Victor McLaglen

Rambunctious British leading man (contrary to popular belief, he was of Scottish ancestry, not Irish) and later character actor primarily in American films, Victor McLaglen was a vital presence in a number of great motion pictures, especially those of director John Ford. McLaglen (pronounced Muh-clog-len, not Mack-loff-len) was the son of the Right Reverend Andrew McLaglen, a Protestant clergyman who was at one time Bishop of Claremont in South Africa. The young McLaglen, eldest of eight brothers, attempted to serve in the Boer War by joining the Life Guards, though his father secured his release. The adventuresome young man traveled to Canada where he did farm labor and then directed his pugnacious nature into professional prizefighting. He toured in circuses, vaudeville shows, and Wild West shows, often as a fighter challenging all comers. His tours took him to the US, Australia (where he joined in the gold rush) and South Africa. In 1909 he was the first fighter to box newly-crowned heavyweight champion Jack Johnson, whom he fought in a six-round exhibition match in Vancouver (as an exhibition fight, it had no decision). When the First World War broke out, McLaglen joined the Irish Fusiliers and soldiered in the Middle East, eventually serving as Provost Marshal (head of Military Police) for the city of Baghdad.

Under the pseudonym Paul Romano, he boxed future heavyweight champion Jess Willard in a four-round exhibition match in Springfield, MO, on 26 September 1911.

According to a 1912 newspaper report, he participated in a fencing duel with one Carl Brosius in Milwaukee, WI, prior to that date.

After the war he attempted to resume a boxing career, but was given a substantial acting role in The Call of the Road (1920) and was well received.

He became a popular leading man in British silent films, and within a few years was offered the lead in an American film, The Beloved Brute (1924). He quickly became a most popular star of dramas as well as action films, playing tough or suave with equal ease.

He formed a uniformed private army in the early 1930s made up of British and Irish World War I veterans. He called it the California Light Horse Troop and gave himself the rank of colonel. At one point it numbered 800 members, with 150 airmen. Public opinion at the time was very negative but, according to writer Philip Blzeibfred, the entire group volunteered for service during World War II and was accepted.

In 1932, while still a British citizen, he captained a band called the Hollywood Light Horse, described as "a military organization formed to promote Americanism and combat Communism and radicalism subversive to Constitutional government." For the most part, McLaglen and his troopers marched around in their specially tailored military uniforms to their favorite restaurants and bars. When that bid for social attention began to wane, Hollywood Light Horse members began drifting over to a parallel organization known as the Hollywood Hussars. The more serious purpose of the Hussars was to invade the Soviet Republic of Georgia to secure drilling rights for an American oil millionaire who was bankrolling their enterprise. At one point, McLaglen was a member along with George Brent, the sheriff of Los Angeles County and the city police chief. Gary Cooper was described as one of the sponsors, but that assertion was withdrawn following protests by Cooper's representatives. In any event the Hussars never got to invade Georgia - their most conspicuous public outing was a march one afternoon down to the Los Angeles newspaper offices of William Randolph Hearst, where they serenaded the publisher from the sidewalk in a group song, in gratitude for his anti-Communist editorials.

Born British, he became a U.S. citizen in January 1933.

Was nearly 50 before he became a bankable actor in films like The Lost Patrol (1934) and The Informer (1935).

With the coming of sound, his ability to be persuasively debonair diminished by reason of his native speech patterns, but his popularity increased, particularly when cast by Ford as the tragic Gypo Nolan in The Informer (1935), for which McLaglen won the Best Actor Oscar.

In spite of being a powerful hulk his whole life (his huge shoulders making even John Wayne's look small), he was 64 and in declining health by the time he was in The Quiet Man (1952). Even prickly John Ford had to be sensitive to McLaglen's condition while shooting that movie's grueling fight sequence.

His son, Andrew, directed him in The Abductors (1957).

He died about a month after his final role in an episode of Rawhide (1959), directed by his son Andrew V. McLaglen.

Boxed and wrestled under the nickname 'Sharkey' McLaglen, as well as under his real name, prior to his movie career. His lifetime boxing record (as far as is known) was 11-6-1, with 9 KOs. His 1909 bout with legendary champion Jack Johnson in Vancouver was a six-round exhibition bout. Two years later, he boxed Jess Willard, the "Great White Hope" who eventually beat Johnson in a heavyweight title bout in 1915.