The overriding message of violence inevitably leading to more violence attracted Cagney to the role of an Irish Republican Army commander, and resulted in what some critics would regard as the finest performance of his final years.

Howard Rollins, who received a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination for his performance, said, " I was frightened to meet Mr. Cagney.

He and co-star Pat O ' Brien appeared on the Parkinson talk show, and Cagney made a surprise appearance at the Queen Mother's command birthday performance at the London Palladium.

An acclaimed performance as the gangster Caesar Enrico " Rico " Bandello in Little Caesar ( 1931 ) led to him being typecast as a " tough guy " for much of his early career in works such as Five Star Final ( 1931 ), Smart Money ( 1931 ; his only movie with James Cagney ), Tiger Shark ( 1932 ), Kid Galahad ( 1937 ) with Bette Davis and Humphrey Bogart, and A Slight Case of Murder.

Daly acted out one of the two title characters in the legendary CBS police-procedural crime drama Cagney & Lacey, winning four Emmy Awards for her performance as Mary Beth Lacey, the married working mother.

The most famous of many film appearances is in Yankee Doodle Dandy starring James Cagney in his Oscar-winning performance.

Love Me or Leave Me, a biopic about the torch singer Ruth Etting, which won Fuchs an Oscar for Best Story in 1955, featured a performance by James Cagney in the role of a Chicago hoodlum and Doris Day as the beleaguered songstress.

Cagney gave a noted performance opposite Mickey Rooney in Quicksand ( 1950 ).

It was featured prominently in a solo song-and-dance sequence done by James Cagney in his Oscar-winning performance in the 1942 film about Cohan's life, Yankee Doodle Dandy.

Cagney Jr. died from a heart attack on January 27, 1984 in Washington, D. C., two years before his adoptive father's death.

Dick O ' Neill played a recurring role as Cagney's alcoholic father, Charlie Cagney, a former NYPD officer who regaled her with stories of the old days ; Christine later fought alcoholism as well.

Cagney plays an alcoholic newspaperman.

Day subsequently took on more dramatic roles, including her 1955 portrayal of singer Ruth Etting in the biographical film of Etting's life, Love Me or Leave Me, in which she co-starred with James Cagney.

His next film, Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye, was another gangster movie, which was the first by Cagney Productions since its acquisition by Warners.

However, as soon as Ford met Cagney at the airport, the director warned him that they would " tangle asses ", which caught Cagney by surprise.

The following year, Cagney appeared in Man of a Thousand Faces, in which he played Lon Chaney.

Later in 1957, Cagney ventured behind the camera for the first and only time to direct Short Cut to Hell, a remake of the 1941 Alan Ladd film This Gun for Hire, which in turn was based on the Graham Greene novel A Gun for Sale.

In 1959, Cagney played a labor leader in what proved to be his final musical, Never Steal Anything Small, which featured a comical song and dance duet with Cara Williams, who played his girlfriend.

Cagney Productions, which shared the production credit with Robert Montgomery's company, made a brief return, though in name only.

Cagney had concerns with the script, remembering back 23 years to Boy Meets Girl, in which scenes were re-shot to try to make them funnier by speeding up the pacing, with the opposite effect.

Cagney remained in retirement for twenty years, conjuring up images of Jack Warner every time he was tempted to return, which soon dispelled the notion.

Zimmerman then took it upon herself to look after Cagney, preparing his meals to reduce his blood triglyceride level, which had reached alarming proportions.

The 1934 accusation stemmed from a letter from a local Communist official found by police which alleged that Cagney would be bringing other Hollywood stars to meetings.

These include the story that Orson Welles began work on a Batman movie in the 1940s, which was to feature James Cagney as The Riddler and Marlene Dietrich as Catwoman ; the persistent rumour that the rock singer Courtney Love is the granddaughter of Marlon Brando ; and the idea that in a famous 1970s poster of Farrah Fawcett, there is a subliminal sexual message concealed in the actress's hair.

In addition to Cagney and Robinson, Muni was also given a big push as one the studio's top gangster stars after appearing in the successful film, which got audiences to question the legal system in the United States.

