Joseph Michael Kerrigan (16 December 1884 – 29 April 1964), better known as J.M. Kerrigan, was an Irish character actor. Kerrigan was born in Dublin, Ireland. He worked as a newspaper reporter until 1907 when he joined the famous Abbey Players. There he became a stalwart, appearing in plays by Lady Gregory, William Butler Yeats and John Millington Synge (for whom he played the role of Shawn Keogh in The Playboy of the Western World. His first screen appearance was in the silent film Food of Love in 1916. By the 1920s he was appearing on Broadway, often in plays by Shakespeare, Ibsen, and Sheridan. He settled permanently in Hollywood in 1935, having been recruited along with several other Abbey performers, to appear in John Fords The Informer. In that film and in Fords The Long Voyage Home, he plays similar roles, that of a leech who attaches himself to men until they run out of money. Perhaps his best known role was in The General Died at Dawn, where he plays a character actually named Leach, in which he steals scenes from Gary Cooper, Madeleine Carroll and William Frawley. In it he plays a sinister little petty thief who, holding a gun on Cooper, says, I may be fat, but Im agile. He had little screen time in films which he starred as minor roles, such as the First Drayman in Merely Mary Ann (1931) with Janet Gaynor. One of his most recognizable minor roles was in Gone with the Wind (1939), in which he played John Gallegher, the seemly jovial mill owner who whips his convict labour in to co-operation. He appeared in Walt Disneys 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954), the famous film version of Jules Vernes Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea in a minor role at the beginning of the film. In 1946, he tried breaking into Broadway shows, playing the discombobulated leprechaun Jackeen J. OMalley in the show Barnaby and Mr. OMalley, based on the Crockett Johnson comic strip. J. M. Kerrigan died in Hollywood on 29 April 1964, aged 79. Kerrigan has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6621 Hollywood Blvd.
Billy
Film 1954
Johnny Gallagher
Film 1939
Sullivan - Court Bailiff (uncredited)
Film 1948
Sawyer Collins
Film 1944
Dan O'Rourke
Film 1952
Kevin McGovern
Film 1956
Foster (storekeeper / Emily's father)
Film 1942
Hawkins
Film 1935
Charles Conliffe
Film 1941
Terry
Film 1935
Thomas MacMasters
Film 1931
Jabez Wilson
Film 1933
Quincannon
Film 1934
Captain Finch
Film 1940
Pop Kearny
Film 1933
Brook Watson
Film 1936
O'Duffy
Film 1934
Flinters
Film 1939
Mr. Curran
Film 1933
Judge Maiben
Film 1936
Pillery Gow
Film 1945
Pop Reilly
Film 1936
'Judge' Jasper Kincaid
Film 1944
Brother 'Doc' Joseph
Film 1940
Riley
Film 1953
Collins
Film 1933
Dr. Cudd
Film 1936
Mr. Angus McGavity
Film 1940
Lew Fisher
Film 1939
Dan - Irish Cop (uncredited)
Film 1932
John
Film 1946
Monahan
Film 1939
Patrick Murphy
Film 1946
Father O'Malley
Film 1945
Crimp
Film 1940
Uncle Peter
Film 1936
Judge Harper
Film 1935
Pobjoy
Film 1935
Timothy
Film 1941
Tom 'Pop' Madison
Film 1939
Hot Shot Gillings
Film 1939
Sgt. Flynn
Film 1938
Pop O'Connell
Film 1936
Perkins (uncredited)
Film 1935
Timothy
Film 1939
Robert MacPherson (uncredited)
Film 1945
Dan Barrett
Film 1939
Judge Plumgate
Film 1936
Fagin
Film 1932
Uncle John
Film 1949
Jack Lenihan
Film 1939
Mr. Ryan
Film 1934
Mr. Clyde Corrigan Sr.
Film 1939
Mr. Maloney (uncredited)
Film 1938
Timothy
Film 1949
Eli Matson
Film 1940
Mr. McCarney
Film 1940
Reverend Pascoe
Film 1952
Paddy Corbin
Film 1955
Callahan
Film 1952
Jim
Film 1940
Matt
Film 1935
Shordley
Film 1934
John O'Day
Film 1923
Judge Lemuel Townsend
Film 1930
Trowbridge
Film 1932
Chipley Duff
Film 1931
Mel
Film 1939
Skipper Ben
Film 1951
Peter
Film 1930
Film 1929
Tom Jennings
Film 1938
Splivens
Film 1945
Leach
Film 1936
John Phelps
Film 1942
Film 1930
Edward Sullivan
Film 1944
Caviar Jinks (uncredited)
Film 1943
Mr. McDougal (uncredited)
Film 1943
Tim
Film 1936
Paddy Harrigan
Film 1932
First Drayman
Film 1931
Sam Smith
Film 1936
Mike Casey
Film 1939
Danny Dolan, Hansom Cabbie
Film 1938
Doyle
Film 1930
Chief Verger Tope
Film 1935
Film 1951
Pether Flynn
Tv 1948
Jimmy
Tv 1953
Dr. Makery
Tv 1950
Tv 1955
Tv 1955
Mr. Thomas J. Flaherty
Tv 1953
Dennis Malloy
Tv 1953
Mr Pickles
Tv 1958