Brian Donlevy

Brian Donlevy (1901–1972) was an Irish American actor noted for his dangerous tough guy roles from the 1930s through the 1960s. He traded an early military career for the stage, and the stage for the screen. His performance in 1935’s Barbary Coast brought him rave reviews as “the tough guy all in black.” An Academy Award nomination followed for his performance in Beau Geste in 1939; and the next year saw him starring in The Great McGinty. In the 1940s he played Special Agent Steve Mitchell in Dangerous Assignment, a radio series that later made the transition to television with Donlevy as it’s producer. Donlevy’s obituary in the London Times stated that “any consideration of the American ‘film noir’ of the 1940s would be incomplete without him.”