Hall of Fame of Western Film & TV Stars
JOEL McCREA

Born: Joel Albert McCrea November 5, 1905 South Pasadena, CA – Died: October 20, 1990, Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA. (Pulmonary complications)

Joel McCrea is another all-time favorite among the super stars who became particularly famous for his cowboy roles.  His success in Westerns was not just a matter of choosing the right pictures, but was due largely to his fine acting ability, his pleasing personality and a genuine fondness for that type of film.

He was the son of Louise and Thomas P. McCrea, who were directly descended from pioneer settlers of California.  Joel’s first experience with motion pictures came to him when he was still a young lad, having been chosen to appear as an extra in a mob scene for an old Ruth Roland serial.  After graduating from Hollywood High, he entered the University of Southern California and completed his education at Pomona College.

He embarked on an acting career by joining the Pasadena Community Playhouse, taking part in stage theatricals until 1929 when film director Sam Wood selected him to play in a picture called The Jazz Age.

As a new leading man, Joel became an immediate success through a number of features for F.B.O., M-G-M, and R-K-0, before Paramount signed him to a long-term contract.  He managed to survive through the ordeal of being cast in a series of monotonous melodramas, rising to stardom after appearing in hits like Bird of Paradise, Barbary Coast and Come and Get It.

It was partly on the advice of old-time cowboy star William S. Hart that McCrea decided to try Westerns.  In 1938, he starred in Wells Fargo, an A-class feature that also boasted of fine performers like Frances Dee and Johnny Mack Brown.  A year later, Joel made an exceptional hero in Cecil B. De Mille's Union Pacific, which became a classic among Westerns and once again featured the popular team of Joel McCrea and Barbara Stanwyck.  From then on, McCrea was especially fond of appearing on the screen in tales of the Old West.

A versatile actor, he gave memorable performances in highly dramatic masterpieces such as Dead End, Foreign Correspondent and Reaching For the Sun, while displaying a flair for comedy in Sullivan's Travels, Palm Beach Story and The More the Merrier.  But it was in Westerns like Buffalo Bill, The Virginian and Ramrod that Joel really had audiences in the palm of his hand.

Completing his long association with Paramount around 1949, McCrea undertook free-lancing for various studios and confining his activities to the type of pictures he enjoyed making best.  The result was a string of top-notch Westerns for companies like Universal, M-G-M, Warner Bros. and United Artists.  As the years passed, film fans were treated to seeing Joel in outstanding features like Stars in My Crown, Four Faces West, Wichita, Trooper Hook and others too numerous to mention.  Throughout the 1950's, it seemed as if he was incapable of making a picture that was not a hit.

Not content with his success in movies alone, McCrea also did well in a radio series called "Tales of the Texas Rangers" and a television show entitled "Wichita Town." Since 1963, he has been in semi-retirement, choosing to make only occasional pictures now and then.  A real cowboy off the screen as well as on, he has confined his time to his fabulous 2,500-acre ranch raising cattle and horses.  When oil was recently discovered on his land, he held out from selling the drilling rights for fear that derricks would mar the scenery of his ranch.  

After receiving many offers, he finally consented to sell the oil rights for $13,000,000 with the stipulation that no drilling be done within sight of his home.  He has been happily married to actress Frances Dee since October 20, 1933, and he is the father of three children.