Joe Sawyer

He was born Joseph Sauers in Guelph, Canada, on August 29, 1906, and eventually moved to California to pursue a film career. Trained at the Pasadena Playhouse, he had a perfect "tough guy" look: sturdy build, jutting chin and beady eyes, made more distinctive by his shock of light hair and a slightly high-pitched voice.

Joe Sauers was a graduate of Hollywood High School, where he became interested in drama. While a student at the University of Southern California in the 1920s, he continued acting in plays and was seen by Gilmore Brown of the Pasadena Playhouse. He had Joe read for the part of a cockney in George Bernard Shaw's Major Barbara. That began an association that led to writing, directing, and appearing in over 100 Pasadena Playhouse productions. During those years Joe also worked in the building and loan business.

Joe Sawyer's familiar mug appeared everywhere during the 1930s and 1940s, particularly as a stock player for Warner Bros. in its more standard college musicals, comedies and crime yarns. He could play both sides of the fence, street cops and mob gunmen, with equal ease.

Sawyer made his film debut in 1931 under his real name, which, contrary to popular opinion, was German and not Irish, though he made a career out of playing Irishmen, and appeared mostly in strongarm bit parts in his early career until hitting his stride playing a variety of coaches, cops and sidekicks with imposing names like "Spud," "Slug" and "Whitey.

" He appeared in hundreds of films, in just about every genre, over a four-decade-long career, among them College Humor (1933), College Rhythm (1934), The Westerner (1934), The Informer (1935), in which his portrayal of an IRA gunman got him noticed by the public and critics alike, Pride of the Marines (1936), Black Legion (1937), The Petrified Forest (1936) (another "tough-guy" role that got him good reviews), The Grapes Of Wrath (1940), They Died with Their Boots On (1941), Sergeant York (1941), Tarzan's Desert Mystery (1943), Gilda (1946), It Came from Outer Space (1953), North to Alaska (1960) and How the West Was Won (1962).

A bit character with Joe in two films (The Coach and Maker of Men) was a then unknown John Wayne, who became a poker and fishing buddy. Joe Sawyer, 29, had a minor role, Barby Mulholland, in a John Ford-directed film. His role brought him critical attention and many subsequent John Ford-directed films. Still playing small parts, Joe appeared in 16 films released in 1934, 14 in 1935, and 17 in 1936. A 1936 release was The Petrified Forest. Joe played henchman to the star, Humphrey Bogart. Sawyer appeared in five other Bogart films.

After an excellent showing in The Informer in 1935 and a term contract offer by Warner Brothers, he decided to sign it as Joseph Sawyer, a name he suggested for himself. He said he didn't mind when people called him Sowers, or even Sours, but when he was introduced as Joe Sewers he knew it was time to change his name.

In 1936 Joe Sawyer in the national press was referred to as the toughest-looking heavy in films. That was contrasted with his hobbies of being a painter and a musician.

In a film fight for Universal Pictures, Owen Merrill, played by leading man Kent Taylor, broke two ribs on Saturday, July 17, 1937, during the filming of The Lady Fights Back. It wasn't a lady but rather Swede Janssen, played by 200-pound Joe Sawyer, who inflicted the injury.

His first wife was actress Jeane Wood, the daughter of Gone with the Wind (1939) uncredited director Sam Wood.

In 1949 Joe Sawyer received U. S. Air Force assurances of co-operation to produce Operation Haylift. The film was about the 1948 feeding of blizzard-bound cattle. The movie was shot in Nevada.

He also guest-starred on many TV series and was a regular on The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin (1954) as Sgt. Aloysius "Biff" O'Hara.

His second wife, June, died in 1960.

Joe was talked into one final film appearance in 1962, a John Ford movie starring John Wayne. He played a riverboat officer in How the West Was Won. He then turned full time to property development, and was a key player in the construction of various projects in Southern California, including housing developments, shopping centers and a hospital.

Joseph's parents, Joseph (October 3, 1984 - 1908) and Lavina Mary Bolton (August 17, 1885 - August 15, 1966), spelled their last name Sauer on their Guelph, Ontario, Canada, marriage certificate on November 23, 1904. Their son Joseph was known as Joseph Sauers. He chose to change his surname to Sawyer when he signed a Warner Brothers contract in 1935.