James Cagney
This stamp will be issued on the 100th anniversary of the birth of James Cagney and is the 1999 addition to the Legends of Hollywood series, which includes Marilyn Monroe (1995), James Dean (1996), Humphrey Bogart (1997) and Alfred Hitchcock (1998). James Cagney was born in New York City on July 17, 1899. He started his career in show business in 1919, moved between stage and vaudeville in the 1920s, and in 1930 went to Hollywood where he landed a contract with Warner Bros. In his fourth film, The Public Enemy (1931), Cagney squashed half a grapefruit in Mae Clark’s face at the breakfast table. This scene is considered one of the all-time memorable moments in film. His other defining role was as George M. Cohan in the classic film Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942), for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor. Cagney died on March 30, 1986, after appearing in more than 60 films. In 1974, he was the first actor to receive the American Film Institute’s Life Achievement Award, and in 1984, he was awarded the U.S. Medal of Freedom, America’s highest civilian award.