Background

Victor Andrew de Bier Everleigh McLaglen was born on 10 December 1886, in Tunbridge Wells, England. He was the son of Andrew McLaglen, an Anglican clergyman, who later became bishop of Clermont, South Africa, and Lillian Burke.

Education

McLaglen began his schooling in the military arts and enlisting in the Life Guards at the age of fourteen.

Career

In his autobiography, McLaglen claimed that between 1900 and 1920, when he began his film career, he had tried twenty vocations, "the only thing which ever thrilled me was boxing. " In 1908, in Vancouver, he fought a six-round exhibition bout with the world heavyweight champion. He then toured with a circus, offering a cash prize to anyone who could go three rounds against him. In 1913, he returned to England, and during World War I served as a acting Captain with the 10th Battalion, Middlesex Regiment, part of the Princess of Wales Royal Regiment. He served in Mesopotamia (present day Iraq) becoming Assistant Provost-Marshal in Baghdad. McLaglen served in the army for three years before his parents forced his release. By then, he had acquired a taste for adventure. He went to Canada, where he earned his living by boxing he once took part in a six-round exhibition match with world heavyweight champion Jack Johnson wrestling, prospecting for gold, and working as a railroad policeman. McLaglen traveled to Tahiti, the Fiji Islands, Australia, India, Ceylon, and Africa. He joined a circus as a boxer and ended up as a physical training instructor for the rajah of Akola in India. He was in South Africa in 1914 when World War I began and joined the British army, securing a lieutenant's commission in the Middlesex regiment. Twice wounded, he later served in Mesopotamia and headed the British espionage system in Baghdad. In 1919, he returned to England. McLaglen left the army for a film career. The producer I. B. Davidson saw him in a boxing match and gave him the role of a gambler who becomes a boxer in Call of the Road (1920), the first of his more than 115 films. In 1924, J. Stuart Blackton invited him to Hollywood to play in The Beloved Brute. Subsequent roles included Hank, the foreign legionnaire who fights Ronald Colman in Beau Geste (1926), Captain Flagg in What Price Glory? (1926), Marlene Dietrich's lover in Dishonored (1931), and a platoon sergeant lost in the Mesopotamian desert in Lost Patrol (1934).

McLaglen's affection for the military and his love of companionship and a shared purpose led him in 1936 to establish a fraternal group known as the Light Horse Troop. "In time of war, we can be counted upon as a government unit, " he announced. In the politically charged atmosphere of the times, however, McLaglen's group created ripples of concern and elicited fear that his group was proto-fascist. He worked and lived hard, spending money quickly. By 1945, he owed the government $250, 000 in taxes, but he battled his way back from bankruptcy. He continued to work until the end of his life. His last films include She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949) and Around the World in 80 Days (1956). He died in Newport Beach, California.

Achievements

• McLaglen became a regimental boxing champion before his family found him and informed the army of his true age, when he was discharged. In a bid to become the World Heavyweight Boxing Champion, he traveled to Ontario, Canada where he won the Eastern Canada boxing championship. In the cinema industry McLaglen won an Academy Award for best actor for his portrayal of Gypo Nolan in The Informer (1935), directed by John Ford and based on the Liam O'Flaherty novel about the Irish civil war. In 1952 McLaglen won an Academy Award nomination for best supporting actor for his role as the father in John Ford's The Quiet Man. He has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1735 Vine Street.

Works

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  • The Way West / Escort West / Chato's Land

    (The Way West Sally Field makes her film debut in this sum...)

  • Full Confession (1939)

    (Victor McLaglen stars as Pat McGinnis, a brute with a sen...)

  • Informer, The (1935)

    (Gypo Nolan stumbles through a foggy Irish night, his brai...)

  • Professional Soldier

    (A mercenary is hired to kidnap a young Prince – who turns...)

  • Laughing at Life

    ( When sold by Amazon.com, this product will be manufactu...)

  • The Lost Patrol
  • The Informer (1935)
  • Devil's Party
  • Many Rivers To Cross
  • Calendar Girl

Personality

In order to be enlisted in the Life Guards, McLaglen had to lie about his age. He was able to convince the recruiters because of his size; in fact, his stature and massive build became his most distinguishing characteristic. He grew to six feet, three inches and weighed 230 pounds; during his forty-year career he was most frequently cast as a brawling giant.

In 1933, McLaglen became an American citizen.

McLaglen was among the first to demonstrate a respect and appreciation for other crafts and talents in the industry. He supported the Motion Picture and Television Fund, which takes care of the needy and ill of the motion picture and television industry.

Although McLaglen was often mistaken for being merely tough, he loved the seclusion of his ranch in the San Joaquin Valley, where he raised horses and farmed. He cultivated fruit trees and at one time had 20, 000 grapevines.

Connections

McLaglen married Enid Mary Lamont; she died in 1942. They had two children. On November 20, 1943, after the death of his first wife, McLaglen married his secretary, Suzanne Brueggemann; the marriage ended in divorce in 1947. On December 19, 1948, he married Margaret Pumphrey.

Father:

Andrew Charles McLaglen

4 April 1851 - 1929

Mother:

Lillian Adcock McLaglen

1859 - 1921

Brother:

Arthur McLaglen

25 June 1888 - 29 January 1972

Wife:

Suzanne Brueggemann

Wife:

Enid Mary Lamont McLaglen

9 February 1899 - 2 April 1942

Wife:

Margaret Pumphrey

Daughter:

Sheila McLaglen

Daughter:

Mary McLaglen

Son:

Josh McLaglen

Son:

Andrew Victor McLaglen

28 July 1920 - 30 August 2014 Was a film and television director, known for Westerns and adventure films, often starring John Wayne or James Stewart.