James Cagney with hats...

[Al_Ojeda]

Some pics of this Hollywood icon wearing hats...


A Lion is in the Streets

Angels With Dirty Faces

Captains of the Clouds

Each Dawn I Die

G Men

Jimmy the Gent

The Mayor of Hell

 

[Al_Ojeda]

more pics

The Strawerry Blonde

The West Point Story

White Heat

Portraits

Enjoy your hats!!

 

[Ande1964]

Great!

Awesome... thanks.

He was tiny li'l guy, wasn't he? There's a great Orson Welles quote about Cagney... I paraphrase:
"The key to acting is TRUTH. That's not the same as being realistic. There isn't a human ever who behaved like Cagney does on film, but you cannot find a single frame of his performances that isn't TRUE.

Anj

 

[Tiller]

He was tiny li'l guy, wasn't he?
Anj

Yes, he seems to be rather on the short side. How tall was he? He doesn't look much over five foot. Maybe 5'3"/5'5"?[huh]

 

[Pduck]

Cagney was 5' 6.5"

Great photos! Thanks!

 

[Fletch]

Now why would he appear shorter?

Was it his compact build, or perhaps the high crowns of his hats?

 

[Brad Bowers]

Man, I always thought Cagney was short, and now I learn he's a half inch taller than me.

Brad

 

[just_me]

Cagney is my all time favorite actor and has been since I was about nine years old and saw him in Yankee Doodle Dandy on the Million Dollar Movie in NY. If there was one actor I would have liked to have met, it would have been him.

The one and only fan letter I ever wrote was to him. lol

He wasn't perfect as a person (though he seems to have been pretty good), but what an actor. Watch him really listen and react to the other actors in a scene. Amazing.

 

[Mr. Lucky]

In his last role.

Ragtime.

Edited to add: His last THEATRICAL role.

 

[Pat_H]

Ragtime was his last role? I didn't realize that.

On his height, he's .5 shorter than me, but I would have guessed he was shorter than that, not that I'm very tall. I wonder if his reported height might be a bit shorter than he actually was.

Great actor. I think my favorite role of his would be in Mister Roberts.

 

[Spats McGee]

Never mind.

 

[Matt Deckard]

 

[hatophile]

What sharp guys!

 

[danofarlington]

The best Cagney hat of all is a wide-brimmed one he wore in "The West Point Story" in a musical number called "Brooklyn." Used to be on YouTube but maybe not there now. It's something you haven't seen before but won't forget, I guarantee it. The number takes place toward the end of the movie.

 

[Bird Lives]

Alan Ladd and Al Pacino were both around 5'6" I believe...some sources say Ladd was 5'5"...But most don't think of them as very short...and Bogart for that matter was 5'8"....if the height for Cagney is really 5'6 1/2"...then there is only 1 1/2 in. difference....sure looks like more in that photo....I can see Bogie is wearing heels, can't see Jimmy's shoes....That could explain it.

 

[Chepstow]

James Cagney - G-Men

The roaring twenties

 

[Joshbru3]

Cagney is one of the reasons that I started to love those tall crowns with short brims. Even though he wore many different kinds of hats in different kinds of roles, the hat that is always associated with Cagney is the tall crown/short brim combo. His early films from 31/32/33 mostly have him wearing very tall crowns and short brims. Some of the other actors in those films wore wider brims with slightly shorter crowns. Even though a major style in the early 30's was tall crowns with short brims, I believe that Cagney preferred this style of hat for two reasons. He wasn't a very tall man so I always felt that the taller crown made him appear much taller on screen. He had a small build and was skinny in his early roles and therefore I believed chose a short brim. A wider brim paired with his skinny face would have looked sort of silly, but a short brim matched the width and length of his face fit perfectly. In all of his super early films, I never remember him wearing a super wide brim, or even a medium width brim. Somewhere around the lounge is a publication that was published in the 30's I believe about what hats to pair with what kind of faces. A medium, skinny face looks best with a shorter brim.

 

[Joshbru3]

two more....

 

[hatophile]

Cagney, Bogie, Raft, Edward G. They don't make'm like that any more!

 

[mayserwegener]

I made this clip a while back. Cagney + Mayser

[video=youtube_share;bKaRLlGPfAE]http://youtu.be/bKaRLlGPfAE[/video]