BIO

Joel McCrea was born in South Pasadena, California, in 1905.  His father was an executive at the local power utility.

After graduating from Pomona College, McCrea worked as an extra starting in 1927, at the age of 22, for Cosmopolitan Productions before being cast in his first major role in 1929.   A contract with MGM followed, and then another contract with RKO.  He established himself as a handsome leading man who was considered versatile enough to star in both drama and comedy.

In the early 1940s, he reached the peak of his career in such films as Alfred Hitchcock's Foreign Correspondent (1940) and Preston Sturges' Sullivan's Travels (1941) and The Palm Beach Story (1942).

From the mid 1940s, he appeared predominantly in Westerns and became one of the most highly regarded actors of this genre.   By the 1960’s, he was taking fewer roles, preferring to live the remainder of his life as a rancher on a 3,000 acre spread in what is now called Thousand Oaks, a suburb of Los Angeles.

McCrea married the actress Frances Dee in 1933.   Together they raised three children, of which one became the actor Jody McCrea.   He passed away in 2009.

McCrea died in Los Angeles, California at the age of 84, in 1990.

Additional biographical information is available at:

NOTED FILMS

Complete filmography at:

NOTED FILMS

Wichita Town