Victor Jory (November 23, 1902 – February 12, 1982) was a Canadian-American actor of stage, film, and television. He initially played romantic leads, but later was mostly cast in villainous or sinister roles, such as Oberon in A Midsummer Night's Dream (1935) and carpetbagger Jonas Wilkerson in Gone with the Wind (1939). From 1959 to 1961, he had a lead role in the 78-episode television police drama Manhunt. He also recorded numerous stories for Peter Pan Records and was a guest star in dozens of television series as well as a supporting player in dozens of theatrical films, occasionally appearing as the leading man.
Biography Jory was born in Dawson City, Yukon, to American parents. He was the boxing and wrestling champion of the U.S. Coast Guard during his military service, and he kept his burly physique. He graduated from the Martha Oatman School of the Theater in Los Angeles.
Jory toured with theatre troupes, including a July 1929 appearance at Elitch Theatre in The Racket, by Bartlett Cormack. He appeared as a “guest star” in the role of the Assistant District Attorney. He went on to appear on Broadway, before making his Hollywood debut in 1930. He initially played romantic leads, but later was mostly cast as the villain, probably due to his distinctive, seemingly coal-black eyes that might be perceived as 'threatening'."AMERICAN ACTOR FOR AUSTRALIAN FILM." The Sydney Morning Herald 2 Jun 1936: 24 Supplement: Women's Supplement accessed December 26, 2011 He made over 150 films and dozens of TV episodes, as well as writing two plays. His long career in radio included starring in the series Dangerously Yours.
He is remembered for his roles as malevolent Injun Joe in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1938), Jonas Wilkerson, the opportunistic overseer of the slaves at Tara in Gone with the Wind, and as Lamont Cranston, or 'The Shadow', in the 1940 serial film The Shadow. He also portrayed Oberon in Max Reinhardt's film adaptation of Shakespeare's play A Midsummer Night's Dream (1935) starring James Cagney, Dick Powell and Olivia de Havilland.
He co-starred in seven Hopalong Cassidy films between 1941 and 1943, usually cast in the role of a villain with the exception of his role as a broad-shouldered lumberjack in the film Riders of the Timberline (1941).
He starred in the radio series Dangerously Yours beginning in mid-1944. The series was retitled Matinee Theater in October 1944 and ran through April 1945. Each episode was a dramatic reworking of famous literary works. The first episode dated July 2, 1944, was "The Highwayman", a dramatic interpretation of the Alfred Noyes poem.
In 1946, he narrated "Tubby the Tuba" for children, which was inducted in 2005 in the National Recording Registry and also introduces the orchestra to young listeners. The disc sold over one million copies. The story tells of a tuba who does not fit in. He also narrated "Bumpo the Ballerina", whose title character is an elephant.
From 1959 to 1961, he appeared with Patrick McVey in the 78-episode syndicated television police drama Manhunt. Jory played the lead role of Detective Lieutenant Howard Finucane. McVey was cast as police reporter Ben Andrews.
In 1957, Jory was cast in the role of the Southern Baptist pastor George Washington Truett of the First Baptist Church of Dallas, in the episode "Lone Star Preacher" of the syndicated religion anthology series Crossroads. In 1960 he portrayed the aging, malevolent husband of Anna Magnani’s character in The Fugitive Kind, adapted from a play by Tennessee Williams.
In 1962, he was cast as Deacon Lee in the two-part episode "Policemen Die Alone" of Leslie Nielsen's ABC crime drama The New Breed. That same year, Jory guest-starred as Mike Dahlback in the episode "Ride to a Fall" in the NBC modern Western series Empire, which featured Richard Egan as rancher Jim Redigo. He also played Helen Keller's father in The Miracle Worker, for which his co-stars Anne Bancroft and Patty Duke won Academy Awards.
In 1964, along with actresses Coleen Gray and Susan Seaforth, Jory testified before the United States Congress as part of "Project Prayer", arguing in favor of an amendment to the United States Constitution to restore school prayer, which the United States Supreme Court struck down in two decisions in 1962 and 1963.
Jory was on the faculty of the University of Utah, teaching acting in the Department of Theater. He endowed a scholarship for junior/senior students in the department known as the Victor Jory Scholarship, which continues to the current day.
The High Chaparral television episode "The Peacemaker" in 1968 featured Jory as a peace envoy attempting to negotiate a treaty with Apache Native American chief Cochise.
In the private-eye series Mannix, which starred Mike Connors as the title character, Jory played the Armenian-American detective's widowed father, Stefan Mannix—a grape farmer in "Summer Grove", a fictitious town in California's Central Valley near Fresno (which continues to have a large Armenian population). He appeared in two episodes,"Return to Summer Grove" (1969) and "Wine from These Grapes" (1971).
In 1978, near the end of his career, Jory guest starred as an aging Federal Bureau of Investigation agent in James Garner's The Rockford Files episode "The Attractive Nuisance".
Jory died on February 12, 1982, at the age of 79, from a heart attack in Santa Monica, California.
For his contribution to the motion-picture industry, Victor Jory was honored in 1960 with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. His star is located at 6605 Hollywood Blvd.
Family Jory married actress Jean Inness in 1928. They had two children, Jon and Jean. Jon Jory headed the Actors Theater of Louisville, Kentucky, for 31 years, which he helped to build into one of America's most respected regional theater companies. He left the job in 2000 to become professor of drama at the University of Washington in Seattle. His daughter Jean Jory Anderson was a public-relations director of the theater department at Utah State University in Logan.
