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The actor appeared in one 1927 film, LOVES OF CARMEN, playing Escamillo, opposite Dolores Del Rio. The next year, he made four films, including two for John Ford: MOTHER MACHREE and HANGMAN’S HOUSE (which contained John Wayne’s first screen appearance, as a spectator at a horse race). For Howard Hawks, he made A GIRL IN EVERY PORT, which featured Louise Brooks as a gold digging circus performer. In 1929, the Flagg-Quirt series was continued with THE COCK-EYED WORLD and 1930 brought Victor four more parts, including the lead in A DEVIL WITH WOMEN, which gave Humphrey Bogart his first screen role.

McLaglen followed that with the role of a Russian spy in DISHONORED (1931), starring Marlene Dietrich as an Austrian spy who falls in love with him. The year included six more films, among them another Flagg-Quirt entry, WOMEN OF ALL NATIONS and THE STOLEN JOOLS, an all-star short in which Vic and Edmund Lowe appeared as servicemen.

Five films followed in 1932, among them a murder mystery entitled GUILTY AS HELL, with Edmund Lowe cast as someone other than Sergeant Quirt.

In 1933, McLaglen began an activity that almost killed his career. He organized a group composed of British, Irish, and Scottish war veterans who had become American citizens (he himself became one on January 13 of that year), calling it the California Light Horse Troop and giving himself the rank of colonel. At its peak, the outfit numbered 800, including 150 airmen, a motorcycle unit, and a medical corps headed by Mrs. Hal Roach. It had branches in San Diego and Long Beach. Resplendent in lilac and blue uniforms, the Troop practiced maneuvers in a Los Angeles sports stadium owned by Victor. (The stadium was destroyed by an overflow of the Los Angeles River in 1938.) Group expenses were met with the revenues from sporting events held there (the place had a capacity of 20,000) plus $1 per month members’ dues.

When word of McLaglen’s ”private army” reached the American public, reaction was largely negative. Eggs were thrown at movie screens showing his pictures and letters written to studio heads demanding his ouster from motion pictures. The film star defended his position by explaining that he felt there should be some force trained and ready to be of service to the government in time of need. He denied any political affiliations, especially Fascist ones, pointing to the Troop’s self sustenance. As it turned out, every member of the group volunteered for service during World War II and was accepted. Also to the outfit’s credit are the cavalry scenes in LIVES OF A BENGAL LANCER (1934) and motorcycle stunts in MEET JOHN DOE (1941). Although the anger against the actor abated after his performance in THE LOST PATROL (1934), the joke persisted that “McLaglen even has brass buttons on his pajamas.”

In late 1933, Victor returned to England to star in DICK TURPIN, a film about the legendary highwayman.

McLaglen replaced Richard Dix as the sergeant in THE LOST PATROL. His brother, Cyril, had starred in a silent British version in 1929. His next film was THE CAPTAIN HATES THE SEA, which contained a bizarre cast, including John Gilbert (in his final role) and the Three Stooges!

Nineteen hundred and thirty-five brought the role that netted Victor his Academy Award (Best Actor). Directed by John Ford from the story by Liam O’Flaherty, THE INFORMER is a moody, somber film which allowed no room for humor. McLaglen (again replacing Richard Dix) played Gypo Nolan, a man who informs on his rebel friend to get money for passage to America. The film also won Oscars for its direction, screenplay, and musical score.

His best role during the next few years was as Sergeant McDuff, opposite Shirley Temple, in WEE WILLIE WINKLE, his eighth film for John Ford. Based on a Kipling story, the 1937 feature marked McLaglen’s second and last appearance with his brother, Cyril.

One of his three 1938 releases was BRITAIN’S WE’RE GOING TO BE RICH, in which he played opposite Gracie Fields.

Besides being the actor’s busiest year (he appeared in seven films), 1939 also brought Victor’s third most memorable role, as Sergeant MacChesney in GUNGA DIN. Based on the Kipling poem and a collection of short stories (Soldiers Three), the action packed movie also starred Cary Grant and Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. (Sabu being unavailable, Sam Jaffe was cast as Gunga Din.)

In September 1938, while filming at the foot of Mt. Whitney, McLaglen and Fairbanks narrowly escaped injury when an elephant was frightened by a thunderstorm and collided with a car containing the two actors.

Victor made three routine adventure films in 1940, and a comedy for Hal Roach in 1941. He was tested for the role of El Sardo, the guerilla chieftain, in FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS, but lost out to Akim Tamiroff. In September 1941, McLaglen reteamed with Edmund Lowe for NBC Radio’s Captain Flagg And Sergeant Quirt, with scripts by John P. Medbury. The show lasted one season and the following year the pair appeared together for the last time in Call Out The Marines.

In 1943, Hollywood’s British colony decided to show their gratitude to the United States for their success in America and created an all-star extravaganza featuring over 70 of their number. FOREVER AND A DAY told the story of a London mansion from its construction in Napoleonic times to destruction in the blitz of World War II. Among the writers were C. S. Forester, R. C. Sheriff, and Donald Ogden Stewart. Like everyone else, McLaglen donated his services and the proceeds went to various wartime charities.

McLaglen next appeared in a crime film based on a contemporary true story. A minor criminal named Roger Touhy had made a daring daylight escape from the prison where he was serving a sentence for kidnapping. During the two months that he was at large, the studio saw the possibility for a screenplay and went to work. However, ROGER TOUHY – GANGSTER, in which McLaglen played “Owl” Banghart, Touhy’s lieutenant, was a disappointment, despite location shooting and use of authentic names.

After eight films in four years, McLaglen made his first John Ford picture in 11 years, playing Sergeant Mulcahy in FORT APACHE. It was the first in the director’s famous cavalry trilogy, all starring John Wayne. In the other two, SHE WORE A YELLOW RIBBON and RIO GRANDE, McLaglen played Sergeant Quincannon. The characters were hard fighting, hard drinking veteran non-corns and had great humor.

McLaglen’s portrayal of Red Will Danaher in John Ford’s THE QUIET MAN garnered him a nomination for Best Supporting Actor of 1952. (He lost to Anthony Quinn for VIVA ZAPATA!) It was his twelfth and final film for Ford and he once more played a stereotypical Irishman. Near the film’s end, McLaglen (then 65) and John Wayne (20 years his junior) engage in an epic battle – one of the best screen fights ever!

From 1952 through 1959, Victor appeared sporadically on television on such shows as Schlitz Playhouse Of Stars, The Eddie Cantor Theatre, and Fireside Theatre. His final small screen appearance was in a Rawhide episode, Incident Of The Shambling Man, on October 9, 1959. It was directed by his son, Andrew. (Victor was married three times, but only the first union produced children: Sheila and Andrew. The latter became a feature film director, following much TV work. He also directed his father in THE ABDUCTORS, a 1957 release about a group of men out to rob Abraham Lincoln’s grave in 1870.)

On November 7, 1959, Victor McLaglen died of a heart attack at the age of 72. Interment in Forest Lawn Cemetery followed a eulogy by Donald Crisp.

An honest, straightforward type, Victor told an interviewer in 1937: “I have no illusions about acting and certainly I have none about myself. Long ago I came to the conclusion that actors are victims of luck and circumstance. If the role you are in fits the size of your head and some inherent quality in yourself, you do it well.”

An actor with no stage background, Victor McLaglen proved ideally suited for films by just being himself.

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