A controversial scene in which Tom ( James Cagney ) angrily smashes a half grapefruit into his girlfriend's face ( Mae Clarke ).

as he leaves the White House, he performs a dance step down the stairs ( which Cagney thought up before the scene was filmed and performed with no rehearsal ).

The forces that prevented him from getting high quality roles were really the result of the combined willpower of the Warner Bros., the studio system in general, and the general public, which also had its own perception of how Garfield ( or Cagney or Bogart for that matter ) should appear on screen.

Another result of the merger was that Orion entered television production ; Orion's biggest TV hit was Cagney and Lacey, which lasted six seasons on CBS.

1931 and 1932 saw the genre produce three classics: Warner Bros .' Little Caesar and The Public Enemy, which made screen icons out of Edward G. Robinson and James Cagney, and Howard Hawks ' Scarface starring Paul Muni, which offered a dark psychological analysis of a fictionalized Al Capone.

Two and a half years later, in June 1954 his ship docked in Long Beach harbor and after a brash audition for director John Ford during which Adams did impressions of James Cagney and other celebrities while dressed in his Coast Guard uniform, he took his accumulated leave and appeared as Seaman Reber in the 1955 film version of Mister Roberts.

She received substantial roles and positive reaction from critics and moviegoers in such films as Angels with Dirty Faces ( 1938 ), opposite James Cagney and Humphrey Bogart, Dodge City ( 1939 ) with Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland, Torrid Zone with Cagney and They Drive by Night with George Raft and Bogart ( both 1940 ), The Man Who Came to Dinner ( 1942 ) with Bette Davis, and Kings Row ( 1942 ), in which she received top billing playing opposite Ronald Reagan, Robert Cummings, and Betty Field.

Later into the series run, a fictional celebrity and acquaintance of the Warners had revealed that the Warners were actually quite popular in the thirties, until, as he had said: "... they ( the Warners ) pantsed Jimmy Cagney ," at which point, " something had to be done ," so the Warners, who made even less sense than their cartoons, were locked away, also never to be released.

Bogart's disputes with Warner Bros. over roles and money were similar to those the studio had with other less-than-obedient stars, such as Bette Davis, James Cagney, Errol Flynn, and Olivia de Havilland.

James Francis Cagney, Jr. ( July 17, 1899March 30, 1986 ) was an American actor, first on stage, then in film, where he had his greatest impact.

Although he won acclaim and major awards for a wide variety of performances, Cinema had changed in the ten years since Walsh last directed Cagney ( in The Strawberry Blonde ), and the actor's portrayal of gangsters had also changed.

Cagney himself had the idea of playing Jarrett as psychotic ; he later stated that " it was essentially a cheapie one-two-three-four kind of thing, so I suggested we make him nuts.

Cagney played Martin " Moe the Gimp " Snyder, a lame Jewish-American gangster from Chicago, a part Spencer Tracy had turned down.

When the film was released, Snyder reportedly asked how Cagney had so accurately copied his limp, but Cagney himself insisted he had not, having based it on personal observation of other people when they limped: " What I did was very simple.

Cagney had worked with Ford before on What Price Glory ?, and they had gotten along fairly well.

" Ford walked away, and they had no more problems, even though Cagney never particularly liked Ford.

While watching the Kraft Music Hall anthology television show some months before, Cagney had noticed Jack Lemmon performing left-handed.

While Cagney was not nominated, he had thoroughly enjoyed the production.

Cagney worked with MGM on the Western film Tribute to a Bad Man, a role that had originally been written for Spencer Tracy.

Cagney had long been told by friends that he would make an excellent director, so when he was approached by his friend, producer A. C. Lyles, he instinctively said yes.

Cagney had hoped to spend some time tracing his Irish ancestry, but time constraints and poor weather meant that he was unable to do so.

On Zimmerman's recommendation, he visited a different doctor, who determined that glaucoma had been a misdiagnosis, and that Cagney was actually diabetic.

Such was her success that, by the time Cagney made a rare public appearance at his AFI Lifetime Achievement award ceremony in 1974, he had lost and his vision had markedly improved.