James Cagney Trivia Quiz

Answer: George M. Cohan

Two of the lasting songs from this movie are "Give My Regards To Broadway" and "Over There". Cagney won his only Best Actor Oscar for this performance, which chronicles the life of legendary Vaudevillian George M. Cohan.

Answer: The Public Enemy

Like many gangster movies, "The Public Enemy" chronicles the rise and fall of a Prohibition Era criminal, whose success and greed for more catches up with him in the end. Nominated for Best Picture, this is one of the early films that brought the genre to popularity.

Answer: Angels With Dirty Faces

Not the only time Cagney and Bogart star in the same film, but did you know Cagney and O'Brien share 9 films? Cagney was nominated for Best Actor for his portrayal of Rocky Sullivan, a career criminal whose boyhood friend becomes a priest who's always trying to save him, to no avail. He ends up going to the electric chair for his crimes.

Answer: The Strawberry Blonde

Rita Hayworth plays "The Strawberry Blonde," whom Biff has always fancied but loses to Jack Carson's character. So he settles for Olivia de Havilland's character, who was always the right one. You'll find favorite character actors Alan Hale and Una O'Connor in this film as well.

Answer: 1942 "Yankee Doodle Dandy"

"Yankee Doodle Dandy" is a bio-pic spanning the life of George M. Cohan, the vaudeville era man who could do it all and do it well, who would become known as "The Man Who Owns Broadway". Cagney was also nominated for Best Actor in 1937 and 1955.

Answer: The Roaring Twenties

Bartlett is another gangster to whom Cagney gives sympathetic depth. Directed by Raoul Walsh, Gladys George plays Panama Smith, the tough-talking bar owner who is always there for Cagney's Eddie Bartlett.

Answer: Mister Roberts

Set in the Navy during WWII, "Mister Roberts" is more a war of wills between Cagney and Fonda than between the US and Japan. It's a sort of a cross between "Operation Petticoat" and "The Caine Mutiny".

Answer: The Bride Came C.O.D.

Cagney's character Steve Collins agrees to help Joan Winfield (Davis) elope with Allen Brice (Jack Carson) but double crosses them by telling her father he'll deliver her to him in exchange for more money.

Look for William Frawley of "I Love Lucy" fame, as well as another of my favorite character actors, Harry Davenport.

Answer: Cody Jarrett

Cody Jarrett is arguably the best of the Cagney gangster roles, a gang leader with absolutely no conscience. This is also the film with the memorable scene where Cody goes crazy in the prison mess hall upon learning of his mother's death. He and his mother have always talked about him someday making it to the top but in the end he goes up in flames instead, crazily telling his mother he'd made it to the top.

Answer: The Fighting 69th

Cagney plays Jerry Plunkett, a selfish glory-seeker whose decisions cost men their lives. He does find some redemption in the end with an ultimate act of sacrifice.