. However, Fitzgerald's personal notices were excellent, The New York Times calling him "the incarnation of the comic spirit. People start laughing the moment he pokes his squint face on set."
Back in Hollywood, Fitzgerald appeared in a series of films for Universal: The Amazing Mrs. Holliday (1943), Two Tickets to London (1943) and Corvette K-225 (1943).
After Going My Way, Paramount signed Fitzgerald to a long-term contract. The studio cast him in a supporting role in I Love a Soldier (1944) and he was borrowed by RKO for None But the Lonely Heart (1944).
In March 1944, Fitzgerald was involved in a car accident which resulted in the death of a woman and the injury of her daughter. He was charged with manslaughter but was acquitted in January 1945 due to lack of evidence.
Back at Paramount, Fitzgerald supported Alan Ladd in Two Years Before the Mast, made in 1944 by John Farrow, but not released until 1946. He supported Betty Hutton in Incendiary Blonde (1945) and The Stork Club (1945). In between he had a cameo as himself in Duffy's Tavern (1945) and was borrowed by United Artists to play the lead in And Then There Were None (1945), based on the novel and play by Agatha Christie. In January 1945 his fee was reported to be $75,000 a film.
Fitzgerald made two more films with John Farrow: California (1947) with Ray Milland and Easy Come, Easy Go (1947), where he was top billed.
Paramount reunited Fitzgerald with Bing Crosby in Welcome Stranger (1947) and appeared in another cameo as himself in Variety Girl (1947).
Mark Hellinger borrowed Fitzgerald to play the lead in a cop film at Universal, The Naked City (1948) which was a solid success. Back at Paramount, he was in The Sainted Sisters (1948) and Miss Tatlock's Millions (1948), then appeared in a third film with Crosby, Top o' the Morning (1949).
Fitzgerald went to Warner Bros. for The Story of Seabiscuit (1949) with Shirley Temple, then to Paramount for Union Station (1950) with William Holden and Silver City (1951) with Yvonne de Carlo. He made his television debut with an episode of The Ford Theatre Hour, "The White-Headed Boy" in 1950.
Fitzgerald appeared in TV on episodes of Lux Video Theatre, General Electric Theater, and Alfred Hitchcock Presents.
He had a supporting role in MGM's The Catered Affair (1956) and was top billed in the British comedy Rooney (1958).
Fitzgerald was top billed in the Irish film Broth of a Boy (1959).
Fitzgerald has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, for motion pictures at 6252 Hollywood Boulevard and for television at 7001 Hollywood Boulevard.
| 1924 | Land of Her Fathers | ||
| 1930 | Juno and the Paycock | The Orator | |
| 1935 | Guests of the Nation | Captured of British Soldier | |
| 1936 | The Plough and the Stars | Fluther Good | |
| 1937 | Ebb Tide | Huish | |
| 1938 | Bringing Up Baby | Mr. Gogarty | |
| Four Men and a Prayer | Trooper Mulcahay | ||
| Marie Antoinette | Peddler | Uncredited | |
| The Dawn Patrol | Bott | ||
| 1939 | Pacific Liner | Britches | |
| The Saint Strikes Back | Zipper Dyson | ||
| Full Confession | Michael O'Keefe | ||
| 1940 | The Long Voyage Home | Cocky | With John Wayne. |
| The San Francisco Docks | The Icky | ||
| 1941 | The Sea Wolf | Cooky | With Edward G. Robinson, John Garfield, and Ida Lupino |
| How Green Was My Valley | Cyfartha | ||
| Tarzan's Secret Treasure | O'Doul | With Johnny Weissmuller. | |
| 1943 | The Amazing Mrs. Holliday | Timothy Blake | |
| Two Tickets to London | Captain McCardle | ||
| Corvette K-225 | Stooky O'Meara | ||
| 1944 | Going My Way | Father Fitzgibbon | Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actor Nominated–Academy Award for Best Actor |
| I Love a Soldier | Murphy | ||
| None but the Lonely Heart | Henry Twite | ||
| 1945 | Incendiary Blonde | Michael 'Mike' Guinan | |
| Duffy's Tavern | Bing Crosby's Father | ||
| And Then There Were None | Judge Francis J. Quinncannon | ||
| The Stork Club | Jerry B. 'J.B.'/'Pop' Bates | ||
| 1946 | Two Years Before the Mast | Terrence O'Feenaghty | |
| 1947 | California | Michael Fabian | |
| Easy Come, Easy Go | Martin L. Donovan | ||
| Welcome Stranger | Dr. Joseph McRory | ||
| Variety Girl | Himself | ||
| 1948 | The Naked City | Detective Lt. Dan Muldoon | |
| The Sainted Sisters | Robbie McCleary | ||
| Miss Tatlock's Millions | Denno Noonan | ||
| 1949 | Top o' the Morning | Sergeant Briany McNaughton | |
| The Story of Seabiscuit | Shawn O'Hara | ||
| 1950 | Union Station | Inspector Donnelly | |
| 1951 | Silver City | R.R. Jarboe | |
| 1952 | Ha da venì... don Calogero! | Don Calogero | |
| The Quiet Man | Michaleen Oge Flynn | With John Wayne. | |
| Lux Video Theatre | Barry Flynn | episode: "The Man Who Struck It Rich" | |
| 1954 | Tonight's the Night | Thady O'Heggarty | |
| 1955 | Alfred Hitchcock Presents | Harold 'Stretch' Sears | Season 1 Episode 12: "Santa Claus and the Tenth Avenue Kid" |
| 1956 | The Catered Affair | Uncle Jack Conlon | |
| 1958 | Rooney | Grandfather | |
| 1959 | Broth of a Boy | Patrick Farrell | |
| Top o' the Morning |
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