Thomas Leo McCarey (October 3, 1898 – July 5, 1969) was an American film director, screenwriter and producer. During his lifetime he was involved in nearly 200 movies, especially comedies. French director Jean Renoir once said that "Leo McCarey understood people better than any other Hollywood director."
Career
Born in
Los Angeles, California, he graduated from the
University of Southern California law school and began in the movie business as an assistant director to
Tod Browning in 1920, but honed his skills at the
Hal Roach Studios for the rest of that decade. Hired by
Hal Roach in 1923, McCarey initially wrote gags for the
Our Gang series and other studio stars, then produced and directed shorts, including two-reelers with
Charley Chase. While at Roach, McCarey cast
Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy together and guided development of their onscreen characters, thus creating one of the most enduring comedy teams of all time. He only officially appeared as director of the duo shorts
We Faw Down (1928),
Liberty (1929) and
Wrong Again (1929), but wrote many of the screenplays. By 1929, he was vice-president of production for the entire studio.
In the sound era McCarey ventured into feature-film direction, working with many of the biggest stars of the era, including Gloria Swanson (Indiscreet, 1931), Eddie Cantor (The Kid From Spain, 1932), the Marx Brothers (Duck Soup, 1933), W.C. Fields (Six of a Kind, 1934), Mae West (Belle of the Nineties, 1934), and Harold Lloyd (The Milky Way, 1936). In 1937, McCarey won his first Academy Award for Directing for The Awful Truth, with Cary Grant and Irene Dunne, a screwball comedy that launched Cary Grant's unique screen persona, largely concocted by McCarey (Grant also copied many of McCarey's mannerisms). As writer/director Peter Bogdanovich notes, "After The Awful Truth, when it came to light comedy, there was Cary Grant and then everyone else was an also-ran."
McCarey was a devout Roman Catholic and deeply concerned with social issues. During the 1940s, his work became more serious and his politics more conservative. In 1944 he directed Going My Way, a story about an enterprising priest, the youthful Father Chuck O'Malley, played by Bing Crosby, for which he won his second Best Director Oscar. His share in the profits of this smash hit gave McCarey the highest reported income in the U.S. for the year 1944, and its follow-up, The Bells of St. Mary's (1945), which was made by McCarey's own production company, was similarly successful.
The public reacted negatively to some of his films after the Korean War. For instance, his anti-communist film My Son John (1952), failed at the box office. Five years later, he co-wrote, produced, and directed An Affair to Remember starring Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr, a remake (with precisely the same script) of his 1939 film Love Affair with Irene Dunne and Charles Boyer. He followed this hit with Rally 'Round the Flag, Boys! (1958), a comedy starring Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward. Some years later he directed his last picture, the poorly-received Satan Never Sleeps (1962).
Death
Leo McCarey died in 1969, aged 70, from
emphysema. He was interred in the
Holy Cross Cemetery in
Culver City, California. His brother, director
Ray McCarey, had died 21 years earlier.
Partial filmography
(As director, unless otherwise specified)
Isn't Life Terrible? (1925 short)
Mighty Like a Moose (1926 short)
Sugar Daddies (1927 short)
Pass the Gravy (1928 short)
Should Married Men Go Home? (1928 short), also writer
Habeas Corpus (1928 short)
We Faw Down (1928 short)
Liberty (1929 short), also writer
Wrong Again (1929 short)
Big Business (1929 short), also uncredited writer
Indiscreet (1931)
Duck Soup (1933)
Belle of the Nineties (1934)
Ruggles of Red Gap (1935)
The Milky Way (1936)
Make Way for Tomorrow (1937), also producer
The Awful Truth (1937), also producer
The Cowboy and the Lady (1938), writer
Love Affair (1939), also producer
My Favorite Wife (1940), producer and writer
Once Upon a Honeymoon (1942), also writer and uncredited producer
Going My Way (1944), also producer
The Bells of St. Mary's (1945), also producer and writer
Good Sam (1948), also producer and writer
An Affair to Remember (1957), also producer and writer
Rally 'Round the Flag, Boys! (1958), also producer
Satan Never Sleeps (1962) , also producer
Academy Awards
1957 An Affair to Remember Best Music, Original Song Nominated
1952 My Son John Best Writing, Motion Picture Story Nominated
1945 The Bells of St. Mary's Best Motion Picture and Best Director Nominated
1944 Going My Way Best Motion Picture, Best Director and Best Original Motion Picture Story Won
1940 My Favorite Wife Best Original Story Nominated
1939 Love Affair Outstanding Production and Best Original Story Nominated
1937 The Awful Truth Won Best Director Nominated Outstanding Production
References
External links
Senses of Cinema: Great Directors Critical Database
Leo McCarey: Hollywood Auteur, Hollywood Renegade
They Shoot Pictures, Don't They?
News story about the auction of a counterfeit Oscar statuette which the owner claimed was McCarey's
Paul Vecchiali, Le génie américain: Leo McCarey, "La furia umana", n. 1, 2009, http://www.lafuriaumana.it
(A Response to McCarey's My Son John - TCM Movie Morlocks)
(What Are the Whispers About My Son John? - TCM)
Literature on Leo McCarey
Category:1898 births
Category:1969 deaths
Category:American film directors
Category:American Roman Catholics
Category:Best Director Academy Award winners
Category:Best Director Golden Globe winners
Category:Burials at Holy Cross Cemetery, Culver City
Category:California Republicans
Category:Deaths from emphysema
Category:Hal Roach Studios filmmakers
![Make Way For Tomorrow [1937] Part 1/10](http://web.archive.org./web/20110830031640im_/http://i.ytimg.com/vi/V_MrZojHUdQ/0.jpg "Make Way For Tomorrow [1937] Part 1/10")
![Going My Way - Trailer [1944] [17th Oscar Best Picture]](http://web.archive.org./web/20110830031640im_/http://i.ytimg.com/vi/UZ-clrkwsGM/0.jpg "Going My Way - Trailer [1944] [17th Oscar Best Picture]")
