Try free for 30 days
-
American Legends: The Life of James Cagney
- Narrated by: James Romick
- Length: 1 hr and 17 mins
Failed to add items
Add to basket failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from Wish List failed.
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Buy Now for $9.68
No valid payment method on file.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Listeners also picked
-
American Legends: The Life of Mae West
- By: Charles River Editors
- Narrated by: Mae Sally-Rouge Pax
- Length: 1 hr and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Mae West will always be remembered as one of Hollywood's biggest icons, and the American Film Institute named her the 15th greatest actress of the 20th century in its Top 100 list, but she also transcended the entertainment industry and became a critical part of Americana itself. Over the course of 7 decades, Mae redefined the boundaries of sexuality in ways that made more conservative Americans of the early 20th century uncomfortable, and for good measure she did so boldly and in people's faces.
-
Humphrey Bogart
- A Life from Beginning to End (Biographies of Actors)
- By: Hourly History
- Narrated by: Matthew J. Chandler-Smith
- Length: 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Even half a century after his death, Humphrey Bogart remains one of the most iconic actors of all time. The epitome of class and cool, he embodied the ultimate tough guy—and no one wore a fedora quite like him. “Bogie” began life under uncertain circumstances, born to parents addicted to drugs and disorder, but he would rise above these difficulties to become a star. From Broadway to Hollywood, he became a top-billed actor, the likes of which the world has rarely seen.
-
American Legends: The Life of Clint Eastwood
- By: Charles River Editors
- Narrated by: David Zarbock
- Length: 1 hr and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Today, the name Clint Eastwood conjures up many different and unforgettable images. While many will always associate him as the quintessential Western hero in classics like The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, new generations know him as a critically acclaimed director and even an outspoken conservative firebrand.
-
Jerry Lee Lewis
- A Life from Beginning to End
- By: Hourly History
- Narrated by: Matthew J. Chandler-Smith
- Length: 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
With his fiery piano-playing style and powerful stage presence, Jerry Lee Lewis enjoyed a meteoric rise to fame. Although his time as a relevant artist was comparably brief, that short time in the sun was nothing short of revolutionary. While his run lasted, Lewis played a pivotal role in forging what would become classic rock and roll and rockabilly.
-
William Powell: The Life and Legacy of One of Early Hollywood's Most Acclaimed Actors
- By: Charles River Editors
- Narrated by: Bill Hare
- Length: 1 hr and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
While actors like Humphrey Bogart and Cary Grant remain household names, and actresses like Greta Garbo are still widely remembered, few had careers that enjoyed the success of William Powell. In a career spanning several decades, Powell would receive three Oscar nominations for Best Actor for critically acclaimed movies, so it is somewhat ironic that he is mostly remembered today for his association with the more famous Myrna Loy. Together, they starred in 14 films, including the 1934 box office hit, The Thin Man.
-
American Legends: The Life of Jimmy Stewart
- By: Charles River Editors
- Narrated by: James Romick
- Length: 1 hr and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When the American Film Institute assembled its top 100 actors of all time at the close of the 20th century, Jimmy Stewart ranked third, behind only Humphrey Bogart and Cary Grant. There is a certain inevitability to these three actors ranking at the top of the list; after all, they were the dominant faces of Hollywood during the height of the era known as classical Hollywood cinema, a time before the onset of television when the movies still enjoyed relatively uncontested supremacy over American entertainment.
-
American Legends: The Life of Mae West
- By: Charles River Editors
- Narrated by: Mae Sally-Rouge Pax
- Length: 1 hr and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Mae West will always be remembered as one of Hollywood's biggest icons, and the American Film Institute named her the 15th greatest actress of the 20th century in its Top 100 list, but she also transcended the entertainment industry and became a critical part of Americana itself. Over the course of 7 decades, Mae redefined the boundaries of sexuality in ways that made more conservative Americans of the early 20th century uncomfortable, and for good measure she did so boldly and in people's faces.
