Photoplay (Jul-Dec 1938)

Two sons of Erin who share a lust for life. Above, Errol Flynn, most famed of Hollywood's daredevils . . . . . . and, left, George Brent, who had a price set on his head the days of the Irish Rebellion Victor McLaglen (right) takes any fighting or soldiering role in his stride. He knows! One day, working on the set of "Under Two Hags," a member of the cast came up and said o him: "Weren't you a Turkish cavalry officer in the Vlesopotamian campaign?" "Why, yes — yes, I was," answered the surprised Jamiel. "And during a bitter skirmish near Bagdad, weren't you in command of a detachment which learly captured a British officer?" continued the ictor. "That's right," said the puzzled Jamiel. "We ired several shots at him but he escaped over a vail. But how did you know?" "I was the British officer," said the actor. The actor was Victor McLaglen. lUITE as varied as the Arab's is the saga of Victor McLaglen. The role of the bitter, fighting [rish patriot in "The Informer" and the wise:racking, genial sergeant in "Wee Willie Winkie" —in fact, any role which includes fighting or soldiering, McLaglen takes in his stride. He knows. It is strange to think McLaglen was born in a humdrum London suburb, a rectory, to boot. Six feet four in height, he says he's the "runt" oi the family, which includes eight enormous brothers and one sister. When Victor was fourteen, the Rev. McLaglen became Colonial Bishop of South Africa. Then the Boer War broke out. The strapping fourteen-year-oldster had little trouble persuading the Recruiting Sergeant that he was old enough to fight. After the War, he worked in the gold mines of the Rand, the diamond mines of Kimberly. Even that was too tame. Footloose, he drifted to America, took up prize fighting and wrestling, won the heavyweight championship of Eastern Canada. In between bouts, he worked as a stevedore. (Remember him not long ago in "The Magnificent Brute," heaving the huge ladle of molten steel into the vast maw of fiery furnaces below him?) Once McLaglen even turned copper. He looks back upon that experience with reasonable pride, for he was no ordinary harness bull but Chief of the Railway Police at Owens Sound where he pulled off exploits of real value for the law, including the arrest and imprisonment of a fur-stealing gang. He finally gave up the ring to join a medicine show, left that to travel with a Wild West outfit. When that palled, he shipped aboard a tramp steamer bound for Fiji and Australia. He landed in Perth just as the gold rush to the Kal goorie field was beginning. It was inevitable that he should join this expedition, but McLaglen was one of the thousands who found more experience than gold. Aboard another tramp steamer to Ceylon and Bombay. Since his boyhood in the rectory, the tales of Rudyard Kipling had aroused in him an ambition to go through the jealously guarded Kyber Pass. It was no journey for a tourist, but McLaglen accomplished it. During the War he was in Mesopotamia with the Irish Fusileers, was decorated for bravery in action against the Turks and the Germans. He eventually became Prevost Marshal with the rank of Captain. It was in England that Captain McLaglen first got into pictures. British films in those days were pretty poor affairs, but they were the means of his eventually going to Hollywood. Since "What Price Glory," the Laurence Stallings-Maxwell Anderson war play in which McLaglen could practically make up his own lines he knew them so well, his career has been easy sailing. Today he lives on one of the most enviable estates in California, surrounded by horses and dogs, served by an Arabian valet, (Continued on page 90) 35