Victor Jory | The Canadian Encyclopedia

Article

Victor Jory

Victor Jory, actor, director, playwright (b at Dawson City, YT 23 Nov 1902; d at Santa Monica, Ca 12 Feb 1982). Victor Jory specialized in villainous roles, appearing in some 76 films and more than 200 television shows, while also appearing occasionally on stage.

Victor Jory

Victor Jory, actor, director, playwright (b at Dawson City, YT 23 Nov 1902; d at Santa Monica, Ca 12 Feb 1982). Victor Jory specialized in villainous roles, appearing in some 76 films and more than 200 television shows, while also appearing occasionally on stage.

He studied acting at the Pasadena Playhouse and spent 1 year at the University of California before joining the US Coast Guard. Big and burly, he was a boxing and wrestling champion during his time in the service. He made his stage debut in Vancouver in 1929 and played in various stock companies in the American midwest before arriving in Hollywood in 1932. Victor Jory's more memorable roles were Oberon in A Midsummer Night's Dream (1935), Injun Joe in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1938), and the slave overseer Jonas Wilkerson in Gone with the Wind (1939); he was also particularly effective as the racist husband in The Fugitive Kind (1960), opposite Joanne Woodward and Marlon Brando. In 1940 he starred in the Columbia serial The Shadow, playing the dual role of the mind-clouding Shadow and his alter ego Lamont Cranston. Jory appeared in a lead role in the Manhunt television series from 1959 to 1961.

In 1962 Jory played Helen Keller's father in The Miracle Worker. He went on to act in Cheyenne Autumn (1964), Papillon (1973) and his last film, The Mountain Men (1980).

Victor Jory wrote the Broadway play, Five Who Were Mad. During his later years he acted and directed at the Actors Theatre of Louisville, Kentucky; the Victor Jory Theatre in Louisville is named in his honour.