Horace McMahon

Biography

Tough, craggy, furrow-browed, gruff-voiced character actor Horace McMahon's urban film and TV characters played on both sides of the legal fence in over a hundred films. His first few years were usually heavy on the wrong side with various hoods, thugs, jailbirds, mobsters and murderers in crime yarns. He later turned over a leaf and started playing good-guy cops and hard-nosed detectives. Born in Connecticut on May 17, 1906, McMahon (sometimes billed as MacMahon) discovered acting while pursuing a law degree at Fordham University. A former shipping clerk and mail deliverer, he was a news reporter for The South Norwalk Sentinel before attempting to break through the acting ranks in New York. He made his Broadway debut in 1931 as a reporter in "Wonder Boy," and went on to play in a number of New York shows -- "Wild Waves" (1932), "Man Bites Dog" (1933), "Knock on Wood" (1935), "Three Men on a Horse" (1936, 1942) and "Red Gloves" (1948). His dark, streetwise mug and cynical attitude proved perfect for playing assorted "Runyonesque" New York characters -- cabbies, chauffeurs, henchmen, prisoners, bouncers -- in a slew of unbilled movie bits in the late 30's and 40's. His character had typical street-tough names like "Fingers," "Limpy," "Brains," "Maxey," "Swifty" and Looey". Such films included Bulldog Edition (1936), They Gave Him a Gun (1937), Kid Galahad (1937), The Last Gangster (1937), King of the Newsboys (1938), The Crowd Roars (1938), Broadway Musketeers (1938), I Was a Convict (1939), The Gracie Allen Murder Case (1939), My Favorite Wife (1940), Rookies on Parade (1941), Jail House Blues (1942), Roger Touhy, Gangster (1944), Joe Palooka in Fighting Mad (1948) and Waterfront at Midnight (1948). He also was cast as taxi driver "Foghorn" Murphy in Calling Dr. Kildare (1939) and continued the role in several movie entries. After a slew of "bad guys," McMahon scored his best role on Broadway as a change-of-pace "good guy" police chief. In 1949 he was cast as New York City Lt. Monaghan in the critical stage hit "Detective Story" starring Ralph Bellamy. The play ran well over a year. He was then given the opportunity to solidify the part on film with Detective Story (1951) starring Kirk Douglas. It was nominated for four Oscars. Thereafter, McMahon's crusty cops and detectives could be found all over the TV screen, including episodes of "Martin Kane," "Lux Video Theatre," "The Lone Wolf," "Climax!," The Ford Television Theatre," "Undercurrent" and "Suspicion." He went on to cop an Emmy nomination for his regular role as Lt. Mike Parker on the well-received Naked City (1958) TV series. He also had a regular role supporting Craig Stevens in his post "Peter Gunn" dramatic series Mr. Broadway (1964), set in New York. The veteran's intrepid cops also infiltrated later films as well -- Susan Slept Here (1954), Blackboard Jungle (1955), My Sister Eileen (1955), The Delicate Delinquent (1957) and The Swinger (1966). He ended his on-camera career on TV with guest spots on the mild comedies "My Three Sons" and "Family Affair." Long married to retired actress Louise Campbell who was best known for her recurring role as Phyllis on the "Bulldog Drummond" movie series. They had three children. McMahon died of a heart ailment on August 17, 1971, aged 65.