Saturday, October 30, 2010

More Irving Bacon

After the war, Irving Bacon (1893 - 1965) kept on working.  He made two westerns with Gene Autry (1907 - 1998), Saddle Pals (1947) and Sons of New Mexico (1949), long after his two with Roy Rogers (1911 - 1998), Rhythm on the Range (1936) and King of the Cowboys (1943).  Quite a few of his movies were B-westerns, but the again, he made quite a few movies.

In 1947 he also worked with Gary Grant (1904 - 1986) and Shirley Temple (b. 1928) in The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer.  And here's an interesting tidbit.  Bacon was in Rocky!  In 1948, Roddy McDowall (1928 - 1998) made a movie called Rocky that has no details at all on IMDb.

Another Frank Capra film, State of the Union, followed in 1948 with Tracy and Hepburn.  In 1950 Bacon starts work in television, but many more great movies looked to him for his talent.  The same year he worked with Bing Crosby again in Mr. Music and the next year in Here Comes the Groom.  That was a span of almost 20 years of working with Bing, starting with The Big Broadcast in 1932.

In 1954 he played Glenn Miller's father in The Glenn Miller Story starring James Stewart.  I remember the look on his face when he realized how much Miller was making.  That year he was also in Ma and Pa Kettle at Home and A Star is Born.  He was in both Stars, in 1937 with Janet Gaynor (1906 - 1984) and then this one with Judy Garland (1922 - 1969).

He was never a regular on any TV series, but he guest starred on all of the best, from "I Love Lucy" to "Whirlybirds."  His last movie appearance was Fort Massacre in 1958 with Joel McCrea (1905 - 1990) and Forrest Tucker (1919 - 1986).  He played Charlie the trader in that one, and he made five movies with McCrea.

Irving Bacon was a perfect choice for my blog and a great Bit Actor.

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