James Cagney

AKA:

Cellar-Door Cagney

Birth Name:

James Francis Cagney Jr.

Birth Date:

July 17, 1899

Birth Place:

New York, New York

Death Date:

March 30, 1986

Place of Death:

Verney Farm, Bengall Amenia Road, Stanfordville, Connecticut

Age:

Cause of Death:

Heart attack

Cemetery Name:

Gate of Heaven Cemetery

Claim to Fame:

Show Business

James Cagney was one of greatest actors, dancer, entertainer and performer during the Golden Age of Hollywood. On stage and in film, he was known for his consistently energetic performances, distinctive vocal style, and deadpan comic timing. Cagney is remembered for playing multifaceted tough guys in films such as The Public Enemy (1931), Taxi! (1932), Angels with Dirty Faces (1938), The Roaring Twenties (1939), City for Conquest (1940) and White Heat (1949). To avoid being typecast as a gangster in every film, he was able to negotiate dancing opportunities in his films and ended up winning the Academy Award for his role in the musical Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942). Ending three decades on the screen, he retired to his farm in Stanfordville, New York after starring in Billy Wilder's One, Two, Three (1961). He emerged from retirement to star in the 1981 screen adaptation of E.L. Doctorow's novel "Ragtime" (Ragtime (1981)), in which he was reunited with his frequent co-star of the 1930s, Pat O'Brien, and which was his last theatrical film (and O'Brien's as well). Cagney's final performance came in the title role of the made-for-TV movie Terrible Joe Moran (1984), in which he played opposite Art Carney. In 1999 the American Film Institute ranked him eighth on its list of greatest male stars of the Golden Age of Hollywood. Orson Welles described him as "maybe the greatest actor who ever appeared in front of a camera".

Fun Fact

Actor John Travolta idolized the film legend. He’d call every Father’s Day and made several visits, flying his plane into Stormville Airport to visit with the Cagneys. One time Travolta stopped to pick up a bottle of wine for dinner. Travolta, browsing, was summoned to the front of the store. THAT voice boomed, “Kid, come over here and tell this guy what you made for that dancing movie!” Travolta sheepishly mentioned the large fee he’d received for “Saturday Night Fever” and Cagney thundered, “That’s more than I made in my career!”

Cemetery Information:

Final Resting Place:

Gate of Heaven Cemetery

10 West Stevens Avenue

Hawthorne, New York, 10532

USA

North America

Map:

Map of Gate of Heaven Cemetery in Hawthorne, New York

Grave Location:

Saint Francis of Assisi Mausoleum, Wing 5, Corridor B, Crypt 76

Grave Location Description

As you enter Gate of Heaven Cemetery immediately pull your car to the right and park. Walk up the asphalt walkway on your left and make your way to the outside wing of the mausoleum on your right. The talented actor James Cagney can be found in the second corridor from the road on the end of the panel of crypts.