Filmography Film Year Title Role Notes 1930 Renegades Officer Belonge Uncredited 1932 The Pride of the Legion Jerry Brewster 1932 Handle with Care 1st Public Enemy 1933 Second Hand Wife Lotzi Vajda 1933 State Fair Hoop Toss Barker 1933 Sailor's Luck Baron Portola - aka Darrow 1933 Infernal Machine Alfred Doreen 1933 Trick for Trick La Tour 1933 I Loved You Wednesday Randall Williams 1933 The Devil's in Love Dr. Andre Morand / Paul Vernay 1933 My Woman John Bradley 1933 Smoky Clint Peters 1934 I Believed in You Jim Crowl 1934 Murder in Trinidad Howard Sutter 1934 He Was Her Man Nick Gardella 1934 Madame Du Barry Duc Armand d'Aiguillon 1934 Pursued Beauregard 1934 Mills of the Gods Jim Devlin 1934 White Lies Terry Condon 1935 Party Wire Matthew Putnam 1935 Streamline Express Jimmy Hart 1935 A Midsummer Night's Dream Oberon - King of the Fairies 1935 Escape from Devil's Island Dario 1935 Too Tough to Kill John O'Hara 1936 Hell-Ship Morgan Jim Allen 1936 The King Steps Out Captain Palfi 1936 Meet Nero Wolfe Claude Roberts 1936 Rangle River Dick Drake Filmed in Australia 1937 Bulldog Drummond at Bay Gregoroff 1937 Glamorous Night Baron Lyadeff 1937 First Lady Gordon Keane 1938 The Adventures of Tom Sawyer Injun Joe 1939 Blackwell's Island Commissioner Thomas MacNair 1939 Wings of the Navy Lieutenant Parsons 1939 Dodge City Yancey 1939 Women in the Wind Doc 1939 Man of Conquest William B. Travis 1939 Susannah of the Mounties Wolf Pelt 1939 Each Dawn I Die W. J. Grayce 1939 I Stole a Million Patian 1939 Call a Messenger Ed Hogan 1939 Gone with the Wind Jonas Wilkerson - Field Overseer 1940 The Shadow Lamont Cranston / The Shadow 1940 Knights of the Range Malcolm Lascalles 1940 The Light of Western Stars Gene Stewart 1940 The Lone Wolf Meets a Lady Clay Beaudine 1940 River's End Norman Talbot 1940 Girl from Havana Tex Moore 1940 Cherokee Strip Coy Barrett Alternative title: The Indian Nation 1940 The Green Archer Spike Holland 1940 Give Us Wings Mr. Arnold Carter 1940 Lady with Red Hair Mr. Clifton 1941 Border Vigilantes Henry Logan 1941 Hoola Boola Narrator Voice, Short 1941 Bad Men of Missouri William Merrick 1941 Wide Open Town Steve Fraser 1941 Charlie Chan in Rio Marana / Alfredo Cardozo 1941 The Gay Knighties Narrator Voice, Short 1941 Riders of the Timberline Baptiste Deschamp 1941 The Stork Pays Off Deak Foster 1941 Secrets of the Lone Wolf Dapper Dan Streever 1942 Shut My Big Mouth Buckskin Bill 1942 Jasper and the Watermelons Voice, Short 1942 Tombstone, the Town Too Tough to Die Ike Clanton 1942 Tulips Shall Grow Narrator Voice, Short 1943 Power of the Press Oscar Trent 1943 Hoppy Serves a Writ Tom Jordan 1943 Buckskin Frontier Champ Clanton 1943 The Leather Burners Dan Slack 1943 Colt Comrades Jeb Hardin 1943 The Kansan Jeff Barat 1943 Bar 20 Mark Jackson 1943 The Unknown Guest Charles 'Chuck' Williams 1944 Jasper's Paradise Voice, Short 1945 Hot Lips Jasper Voice, Short 1945 Jasper Tell Voice, Short 1947 Shoe Shine Jasper Voice, Short 1947 Tubby the Tuba Narrator Short 1948 The Loves of Carmen García 1948 The Gallant Blade Marshal of France Mordore 1949 A Woman's Secret Brook Matthews 1949 South of St. Louis Luke Cottrell 1949 Canadian Pacific Dirk Rourke 1949 Fighting Man of the Plains Dave Oldham 1950 The Capture Father Gomez 1950 The Cariboo Trail Frank Walsh 1951 The Highwayman Lord Douglas 1951 Cave of Outlaws Ben Cross 1952 Flaming Feather Lucky Lee / The Sidewinder 1952 Son of Ali Baba Caliph 1952 Toughest Man in Arizona Frank Girard 1953 The Man from the Alamo Jess Wade 1953 Cat-Women of the Moon Kip Reissner 1954 Valley of the Kings Tuareg Chief 1954 Sabaka Ashok 1956 Manfish 'Professor' Walter Fenton 1956 Blackjack Ketchum, Desperado Jared Tetlow 1956 Death of a Scoundrel Leonard Wilson 1957 The Man Who Turned to Stone Dr. Murdock 1957 The Last Stagecoach West Rand McCord 1958 Sierra Baron Closing narrator Uncredited 1960 The Fugitive Kind Jabe M. Torrance 1961 Operation Glen Canyon Narrator Documentary 1962 The Miracle Worker Captain Arthur Keller 1964 Cheyenne Autumn Tall Tree 1968 Jigsaw Edward Arkroyd 1969 Mackenna's Gold The Narrator 1969 A Time for Dying Judge Roy Bean 1970 Trail of the Hunter Himself Documentary 1970 Flap Wounded Bear Mr. Smith (Attorney at Law) Alternative title: The Last Warrior 1973 Frasier, the Sensuous Lion Frasier's Voice Voice 1973 Papillon Indian Chief 1975 The Boy Who Talks to Whales 1977 Mission to Glory: A True Story Father Zaya 1980 The Mountain Men Iron Belly (final film role) 1987 The Puppetoon Movie Voice
Television