-
Humphrey Bogart
- A Life from Beginning to End (Biographies of Actors)
- By: Hourly History
- Narrated by: Matthew J. Chandler-Smith
- Length: 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Even half a century after his death, Humphrey Bogart remains one of the most iconic actors of all time. The epitome of class and cool, he embodied the ultimate tough guy—and no one wore a fedora quite like him. “Bogie” began life under uncertain circumstances, born to parents addicted to drugs and disorder, but he would rise above these difficulties to become a star. From Broadway to Hollywood, he became a top-billed actor, the likes of which the world has rarely seen.
-
American Legends: The Life of Clint Eastwood
- By: Charles River Editors
- Narrated by: David Zarbock
- Length: 1 hr and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Today, the name Clint Eastwood conjures up many different and unforgettable images. While many will always associate him as the quintessential Western hero in classics like The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, new generations know him as a critically acclaimed director and even an outspoken conservative firebrand.
-
Jerry Lee Lewis
- A Life from Beginning to End
- By: Hourly History
- Narrated by: Matthew J. Chandler-Smith
- Length: 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
With his fiery piano-playing style and powerful stage presence, Jerry Lee Lewis enjoyed a meteoric rise to fame. Although his time as a relevant artist was comparably brief, that short time in the sun was nothing short of revolutionary. While his run lasted, Lewis played a pivotal role in forging what would become classic rock and roll and rockabilly.
-
William Powell: The Life and Legacy of One of Early Hollywood's Most Acclaimed Actors
- By: Charles River Editors
- Narrated by: Bill Hare
- Length: 1 hr and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
While actors like Humphrey Bogart and Cary Grant remain household names, and actresses like Greta Garbo are still widely remembered, few had careers that enjoyed the success of William Powell. In a career spanning several decades, Powell would receive three Oscar nominations for Best Actor for critically acclaimed movies, so it is somewhat ironic that he is mostly remembered today for his association with the more famous Myrna Loy. Together, they starred in 14 films, including the 1934 box office hit, The Thin Man.
-
American Legends: The Life of Jimmy Stewart
- By: Charles River Editors
- Narrated by: James Romick
- Length: 1 hr and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When the American Film Institute assembled its top 100 actors of all time at the close of the 20th century, Jimmy Stewart ranked third, behind only Humphrey Bogart and Cary Grant. There is a certain inevitability to these three actors ranking at the top of the list; after all, they were the dominant faces of Hollywood during the height of the era known as classical Hollywood cinema, a time before the onset of television when the movies still enjoyed relatively uncontested supremacy over American entertainment.
Publisher's Summary
"You don't psych yourself up for these things, you do them.... I'm acting for the audience, not for myself, and I do it as directly as I can. " (James Cagney)
A lot of ink has been spilled covering the lives of history's most influential figures, but how much of the forest is lost for the trees? In Charles River Editors' American Legends series, listeners can get caught up to speed on the lives of America's most important men and women in the time it takes to finish a commute, while learning interesting facts long forgotten or never known.
When the American Film Institute assembled a list of its top 100 actors of all time at the close of the 20th century, one of the top 10 was James Cagney, an actor whose acting and dancing talents spawned a stage and film career that spanned over five decades and once compelled Orson Welles to call him "maybe the greatest actor to ever appear in front of a camera." Indeed his portrayal of "The Man Who Owns Broadway", George M. Cohan, earned him an Academy Award in the musical Yankee Doodle Dandy. As famed director Milos Forman once put it, "I think he's some kind of genius. His instinct, it's just unbelievable. I could just stay at home. One of the qualities of a brilliant actor is that things look better on the screen than the set. Jimmy has that quality."
Ultimately it was portraying tough guys and gangsters in the 1930s that turned Cagney into a massive Hollywood star, and they were the kinds of roles he was literally born to play after growing up rough in Manhattan at the turn of the 20th century.