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James William Flavin, Jr. (May 14, 1906 – April 23, 1976) was an American character actor whose career lasted nearly half a century. Flavin was the son of a hotel waiter of Canadian-English extraction and a mother, Katherine, whose father was an Anglo - Irish immigrant. Thus Flavin, well-known in Hollywood as an "Irish" type, was only one-quarter Irish. Flavin was born and raised in Portland, Maine, a fact that may have enriched his later working relationship with director John Ford, also a Portland native. He attended the United States Military Academy at West Point but, contrary to... MORE

James William Flavin, Jr. (May 14, 1906 – April 23, 1976) was an American character actor whose career lasted nearly half a century. Flavin was the son of a hotel waiter of Canadian-English extraction and a mother, Katherine, whose father was an Anglo - Irish immigrant. Thus Flavin, well-known in Hollywood as an "Irish" type, was only one-quarter Irish. Flavin was born and raised in Portland, Maine, a fact that may have enriched his later working relationship with director John Ford, also a Portland native. He attended the United States Military Academy at West Point but, contrary to some sources, did not graduate. Instead he dropped out and returned to Portland and drove a taxi. Then as now, summer stock companies flocked to Maine each year, and in 1929 Flavin was asked to fill in for an actor. He did well with the part and the company manager offered him $150 per week to accompany the troupe back to New York. Flavin accepted and by the spring of 1930 was living in a rooming house at 108 W. 87th Street in Manhattan. Flavin didn't manage to crack Broadway at this time; his Broadway debut would not occur for another 39 years, in the 1971 revival of The Front Page, in which he played LESS