James Cagney, 17 July 1899, New York City, New York, USA, d. 30 March 1986, Stanfordville, New York, USA. One of Hollywood’s all-time great stars, Cagney was a versatile actor with a tough-guy image - he was particularly renowned for his gangster movies - who appeared in several highly entertaining screen musicals. One of five children of an Irish-American father and an Irish-Norwegian mother, Cagney attended Columbia University but left to find full-time work after his father died in the influenza epidemic of 1918. He had a variety of jobs before finding a place in the chorus of the Broadway musical comedy Pitter Patter in 1920.