On September 28, 1922, Cagney married dancer Frances Willard " Billie " Vernon, with whom he remained for the rest of his life.

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.

" However, Warners, perhaps searching for another Yankee Doodle Dandy, assigned Cagney a musical for his next picture, 1950's The West Point Story with Doris Day, an actress he admired.

Day herself was full of praise for Cagney, stating that he was " the most professional actor I've ever known.

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

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.

As Cagney recalled, " We shot it in twenty days, and that was long enough for me.

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

Cagney was a very private man, and while he was more than willing to give the press opportunities for photographs when necessary, he generally spent his private time out of the public eye.

After being inundated by movie fans, Cagney sent out a rumor that he had hired a gunman for security.

In 1955, having shot three films, Cagney bought a farm in Stanfordville, Dutchess County, New York, for $ 100, 000.

Cagney became president of the Screen Actors Guild in 1942 for a two year term.

During World War II, to raise money for war bonds, Cagney took part in racing exhibitions at the Roosevelt Raceway and sold seats for the premiere of Yankee Doodle Dandy.

By 1980, Cagney was contributing financially to the Republican Party, supporting his friend Ronald Reagan's bid for the presidency in the 1980 election.

" Warner Bros. would arrange private screenings of Cagney films for Winston Churchill.

In 1935, Cagney sued Jack Warner for breach of contract.

James Cagney with Gloria Stuart, who was Academy Award for Best Actress | Oscar-nominated sixty-three years later for another nautical epic, Titanic ( 1997 film ) | Titanic ( 1997 ).

James Cagney was originally cast as Robin Hood, but walked out on his contract with Warner Bros., paving the way for Flynn, although filming was postponed three years.

Cagney was also short and seemed uncouth, compared to the typical finesse of a more conventionally cinegenic actor like Woods, helping to establish Warner Brothers ' reputation for films that explicitly targeted working class audiences during the Great Depression.

Despite its being his first film in twenty years, Cagney was immediately at ease.

He appeared with Sharon Gless twenty years later, this time as her husband in Cagney and Lacey: the Return ( 1993 ) and Cagney and Lacey: Together Again ( 1995 ).

Notable American films from the war years include the anti-Nazi Watch on the Rhine ( 1943 ), scripted by Dashiell Hammett ; Shadow of a Doubt ( 1943 ), Hitchcock's direction of a script by Thornton Wilder ; the George M. Cohan biopic, Yankee Doodle Dandy ( 1942 ), starring James Cagney, and the immensely popular Casablanca, with Humphrey Bogart.

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.

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

Warner, however, did not think Bogart was star material, and decided to only cast Bogart in infrequent roles as a villain opposite either James Cagney or Edward Robinson over the next five years.

Within a few years, the studio, in a matter reminiscent of their problems with James Cagney and Bette Davis, provoked hostility among their emerging contract TV stars like Clint Walker and James Garner, who sued over a contract dispute and won.

* Rosemary DeCamp, who played the mother of George M. Cohan, played by James Cagney, was, in fact, 11 years younger than Cagney.

Eight years later Hedda Hopper told Adams she recalled writing about him at the time and he replied by reciting back to her, " Nick Adams, gas station attendant from New Jersey, did an impersonation of Jimmy Cagney and a scene from Glass Menagerie.

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 had been a chain cigarette smoker for years, and Cagney remarked in his autobiography that when the cancer struck, " she didn't have a chance.

In later years, Laurenson has had supporting roles in numerous popular TV series such as Prime Suspect, Sharpe, A Touch of Frost, Cagney and Lacey, Heartbeat, Silent Witness, Taggart and State of Play.

He was a series regular on Cagney and Lacey and several other television series as well as numerous guest star appearances including a Ferengi doctor on Star Trek: The Next Generation, a role he would reprise seven years later on Star Trek: Voyager.

The song was also featured in the film, The Strawberry Blonde with James Cagney and Olivia de Havilland, some four years prior to Meet Me in St. Louis.

* James Cagney and Frances Vernon, 64 years.

After the stroke, Cagney was no longer able to undertake many of his favorite pastimes, including horse riding and dancing, and as he became more depressed, he even gave up his beloved painting.

Cagney denied this, and Lincoln Steffens, husband of the letter's writer, backed up this denial, asserting that the accusation stemmed solely from Cagney's donation to striking cotton workers in the San Joaquin Valley.

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 ).

Rigby then dresses up as Jarrett's mother to visit Jarrett in prison without arousing the prison guards ' suspicion ( James Cagney from White Heat ).

* James Cagney ( 1899 – 1986 ), actor, grew up in the neighborhood.

The movie was then picked up as a series, first airing with six episodes as a midseason replacement in the spring of 1982, with Meg Foster playing the role of Cagney.

He grew up watching James Cagney on film in local theaters and, having been told many times how much he resembled him, figured if Cagney could become famous, so could he.

The Public Enemy, released that same year, contained one of cinema's most famous ( and frequently parodied ) scenes, in which James Cagney pushes a half grapefruit into Clarke's face, then goes out to pick up Jean Harlow.