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William Cagney

American actor and producer (1905–1988)

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionMay 12, 2026
Entity authorityQ1509535
Source-derived summary

William Jerome Cagney (March 26, 1905 – January 3, 1988) was an American film producer and actor, remembered for roles in the Monogram Pictures films Lost in the Stratosphere and Flirting with Danger, both filmed in 1934.

Career

He produced several of his older lookalike brother James Cagney's films, including City for Conquest (1940), Johnny Come Lately (1943), Blood on the Sun (1945), The Time of Your Life (1948), Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye (1950), and A Lion Is in the Streets (1953). He was credited as an associate producer on The Bride Came C.O.D. (1941) and Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942), and he also handled his brother's business affairs, negotiating several of his Hollywood studio contracts.

Personal life

Cagney was married to actress Boots Mallory; they had two children together, Jill and Stephen, before their divorce in 1946. He next married Nadine Parker, and they had one child together, William Jr., before their divorce in 1954. Cagney died on January 3, 1988, in Newport Beach, California, aged 82.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “William Cagney” is american actor and producer (1905–1988). The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through William, Cagney and American, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA productive starting point for separating a subject’s documented career from later reputation and commemoration. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1905, 1988, 1934, 1940—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1905-03-26. For this dossier, William, Cagney and American is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “american actor and producer (1905–1988)” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 12, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1509535. VIAF identifies the subject as 14985182. The Library of Congress control number is no2003014861. 1 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1905, 1988, 1934 and 1940.

Critical limits

Public reputation and documentary evidence do not always develop together; absence from a summary is not evidence of historical absence. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “William Cagney”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow William Cagney primary sources, William Cagney archive and William research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “William Cagney”?
  2. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
  3. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from William Cagney” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.