James Dunn
James Dunn worked on the stage, in vaudeville and as an extra in silent movies before he was signed by Fox in 1931. His first movie with Fox was 1931's Sob Sister (1931). While at Fox, he appeared with Shirley Temple in her first three features: Baby Take a Bow (1934), Stand Up and Cheer! (1934) and Bright Eyes (1934). Dunn's screen character was usually the boy next door or the nice guy. In 1935 musicals at the new 20th Century-Fox were out and Dunn would move to the "B" list, from which he would never return. In The Payoff (1935) he plays the nice guy newspaper columnist whose wife ruins his career. By the late 1930s he was drinking heavily and become unemployable. He would appear in small roles in films during the early 1940s, but those parts were few. In 1945 he was able to make a comeback and win the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1945), but his rejuvenated career would not continue. By 1951 he would again be unemployed and bankrupt. Television would later supply some work and he would be a regular on the series It's a Great Life (1954).
Dunn was born 2 November 1901, New York City, New York, USA, and he died 1 September 1967, Santa Monica, California, USA (following abdominal surgery)
| Known For | Acting |
|---|---|
| Most Rating | 0.9545 |
| Birthday | 1901-11-02 |
| Place of Birth | New York City, New York, USA |
| Also Known As | James Howard Dunn, Jimmy Dunn, |
1945
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
7.5/110
In Brooklyn circa 1900, the Nolans manage to enjoy life on pennies despite great poverty and Papa's alcoholism. We come to know these people well thro...
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A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
1934
Baby Take a Bow
5.7/21
Eddie Ellison is an ex-con who spent time in Sing-Sing prison. Kay marries him as soon as he serves his time. Five years later, Eddie and his ex-convi...
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Baby Take a Bow
1935
Welcome Home
9/1
A con artist attends a reunion in his hometown and discovers that his former classmates are trying to trick an old millionaire into returning to build...
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Welcome Home
1942
The Living Ghost
4.227/22
A detective investigating kidnapping case discovers the victim, who may be a zombie.
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The Living Ghost
1934
Bright Eyes
6.7/30
An orphaned girl is taken in by a snobbish family at the insistence of their rich, crotchety uncle, even as her devoted aviator godfather fights for c...
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Bright Eyes
1934
Stand Up and Cheer!
5.3/12
President Franklin Roosevelt appoints a theatrical producer as the new Secretary of Amusement in order to cheer up an American public still suffering...
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Stand Up and Cheer!
1943
The Ghost and the Guest
5.35/10
Newlyweds Webster and Jackie Frye spend their honeymoon in a sinister old country house. Before long, they are besieged by a gang of crooks, searching...
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The Ghost and the Guest
1943
Government Girl
5.667/9
An aviation engineer and a government secretary are thrown together by the war effort.
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Government Girl
1931
Bad Girl
5.951/41
A man and woman, skeptical about romance, nonetheless fall in love and are wed, but their lack of confidence in the opposite sex haunts their marriage...
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Bad Girl
1966
The Oscar
5.1/17
An amoral lowlife accidentally stumbles into an acting career that sets him on a trajectory to Hollywood stardom. But everyone on whom he steps on the...
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The Oscar
1947
Killer McCoy
6.3/6
Tommy McCoy grew up poor and scrappy. As a young man he discovers that he can fight with his powerful right arm. He becomes successful at boxing, howe...
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Killer McCoy
1936
Hearts in Bondage
4.9/10
Best friends Kenneth Reynolds and Raymond Jordan are U.S. Navy officers, and Kenneth is engaged to Raymond's sister. But the eruption of the Civil War...
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Hearts in Bondage
1962
Hemingway’s Adventures of a Young Man
5.588/17
Young and restless Nick Adams, the only son of a domineering mother and a weak but noble doctor father, leaves his rural Michigan home to embark on an...
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Hemingway’s Adventures of a Young Man
1945
The Caribbean Mystery
6.667/3
The Caribbean Mystery is a remake of Mr. Moto on Danger Island (1939)-which in turn was a remake of Murder in Trinidad. James Dunn stars as Mr. Smith,...
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The Caribbean Mystery
1936
Two-Fisted Gentleman
9/1
Mickey, is a prizefighter whose bright career hits the skids when he comes under the guidance of Ginger, a female fight promoter, when he becomes invo...
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Two-Fisted Gentleman
1933
The Girl in 419
4.2/5
A hospital surgeon (James Dunn) protects a mystery woman (Gloria Stuart) who knows too much about a card-game murder.
