Matinee Classics - William Gargan Biography & Filmography

William Gargan ACTOR

PHOTOS

WILLIAM GARGAN BIOGRAPHY & FILMOGRAPHY:

William Gargan was born on July 17th, 1905 in Brooklyn, New York with the middle name Dennis. His brother, Edward Gargan also grew up to pursue a career as an actor and later the two men appeared on the big screen in the films, "Miss Annie Rooney" (1942) and "Follow That Woman" (1945).

Prior to finding fulltime work as an actor, Gargan was hired selling bootleg whiskey to New York speakeasies. He also worked for a detective agency until he visited his brother one day who was performing in a musical comedy, and Gargan was offered a job as a stage actor.

He is most well known for portraying character roles in a number of Hollywood films. He is also remembered for his role on the radio program, "Barry Craig, Confidential Investigator" (1951-1955) and as detective Ross Dolan on the ABC radio program, "I Deal in Crime" (1946-1947).

His career began with performing in such stage productions as, "Aloma of the South Seas" and then he began to add film credits to his resume such as, "Misleading Lady" (1932) which soon followed with roles in such films as, "Rain" (1932) starring Joan Crawford, "Night Flight" (1933), "The Line-Up" (1934), "Blackmailer" (1936), "She Asked for It" (1937), "Sporting Blood" (1940), "Flying Cadets" (1941), "Sealed Lips" (1942), "Song of the Sarong" (1945) and "Swell Guy" (1946) among many others.

Along with his many film roles he also appeared on such television series as, "Martin Kane" (1949-1951), "Danger" (1954), "Studio One in Hollywood" (1958) and his final role on the series, "Pursuit" (1958).

In 1958, he retired from acting after being diagnosed with throat cancer. He had to speak through a artificial voice box and became an advocate for the American Cancer Society, warning others about the dangers of smoking.

William Gargan married only once throughout his lifetime to Mary Kenny in 1928 and they remained together until he passed away on February 17th, 1979 from a heart attack while on an airplane traveling from New York to San Diego, California.