Born November 7, 1903 in Lima, Ohio, Dean Jagger grew up on a farm. Having caught the acting bug early, he practiced oratory on cows while working on th farm. He latr won several oraory competitions. At 14, he worked as an orderly at a sanatorium.
Although he dropped out of school several times, at 17 he taught all eight grades in a rural elementary school. He then moved to Chicago where he appeared in such plays as Shepherd of the Hills. Moving to New York, he replaced Spencer Tracy in a stock company, making his Broadway debut in an uncredited minor role in a George M. Cohan musical in 1925.
While touring with a vaudeville production led by Irene Rich, Jagger made his film debut in 1929’s The Woman from Hell, his only silent film. In minor roles in two more films, he returned to New York in 1933 where he became a star in Tobacco Road, a huge hit that ran on Broadway until 1941. Jagger left the production in 1934 when he signed a contract with Paramount.
None of Jagger’s films for Paramount did anything for his career. His breakout came in 1940’s Brigham Young on loan out to 20th Century Fox. The following year, his Paramount contract having expired, he signed a long-term contract with Fox.
Under his new contract, Jagger excelled in films made at the studio and on loan out to other studios in such 1940s films Western Union, The North Star, Sister Kenny, Pursued, and Twelve O’Clock High for which he won an Oscar.
Jagger’s first marriage to Antoinette duPre Lowrence in 1935 ended in divorce in 1943. In 1947, he and Gloria Ling, a national magazine researcher in NY, were denied a marriage license in Santa Monica because of a California law forbidding the marriage of Caucasians and Mongolians. Miss Ling’s father was born in China. Consequently, they flew to Albuquerque, New Mexico where there was no bar to interracial marriage. The marriage lasted for twenty years.
A staunch anti-Communist, Jagger starred opposite Helen Hayes as Robert Walker’s father in Leo McCarey’s long disparaged 1952 film, My Son John. He is, however, better remembered for his roles in such films of the decade as The Robe, Executive Suite. Private Hell 36, White Christmas, Bad Day at Black Rock, The Eternal Sea, X the Unknown, The Great Man, Three Brave Men, Bernardine, Forty Guns, The Proud Rebel, and The Nun’s Story.
In the 1960s, Jagger alternated film work in such films as Elmer Gantry, Parrish, The Honeymoon Machine, Jumbo, Firecreek, and Day of the Evil Gun with TV appearances on such shows as Dr. Kildare, The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, Mr.Novak, The FBI, and The Fugitive. His role in Mr.Novak was a continuing one as the school’s principal.
After his 1967 divorce from Gloria Ling, Jagger married third wife Etta Jagger in 1968. They would remain married until his death.
In 1972, Jagger converted to Mormonism. His best work during the decade was in two TV films, as the warden in 1972’s The Glass House and the bishop in 1973’s I Heard the Owl Call My Name.
Dean Jagger’s last role was in 1985’s Evil Town. He died in 1991 at 87.
ESSENTIAL FILMS
BRIGHAM YOUNG (1940), directed by Henry Hathaway
Jagger made his screen breakthrough with his portrayal of Mormon leader Brigham Young which starred Tyrone Power and Linda Darnell as Mormon disciples. Cast due to his resemblance to Young, he not only looked like him, but also spoke like him and had many of his mannerisms. Thirty-two years later, in 1972 he was baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Mary Astor, who starred in Jagger’s first film in which he had a minor role, was cast as his wife here. Also in the cast were Brian Donlevy, Jane Darwell as Power’s mother, John Carradine, and Vincent Price as Joseph Smith.
TWELVE O’CLOCK HIGH (1949), directed by Henry King
One of the best war/anti-war films of the post-World War II era, it earned Gregory Peck his fourth Oscar nomination as a tough-as-nails general who takes over a B-17 bomber unit suffering from low morale and whips the men into shape at a detriment to his own mental health. Fifth billed Jagger as Peck’s adjunct and the film’s narrator received his only Oscar nomination and win for his performance. It was the first of four Best Picture Oscar nominees in which Jagger had a major role. The others were The Robe, The Nun’s Story, and Elmer Gantry. Featured in the cast were Hugh Marlowe, Gary Merrill, Millard Mitchell, Robert Arthur, and Paul Stewart.
MY SON JOHN (1952), directed by Leo McCarey
This virulent anti-Communist dreck was the nadir of everyone connected to it including McCarey who was nominated for an Oscar for Best Moton Picture Story in a very weak year. Jagger heads a picture-perfect all-American family in a small town horrified that the eldest son may be a Communist. Helen Hayes as the wife, Robert Walker as the suspected Communist and Richard Jaeckel and James Young as the younger children complete the family. Van Heflin co-stars as an FBI investigator. Walker died during filming, a double is used in long shots along with outtakes from Strangers on a Train and McCarey mimicking his voice in several scenes.
WHITE CHRISTMAS (1954), directed by Michael Curtiz
Probably the most widely seen of all Jagger’s films, he plays the retired general whose failing Vermont inn is saved by Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, Rosemary Clooney, and Vera-Ellen in this popular musical, a semi-remake of 1942’s Holiday Inn which introduced the Oscar winning title tune, the most popular song of Crosby’s career. The film, which features Mary Wickes supplying much of the film’s comedy, is a delight with just the right mixture of comedy, drama, and the evergreen Irving Berlin score. It is a bit disconcerting, however, to hear Crosby who was seven months older than Jagger refer to him as “the old man”.
ELMER GANTRY (1960), directed by Richard Brooks
The film version of Sinclair Lewis’ controversial 1927 novel is remembered for the Oscar winning performances of Burt Lancaster and Shirley Jones, as well as for the equally fine performances of Jean Simmons, Arthur Kennedy, and Jagger. Lancaster played Gantry, a fast-talking traveling salesman with a charming, loquacious manner who convinces a sincere evangelist played by Simmons that he can be an effective preacher for her cause. Jones played Lulu Bains, the errant daughter of a preacher turned prostitute who assists in Gantry’s exposure. Kennedy played a cynical journalist and Jagger played Simmons’ dedicated manager.
DEAN JAGGER AND OSCAR
Twelve O’Clock High (1949) – Oscar – Best Supporting Actor
