Wallace Ford

Actor

Bolton, Lancashire, England, UK

February 11, 1898

Biography

Wallace Ford (12 February 1898 – 11 June 1966) was an English-born naturalized American stage and screen actor. Usually playing wise-cracking characters, he combined a tough but friendly-faced demeanor with a small but powerful, stocky physique. Born Samuel Jones Grundy in Bolton, Lancashire, England, he spent his childhood in a Dr. Barnardo's home. At an early age he was adopted by a farmer from Manitoba, Canada, where he was ill treated. About age eleven, Ford ran away and did odd jobs, later becoming an usher in a theatre. Following his discharge from the Army after WWI, he became a vaudeville actor in a stock company before performing on Broadway. He started on a film career when Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer gave him a part in the film Possessed (1931) and went on to appear in over 200 films, including 13 directed by John Ford. Wallace Ford is buried in an unmarked grave in Culver City, California's Holy Cross Cemetery. From Wikipedia.