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The Girl in 419
1933
Arizona to Broadway
7.5/2
A team of con men trying to double-cross a woman they are supposedly helping to get some stolen money back wind up getting crossed themselves... by th...
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Arizona to Broadway
1957
Mr. Broadway
7/1
A musical television special chronicling the early career of playwright George M. Cohan, focusing primarily on his vaudeville years as part of his fam...
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Mr. Broadway
1935
George White's 1935 Scandals
7/2
A Broadway producer discovers new talent in a small Georgia town and brings them to New York for his new show.
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George White's 1935 Scandals
1935
The Payoff
5.5/8
An honest sports columnist's greedy wife persuades him to go easy on a cheat, famous for crooked sports deals.
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The Payoff
1940
Hold That Woman!
6.667/3
A skip tracer--someone who collects late payments from people who've purchased appliances, etc., or takes them back them when they don't pay--reposses...
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Hold That Woman!
1934
Have a Heart
7.25/4
Sally (Jean Parker) is engaged to be married, loves dancing and kids. But her life is ruined when an accident cripples her and her betrothed magnanim...
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Have a Heart
1946
That Brennan Girl
5.538/13
Raised by Natalie Brennan, a flamboyant and irresponsible mother, Ziggy Brennan gets involved in hustling men at a young age. She hangs around with a...
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That Brennan Girl
1944
Leave It to the Irish
4.417/6
Private Investigator Terry Moran, who is in love with Nora O'Brien the daughter of Police Detective Tim O'Brien, is hired by Mrs. Hamilton to solve th...
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Leave It to the Irish
1937
We Have Our Moments
7.125/4
A trio of American crooks board a ship bound for Europe, intending to get rid of $100,000 in stolen dough. With detective John Wade breathing down the...
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We Have Our Moments
1948
Texas, Brooklyn & Heaven
5.75/4
Eddie Tayloe's grandfather leaves him six thousand dollars and the money belt it came in, freeing Tayloe to leave his dull newspaper job in Texas and...
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Texas, Brooklyn & Heaven
1934
Change of Heart
6.3/6
Catherine and Mack and their close friends Chris and Madge graduate from a West Coast college and fly to New York City to find work.
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Change of Heart
1933
Hello, Sister!
6/15
While Peggy deeply falls in love with Jimmy, her best friend Millie becomes increasingly frustrated with men and very jealous with Peggy, so she tries...
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Hello, Sister!
1932
Society Girl
7.5/2
Johnny is training for a championship fight. Judy distracts him, so his manager Briscoe walks out on him. Then so does Judy.
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Society Girl
1931
Over the Hill
8.143/7
In their farm house in a New York village, Ma Shelby prepares breakfast for her four children, Isaac, Tommy, Johnny and Susan, and then awakens them....
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Over the Hill
1933
Sailor's Luck
6/5
U.S. sailor Jimmy Harrigan, on shore leave in San Pedro, meets and falls for Sally Brent She promises to wait for him when he ships out to San Francis...
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Sailor's Luck
1938
Shadows Over Shanghai
5.333/6
A pilot carrying a valuable amulet is shot down over China by a ruthless Russian agent, who also wants the amulet.
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Shadows Over Shanghai
1934
365 Nights in Hollywood
9/1
Down-on-his-luck film director Jimmie Dale takes a job at a fly-by-night acting school. He is drawn into the plans of the school's owner to bilk a wea...
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365 Nights in Hollywood
1935
Bad Boy
7.5/2
An unemployed loafer who spends his time playing pool decides he's ready to look for a job so he can secure his girlfriend's parents' approval for the...
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Bad Boy
1936
Mysterious Crossing
10/1
While crossing on the train ferry to New Orleans, roving reporter Addison Francis Murphy borrows money from singing hillbilly "Carolina," then loses i...
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Mysterious Crossing
1976
The Biggest Little Star of the 30's
0/0
A compilation of Shirley Temple newsreel appearances from the 1930's.
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The Biggest Little Star of the 30's
1950
A Wonderful Life
9/1
Sponsored by The Protestant Film Commission, this religiously-affiliated tale centers around citizen Henry Wood (played by Oscar winner James Dunn fro...
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A Wonderful Life
1937
Living on Love
6.125/8
A man and a woman, who have never met, are forced by pecuniary circumstances to share the same basement apartment in shifts.
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Living on Love
1968
Shadow Over Elveron
6.583/6
A corrupt sheriff knows the secrets of everyone in town and uses that information to go unchallenged. But after the arrest of an innocent teenager, th...
