Joseph Michael Kerrigan (16 December 1884 – 29 April 1964), better known as J.M. Kerrigan, was an Irish character actor. Kerrigan was born in Dublin, Ireland. He worked as a newspaper reporter until 1907 when he joined the famous Abbey Players. There he became a stalwart, appearing in plays by Lady Gregory, William Butler Yeats and John Millington Synge (for whom he played the role of Shawn Keogh in The Playboy of the Western World. His first screen appearance was in the silent film Food of Love in 1916. By the 1920s he was appearing on Broadway, often in plays by Shakespeare, Ibsen, and Sheridan. He settled permanently in Hollywood in 1935, having been recruited along with several other Abbey performers, to appear in John Ford's The Informer. In that film and in Ford's The Long Voyage Home, he plays similar roles, that of a leech who attaches himself to men until they run out of money. Perhaps his best known role was in The General Died at Dawn, where he plays a character actually named Leach, in which he steals scenes from Gary Cooper, Madeleine Carroll and William Frawley. In it he plays a sinister little petty thief who, holding a gun on Cooper, says, "I may be fat, but I'm agile." He had little screen time in films which he starred as minor roles, such as the "First Drayman" in Merely Mary Ann (1931) with Janet Gaynor. One of his most recognizable minor roles was in Gone with the Wind (1939), in which he played John Gallegher, the seemly jovial mill owner who whips his convict labour in to "co-operation". He appeared in Walt Disney's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954), the famous film version of Jules Verne's Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea in a minor role at the beginning of the film. In 1946, he tried breaking into Broadway shows, playing the discombobulated leprechaun Jackeen J. O'Malley in the show "Barnaby and Mr. O'Malley", based on the Crockett Johnson comic strip. J. M. Kerrigan died in Hollywood on 29 April 1964, aged 79. Kerrigan has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6621 Hollywood Blvd.
94 movies · 7 shows
The Fastest Gun Alive
1956·6.9
It's a Dog's Life
1955·4.3
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
1954·7.1
The Silver Whip
1953·6.4
My Cousin Rachel
1952·6.7
Park Row
1952·6.7
The Wild North
1952·6.9
Two of a Kind
1951·6.8
Sealed Cargo
1951·6.5
Mrs. Mike
1949·6.0
The Fighting O'Flynn
1949·7.3
The Luck of the Irish
1948·6.1
Call Northside 777
1948·6.7
Abie's Irish Rose
1946·7.0
Black Beauty
1946·5.7
She Went to the Races
1945·6.0
The Spanish Main
1945·6.4
The Crime Doctor's Warning
1945·6.5
The Great John L.
1945·6.3
Tarzan and the Amazons
1945·6.3
The Big Bonanza
1944·6.3
Wilson
1944·5.6
The Fighting Seabees
1944·6.2
Mr. Lucky
1943·7.0
Action in the North Atlantic
1943·7.1
Captains of the Clouds
1942·6.4
The Vanishing Virginian
1942·7.3
The Wolf Man
1941·7.0
Appointment for Love
1941·5.8
The Long Voyage Home
1940·6.6
No Time for Comedy
1940·5.3
The Sea Hawk
1940·7.2
One Crowded Night
1940·5.5
Untamed
1940·5.0
Curtain Call
1940·7.3
Young Tom Edison
1940·5.9
Congo Maisie
1940·4.4
Gone with the Wind
1939·7.9
Two Thoroughbreds
1939·5.0
Sabotage
1939·6.6
The Witness Vanishes
1939·7.0
Two Bright Boys
1939·10.0
6,000 Enemies
1939·6.1
The Zero Hour
1939·5.3
Sorority House
1939·7.3
Union Pacific
1939·6.7
Undercover Agent
1939·4.2
The Kid From Texas
1939·7.0
The Flying Irishman
1939·5.0
The Great Man Votes
1939·6.4
Ride a Crooked Mile
1938·7.0
Little Orphan Annie
1938·8.0
Spring Madness
1938·4.9
Vacation from Love
1938·10.0
London by Night
1937·6.1
Motor Madness
1937·10.0
The Plough and the Stars
1936·5.7
Lloyd's of London
1936·7.3
The General Died at Dawn
1936·6.5
Let's Make a Million
1936·7.5
Spendthrift
1936·6.0
Special Investigator
1936·5.4
Colleen
1936·5.8
Laughing Irish Eyes
1936·10.0
The Prisoner of Shark Island
1936·6.9
Timothy's Quest
1936·4.7
A Feather in Her Hat
1935·7.0
Barbary Coast
1935·6.4
Hot Tip
1935·7.0
Werewolf of London
1935·6.1
The Informer
1935·6.8
Vanessa: Her Love Story
1935·6.2
The Mystery of Edwin Drood
1935·5.9
The Fountain
1934·9.2
The Key
1934·4.9
A Modern Hero
1934·7.0
The Lost Patrol
1934·6.5
Lone Cowboy
1933·4.0
Paddy the Next Best Thing
1933·3.0
A Study in Scarlet
1933·5.6
Air Hostess
1933·6.3
Rockabye
1932·6.5
Vanity Street
1932·7.1
Careless Lady
1932·5.8
The Rainbow Trail
1932·9.0
Merely Mary Ann
1931·9.0
The Black Camel
1931·6.1
Don't Bet on Women
1931·4.9
Under Suspicion
1930·8.0
Lightnin'
1930·5.3
New Movietone Follies of 1930
1930·10.0
Song o' My Heart
1930·4.8
Lucky In Love
1929·7.0
Little Old New York
1923·6.5