BIO

Wallace Beery was born Wallace Fitzgerald Beery in Kansas City, Missouri, in 1885.    His father was a policeman.    His older brother was the actor Noah Beery.

Beery ran away from home and joined the Ringling Brothers Circus at the age of sixteen as an assistant elephant trainer.    He left two years later after being clawed at by a leopard.    Beery found work in New York City in musical variety shows and appeared on Broadway in 1905 and 1907.

In 1913, Beery moved to Chicago to work with Essanay Film Manufacturing.    He starred in his film debut that same year. However, it was his comedic performances in drag that caught the attention of audiences and later that year his character “Sweedie” the Swedish maid became a hit.    He appeared in another 30 short-reels as “Sweedie” through 1916.

Beery was also a film director early in his film career.    Beginning with Essanay in Chicago and as early as 1915 at their Niles, California studio and continuing with Nestor Studios, then a division of Universal Studios in Hollywood, he directed 29 short-reels between 1913 and 1919.

The 1920s found Beery working as a popular supporting actor and demand only increased after the transition to sound in the late 1920s.    He received an Academy Award nomination for The Big House (1930) and won the Oscar for his portrayal of a boxer past his prime in The Champ (1931).

Beery was one of Hollywood’s top box office stars in the 1930s, but his star slowly faded by the end of the decade.    He appeared in his last film in 1949.

Beery married the actress Gloria Swanson in 1916.    They divorced in 1919.    In 1924, he married the actress Rita Gilman. They raised one child and were divorced in 1939.

Beery died at his Beverly Hills home of a heart attack at the age of 64 in 1949.

Additional Broadway stage history is available at:

Additional biographical information is available at:

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