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Shadow Over Elveron
1935
The Daring Young Man
10/1
The Daring Young Man is hotshot-reporter Don McLane, played by James Dunn. Always on the prowl for a good story, McLane is persistently outscooped by...
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The Daring Young Man
1939
Pride of the Navy
7/1
A disruptive Annapolis naval cadet refuses to tow the line and so gets booted out of the prestigious academy. Later, he takes to designing speedboats....
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Pride of the Navy
1934
Hold That Girl
9/1
"That girl" is newspaper sob-sister Tony Bellamy (Claire Trevor), whose nose for news gets her into one jam after another, especially when she poses a...
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Hold That Girl
1939
Mercy Plane
10/1
Air-race champions "Speed" Leslie and Branda Fowler combine to open a very profitable airplane service that flies patients to other cities for special...
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Mercy Plane
1950
The Golden Gloves Story
6.5/2
Joe Riley is a boxing referee whose life-code is the same as the sporting rules of the prizefight ring. Two Golden Glove (a tournament for amateur pri...
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The Golden Gloves Story
1960
The Bramble Bush
5.333/6
A young doctor returns to his Massachusetts home town at the request of a terminally ill old friend.
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The Bramble Bush
1957
The Ninth Day
0/0
After World War III a small group of people live in the desert. A young man tries to run away, hoping to find other communities of survivors, but is t...
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The Ninth Day
1932
Dance Team
10/1
Jimmy Mulligan and Poppy Kirk, both out of work, strike up a conversation outside a radio shop and discover a shared dream of hitting it big dancing a...
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Dance Team
1940
Son of the Navy
6.2/5
A runaway boy pretends to be the son of a Navy man, only to turn both their lives upside down.
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Son of the Navy
1933
Take a Chance
5.5/2
Take a Chance was based on the hit Broadway musical of the same name, though only one of the original songs, Eadie Was a Lady, has been retained. The...
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Take a Chance
1930
The Song Plugger
6/3
'Blind Bob' has written a song and the folks at the music publishing company think that Joe Frisco, his old friend from the Bowery is just right for i...
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The Song Plugger
1936
Come Closer, Folks
9/0
A fast-talking pitchman working the con-games on the streets, works himself up into an executive position of a large department store, with the aide o...
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Come Closer, Folks
1975
Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?
6.3/9
Period music, film clips and newsreel footage combined into a visual exploration of the American entertainment industry during the Great Depression.
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Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?
1933
Jimmy and Sally
4.75/4
Jimmy is a wiseguy press agent whose efforts to promote a meat-packing firm come to naught. Our hero is fired from his job, whereupon his sweetheart S...
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Jimmy and Sally
1937
Venus Makes Trouble
5/3
A fast-talking, street-wise con-man forsakes the tank-towns of Pennsylvania for the greener pastures in Manhattan, and gains fame-and-fortune as New Y...
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Venus Makes Trouble
1944
Take It or Leave It
6/2
A young husband becomes a game-show participant in the hopes of winning the cash to pay his pregnant wife's doctor.
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Take It or Leave It
1932
Handle with Care
10/1
Bill Gordon (James Dunn), whose lot-in-life is rising, falls in love with Helen Barlow (Boots Mallory), who is raising two cute motherless children wh...
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Handle with Care
1982
Hollywood’s Children
9/1
A documentary about child actors, since the beginning of motion pictures (narrated by Roddy McDowell).
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Hollywood’s Children
1933
Hold Me Tight
7/1
Newly married sweethearts Chuck Evans and Molly Roberts work at Blair's Department Store and Molly plans to quit to be a stay-at-home wife and mother....
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Hold Me Tight
1931
Sob Sister
7/1
Jane Ray, a very clever reporter of crimes of passion, or "sob sister," for a New York tabloid, begins to feel depressed by the sordidness of her late...
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Sob Sister
1929
In the Nick of Time
7/1
The mortgage of an elderly couple is about to be foreclosed, but their daughter vows to get a job in the big city, where her virtue is preserved throu...
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In the Nick of Time
1960
Journey to the Day
0/0
Patients at a mental hospital meet for a group therapy session.
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Journey to the Day
1956
The Last Stop
0/0
The story of David and Miriam, a Jewish refugee couple settling in an immigrant camp in the Israeli desert. Disheartened by the conditions in the immi...
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The Last Stop
1919
Deliverance
7/3
The story of Helen Keller and how she overcame her disabilities.
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Deliverance
1936
Don’t Get Personal
10/1
Two college students, Bob McDonald and Arthur Hale, find themselves expelled after they are unable to pay their tuition. Desperate for money, the pair...
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